Lago Maggiore, in the rain....

This has been a very rainy summer so far in the north of Italy. For about ten days now it hasn't rained (and it got intensely hot in the process). But then today, it rained again - intense thunderstorms, and lots and lots of rain (A great big thunder just crashed over my head....).

I think I wrote in a previous post (the one about Como) that during my first visit to Italy I had the pleasure of visiting that lake during a great downpour. On Sunday, I had a chance to visit Lago Maggiore in similar circumstances....

The day started out OK. I left hot, sticky Milano with a nice air conditioned train on its way to Stresa - the main town on the Italian side of Lago Maggiore. I got there and decided to take the ferry to Isola Bella and Isola dei Pescatori (fishermen) - two of four rather small islands on the lake.

On Isola Bella I started out avoiding tacky stands selling souvenirs for tourists and headed directly to the Palazzo Borromeo. The Palazzo is nice although I couldn't understand why all the fancy chairs were under plastic covering (maybe the curator is Polish...). For 11 (!) euros I think they can take off the plastic coverings. I wanted to take pictures to show you but it's not allowed. However, the gardens of this palazzo are amazing. as you can see for yourself.

I was walking and enjoying the gardens when suddenly great big clouds started to gather above and thunder could be heard. Sure enough, a few minutes later, it started to pour. Where was my umbrella? You guessed it, at home.... So, off I went to buy another one. I'm now the proud owner of 5 umbrellas.

I kept hoping it would stop raining but it didn't. So I decided to try and do some sightseeing in the rain. Not a very satisfying thing to do. You tend to get wet.... and it's sort of dark around and no one there.

This is what Isola Bella looks like in the rain:

and this is what the train station looks like, also, in the rain.....:

There isn't much to do on the lake when it's raining like this, so I went to wait in the train station for the train back to Milan. It took awhile but in the end I was back in Milan - made it back home just before the storm, much stronger, got here. It rained and the wind howled like something out of this world. Sounded like the next flood was here. Immense amounts of water. Lucky Italians....

And that's it for this short edition of my blog.... Got to go back to the lake on a nicer day to see it more thoroughly.