This
international tourist resort situated in a central but also
panoramic and pictoresque position along the lakeside
roadway, stands just in front of the Borromee isles. Since
the second half of nineteenth century up to the first
decades of the twentieth, when the first English touritsts
arrived, Stresa, whose hotels and villas built in Liberty
style make it unique, assumed its peculiar, elegant look.
Nowadays it is a renowned holiday resosrt as well as an
important seat of cultural manifestations, meetings and
international congresses also thanks to its well-developed
hotel system. Piazza Marconi, with its landing-stage
and the Church of S. Ambrogio which was restored in
Neo-Classical style by G. Zanoia in 1790, stretches from the
beatiful beach of the lakesideroad, ust at tne back of the
churcil j you see Villa Ducale the first one to have
been built in 1770 and after which all the others
followed;
here Antonio Rosmini died, celebrated by II Centro
Internazionale di Studi Rosminiani ( an international
religious and cultural centre), which holds its seat in the
Villa. Anyway the wonderful sightseeing over the lake makes
Stresa position a very valuable one: from here you can see
one part of the region af Lombardia with Cerro, Laveno up to
the Rock of Calde', as well as the bank of Piemonte with the
Peak of Castagnola, Pallanza and - on your left - Monte
Rosso (613 m. above sea level) up to the Ossola Mauntains. A
typical tourist attraction is the Arcipelago of the Borromee
Isles linked to Stresa by the ferry-boats of the Lago
Maggiore Navigation Company, which leave every half an hour.
