Sunday in Italy

On our last day in Italy, the summer heat was replaced with cool clouds. It turned into a thunderstorm on the highway that looked really dangerous to a bus full of students. It felt like a giant was constantly running after us sloshing large buckets of water at us. We also had no idea where they were taking us. We soon found out it was Lake Maggiore (or Lago Maggiore or Verbano), home to the three Borromean Islands.

The Borromean family was one of the three most powerful families during the renaissance period, the heir of which is now one of the original princes of Italy. Their family owns three islands on the lake: Isola dei Pescatori, the fishing island; Isola Madre, which someone built for their mother; and Isola Bella, the island of the Borromean summer home, where we were going.

You can see the cute fisherman's island from here.

I think that's Lake Madre. The mountains in the background have the marble this part of Italy is famous for, also what they used to build the "house."


Unfortunately, they didn't let us take pictures of inside the house, and I couldn't because there was just too much to see. Many part of it were centuries old, and being an Italian style, the designs were much more intricate and lavish than normal castles built as battle fortresses. It's still a summer home, the family uses it in the summer because it's cool being surrounded by a body of water. They led us to their gardens, which I guess is kinda famous.



Warning: run-on sentence. If I were born into a wealthy, old family with history that ties into my country's political and religious background, I'd like to have giant statues in my backyard with albino peacocks in my summer house with 195 rooms on a private island where my family owns the whole lake.