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.
