A year never goes by without a lunch visit to Piedmonte. Charles and my dear friend – Jeffrey Chilcott from NZ, has been at Marchesi di Gresy for over 30 years. He extols the virtues of the unique delicious wine from this region over a generous wine tasting and arranges Charles’s favourite long lunch at Antica Torre in the tiny village of Barbarseco. Every year the standard of food and serving sizes remains generous and we are greeted in true Italian style .
For three nights we stay in Pallanza on the shores of Lake Maggiore and spend our hot summer days in a very realaxed fashion, hopping on and off ferry boats and visiting the islands of Isola Madre and Isola Bella – some loved shopping in Stressa, some went on and visited the little church of Santa Catarina and some returned to spend time enjoying the idyllic lake beauty. The island gardens have flowers dripping out of pots everywhere and although the Italianate over the top decorations are not our style they are fit for purpose here and always impress.
The lake ferries work there way up and down the towns of Lake Maggiore all day and for those that didn’t want to walk this year to Villa Taranto then the ferry always comes along. I love white flowers and the dahlia collection at Villa Taranato always impresses me – they are certainly the ‘IN’ flowers and are always included in flower beds all over the place. I have ordered this beautiful coffee cream bloom called Cafe O’Lea . My father would be proud of me . He loved Dahlias and we used rubbish him for it.
Sadly this year I didn’t get to walk to the garden and only made it to the Dahlias at Villa Taranto – after having a nasty fall down a concrete spiral staircase the previous night, I now own a pair of crutches and a knee brace. What a nuisance and although I am well used to crutches I didn’t need them on this trip. It hasn’t stopped me doing too much, although I’m missing the shopping where most of my group are managing extremely well without my help and visits to places like the beautiful Lake Orta where the streets are not so easy to manoeuvre.
The weather has been exceptionally hot and in the evenings we can lie in bed and listen to the thunder rolling round and round the hills and I always look forward to returning to this rather lovely lake.This is certainly a beautiful Lake and along with Lake Como they absolutely turned on the weather and made themselves look their best. I am always so lucky with the weather here and long may it last.