Milan & the Lake District - Italy - page 416

Making the Most of Your Time Here
To squeeze as much of Stresa's sights in as you can in a day, note that the
ferry back from the Isole Borromee stops first at the Mottarone Funivia area
before chugging down the coast to the center of Stresa and the main docks.
You can hop off here either to (1) ride the cable car up the mountain ( € 13
round-trip, or € 7 one-way and walk or bike— € 21 rentals—back down), or
(2) simply walk back into Stresa itself along a pretty lakeside promenade,
past crumbling villas and impromptu sculpture gardens, in about 20 minutes.

ACCOMMODATIONS IN STRESA & THE ISLANDS This is one of the
few places in the region where the options include both standard hotels and more
interesting B&B accommodations.

€€ For much of the spring and summer, the street in front of Hotel
Primavera (Via Cavour, 30; % 0323-31286; www.stresa.it; closed Dec 20,

and some years Jan-Feb) is closed to traffic and filled with flowering plants and
cafe tables. The relaxed air prevails throughout this bright little hotel a block off
the lake in the town center. The tile-floored rooms are furnished in functional
walnut veneer and go for

55

105. Many rooms have balconies just wide
enough to accommodate a pair of chairs; a few on the fourth floor even get a sliver
of lake view around the apse and stone bell tower of the Duomo.

€

75 to

€

€€ The same family runs the more modern, though equally priced Hotel
Meeting (Via Bonghi, 9; % 0323-32741; www.stresa.it; closed Dec some years,

Jan-Feb others), named for its proximity to a conference center. It's a 5-mintue
walk from the lakefront in a quiet and leafy setting—though light sleepers on the
back may notice the trains passing in the distance. The Scandinavian rooms are
big and bright, and all come with balconies.

5

€€ Just uphill from the train station—and an unfortunate 10-minute walk
from the center of town and the lakeside—the family-run Mon Toc

5

(Via
Duchessa di Genova, 69; % 0323-30282; www.hotelmontoc.com; closed Jan or
Nov) is surrounded by a private garden for an almost countrylike atmosphere. The
functional € 78 doubles are unusually pleasant for a hotel this cheap (though a
few of the tidy bathrooms are of the miniscule, molded, airplane variety). The
friendly owner refuses, out of honesty, to call the sliver of lake visible over the
rooftops from the second-floor rooms a “lake view.”
If you don't luck out with those, there are always the bland rooms at the
Fiorentino (see “Dining in Stresa,” below).

DINING IN STRESA As befits the select nature of the area, the restaurants of
Stresa are also quite special.

€ - €€ It's hard to find friendlier service or homier trattoria-type food in
Stresa than at the Hotel Ristorante Fiorentino (Via A. M. Bolongaro, 9-11;