2geonomads

Friday 6th June 2014

 We say a fond farewell to Maurizio and Mara with Maurizio getting quite emotional. He is a very open, emotional fellow and the name which he chose for his agriturismo says it all- “yearn for the moon”. They have been wonderful hosts and they have offered all that we could wish during our stay.

After leaving Castiglione we head north to Moncalvo and then take a detour on a beautiful winding old road to the Santuario Di Crea, one of 9 Heritage-Listed sacred mountains in Piedmonte.

Quite apart from the wonderful gently mountainous scenery of Piedmonte what will live long in the memory will be the striking houses painted in colours such as ochre , salmon, terracotta and mustard yellow, making them so different from those in Umbria and Tuscany. What we will also remember is the friendliness of staff in restaurants and cafés, so pleased that we are all making an effort to master some of their language. More on this later when we get to Stresa.

 Continuing on towards Casale Monferrato and eventually to Stresa Gail makes the interesting comment that it would be better if we only visited places with no ‘r’ in as she and Maureen had both been struggling with rolling the ‘r’. I shudder to think what this would have done to our itinerary and had we applied it to other areas such as food we could have been living on a diet of’ latte’ and ‘pane’!

The arrival in Stresa is a bit of a shock to the system. Whilst its location on the shores of Lago Maggiore is undeniably breathtaking the sight of such hotels as Grand Hotel d’ Isole Borromee, with its over-the-top Italianate garden and hordes of very pink English tourists is such a far cry from the low-key villages which we have encountered earlier in this beautiful province.

Lunch at what is a dream location on the lake leaves us feeling as cold as the chips which arrive at our table, obviously only having made a brief contact with a frying pan.  My enquiry as to the whereabouts of the toilet is met with a dismissive finger pointing to some stairs below the cafe. I arrive at the said loo to find that the door is padlocked  so I trundle up the stairs again and receive the vital info that I need to get a key from the bar. It’s a bit like being sold a car without a steering wheel.

We do take a very pleasant walk along the lake and the views over to the three islands, Bella, Madre and Dei Pescatori are superb. However, watching some young people swimming in the murky waters or sunbathing under fairly cloudy skies makes us both realise how fortunate we are in our part of the world.

We leave Stresa at shortly after 3.00 and arrive at the Sheraton Milan Airport in good time to return the nightmare of a Hyundai car, the gearbox with which I have struggled for about 2500 kms. I could swear I heard my good left knee breathe a sigh of relief when I handed the keys back.

The Sheraton is a fine hotel within walking distance of the airport and we decide to pay 50 euros to become Sheraton Preferred Members. This gives us free Wifi,access to a special lounge where we can get drinks and light meals and breakfast.

We duly make full use of this for our evening meal and get to bed by 10.00

Tomorrow we fly to Berlin for two nights and we will leave with  very fond memories of Piemonte, a hidden gem on the Italian landscape.

Cheers

The Obese Ferret.