The forecast rain and thunderstorms started around 9 am this morning. The campsite emptied faster than we could believe. It looked like there was a small window of opportunity between 11 and 2 when it was just drizzle. We decided to take our chances and get the ferry to the two islands and Stresa.
The first island, five minutes away, was a warren of little lanes but seemed to be chock full of tat stalls and restaurants. Think if it’d been a sunny day we would have been struggling for any kind of social distances.
Twenty minutes later we were on the next boat to Isola Bella – WOW! 😮…amazing place.
Count Borromeo decided to turn this rock into a ‘place of delights’ in the seventeenth century, building a palace and the world famous baroque gardens. It’s apparently taken four centuries to complete!
We didn’t really want to go in the palace but the ticket was all or nothing. So glad we did, if only to see the six grottos in the lower floors covered in pebbles.
Can’t even begin to describe the gardens except to say they were massive and incredibly ornate with white peacocks strutting around and the odd model posing for selfies 🤣😉
Moved on to Stresa back on the mainland after a couple of hours. This is where the rain really started causing us to dive under cover and eat pizza, drink wine, drink coffee, eat tiramisu etc.etc.
Impossible to wander round as it was pouring down. No umbrella, Guy in t-shirt, me in a dress, we did incredibly well to get to the boat without being soaked to the skin. 
As we picked up more passengers from the islands, there was thunder and lightning and the water got quite choppy. 
Some people were completely drowned – I’m not sure how we got back here just a bit wet. Still, a good day all things considered!
Wow. Looks amazing.