"Another Day in Paradise" Verbania by riorich55

On our 2nd full day in the Stresa, Italy area we took a boat over to the Villa Taranto Garden just on the outskirts of the Village of Verbania.

We booked our boat out of Stresa and even though it was only a couple of miles via the water between Stresa and Verbania, because of the numerous stops at the islands and another city on Lago Maggiore took about 45 minutes to make the trip.

The gardens, which I will put more pictures in the Verbania travelogue, were a great way to spend 3 hours. There were very few people here on a weekday Tuesday afternoon, so it almost felt like we had the entire place to ourselves for most of that time.

They have a guided path with numbers along with way it you want to meander through the gardens and see everything, but you could also wander any which way you wanted as there is only one way in and out. We chose to follow the numbered path for the most part so that we wouldn't miss out on anything.

Entering Verbania

After wandering about the gardens for about 3 hours we decided to walk over the bridge and into the town of Verbania to see a little bit of it. Sue had spied a church from the gardens so that was kind of our focal point.

We entered the town and followed the sign that said main square (or something to that affect) this way. It wasn't the way or else we didn't follow the signs very well. Anyway, we walked past the town's youth football area which they were working on, got to a River, saw a small amusement park, crossed over the river and now we were finally getting to the town.

We were a little hungry, but didn't really see anything that interested us except for a pastry and chocolate shop. We bought a few things, wandered the town some more, got lost again, asked directions in our best Italian on which way back to the lake. One of the young men said left while pointing right. That may have been his way, but my instincts took over and I ignored his advice and finally found the streets we had used to enter the town.

We did find the church and I believe Sue took a couple of pictures for a tip.

• Pros:Very beautiful gardens with not a lot of people
• Cons:Wished it could have been a little sunnier day