Nella vita prima o poi ...

E' un mini-appartamento indipendente di 55 metri quadri dove sono allocati :

• un salotto con un divano letto capiente (2 metri x 2) con televisore satellitare (Astra e Hotbird)
• una piccola cucina arredata con l' occorrente per essere automomi
• una stanza con due letti a castello, è disponibile anche un lettino se necessario
• servizi con vasca, doccia

It is an indipendent mini-appartement on 55 meter-square, were are located :

• sitting room with a large sofa-bed (2 meters x 2) with satellite television (Astra and Hotbird)
• kitchen room with the necessary to be autonomous
• a bed-room room with two beds, it is available also a little bed if necessary
• bathroom with bath and shower-bath

Cosa visitare :

• la Rocca di Angera
• Eremo di Santa Caterina
  Costruito a strapiombo sul Lago Maggiore, l' Eremo è composto da tre nuclei distinti, distribuiti lungo un costone roccioso. Dal portone d' ingresso si accede al convento meridionale e si percorre un portico ad archi, con stupenda vista sul lago. Attraversato un cortiletto con un torchio ligneo del 1759 si giunge al conventino e quindi alla chiesa, la cui origine è romanica. L' edificio attuale ha una struttura davvero singolare, frutto della fusione di tre cappelle originariamente distinte. Di grande ricchezza e qualità sono i cicli pittorici, soprattutto quelli trecenteschi, nella chiesa, così come nella Sala Capitolare. Secondo la leggenda l' eremo fu fondato da Alberto Besozzi di Arolo, un usuraio scampato a un naufragio per l' intercessione di Santa Caterina d' Alessandria nel 1170 e ritiratosi a vita eremitica sul Sasso Ballàro. Tre cappelle sorte in tempi successivi divennero presto meta di pellegrinaggio e il luogo stesso fu considerato miracoloso : celebre è il prodigio di inizio '700, quando cinque enormi massi precipitarono sulla chiesa, ma restarono impigliati nella volta della cappella, rimanendovi sospesi per quasi due secoli, fino al 1910. Il monumento conobbe nei secoli alterne vicende, tra splendore e decadenza, fino alla sua soppressione nel 1769. Seguì un lungo periodo di incuria e abbandono, di cui ha posto rimedio un lungo restauro che ha altresì permesso il ritorno di una comunità monastica.
• Laveno
• Luino
• Stresa con le Isole Borromeo (Isola Bella, Isola Madre e Isola dei Pescatori), in Piemonte
• villa Pallavicino
  A circa 500 metri da Stresa, sulla strada nazionale verso Arona, il parco della Villa Pallavicino è conosciuto per la varietà dei suoi alberi cecolari, la bellezza dei suoi fiori e dei suoi giardini, la vastità del panorama sul Lago Maggiore e i monti circostanti. Il parco è animato da numerose specie di animali che vivono in libertà e allietano il paesaggio. Il parco misura circa 16 ettari ed è aperto alla visita del pubblico.
• villa Taranto
• la statua di Carlo Borromeo ad Arona, in Piemonte
• funivia Stresa-Alpino-Mottarone (1500 metri), in Piemonte
• lago d' Orta con l' isola di S. Giulio, in Piemonte

What to visit :

• la Rocca di Angera
• Eremo di Santa Caterina
  Perpendicular to Lake Maggiore, the Monastery is composed of three distinct parts, placed along a rocky ridge. Through the front gate you enter the southern part of the monastery and walk along an arcade a wooden press dating 1759 leads you to the "conventino" and then a church of Romanesque origin. The building has a peculiar structure, the result of the fusion of three chapels which once originally separated. The paintings are beautiful, in particolar the ones from the 14th century in the church and in the capitular Hall. According to the leggend the monastery was founded by Alberto Besozzi of Arolo, a loan-shark who survived a shipwreck by intercession of Saint Catherine of Alexandria in 1770 and retired to a hermit's life on the Sasso Ballàro. The three chapels built in subsequent times soon became the destination of pilgrimage and the place itself was considered miraculous. The miracle of the beginning of the 18th century is well-known: five enormous rocks fell on the church but they were entangled in a chapel's vault and hung there for almost two centuries, until 1910. The monument faced ups and downs over the centuries, between splendour and decadence, until its abolition in 1769. A long period of carelessness and negligence followed, finally stopped by a long restoration which also allowed the return of a monsastic community.
• Laveno
• Luino
• Stresa con le Isole Borromeo (Isola Bella, Isola Madre e Isola dei Pescatori), in Piemonte
• villa Pallavicino
  About 1/3 mile from Stresa, on the national highway to Arona, is the park of the Villa Pallavicino. This park is noted for its centuryold trees, for its beatiful flowers and gardens, and for the wide sweep of the panorama over the Lake Maggiore and the surrounding mountains. Many kinds of animal have roamed free in the park, giving brightness and joy to the landscape. The park measures about 40 acres and is open to the public.
• villa Taranto
  The origin of the Botanical Gardens of Villa Taranto, situated in Pallanza and covering an area of about 16 hectares on the northern slopes of the Castagnola promontory, dates back to 1931 when Capt. Neil McEacharn bought the property with the intention of converting it into one of the best botanical gardens in the world. Over the years, with patience, determination and method, this Scottish gentleman, a member of the Royal Company of Archers and Linnaean Academician, worked at his grandiose task land-scaping the untidy wooded area into a spacious garden with 7 km. of avenues from which innumerable unexpected evocative vistas open out. Many thousands of plants, brought from the far corners of the world, and rare collections, some of them unique in Europe and acclimatized after long and laborious efforts, have been arranged with art in this beautifui setting, between the mountains and the lake.

  Amongst the most significant works are the "Valletta", created by large scale excavations; the irrigation plant, fed by water pumped directiy from the lake to a reservoir from which it is conveyed to the furthest limits of the garden; the Terrace Gardens with waterfalls, swimming-pool, waterlily and lotus poois; the Winter Garden. and the Water Garden; ornamentai fountains and water sprays.

  When the garden, which he named "Villa Taranto" in memory of an ancestor, Marshai Mc-Donaid, on whom Napoleon conferred the Dukedom of Taranto, Capt. McEacharn wanted to ensure that his work would be continued after him and with great generosity presented it to the Italian state.

  The Villa is not open to visitors. It is used as a mansion house by the Cabinet President for conferences and high-levei meetings. Since 1952 the gardens have been open to the public, from April to October, and the constantly rising number of visitors has now reached over 220,000 per annum. Groups of scholars and garden lovers come to Villa Taranto from Australia, North and South America and Europe, drawn by its interesting botanical collections, perfect organisation and ex-quisite hospitality Folklore events, meetings and congresses attended by important political and artistic personalities of all countries, have made of Villa Taranto the ideal embassy of a world which knows no boundaries and is united by a common love of nature.
  The burden of maintaining the estate was taken over by the Ente Giardini Botanici Villa Taranto "Capt. Neil McEacharn" after the founder's death on April 18, 1964. He was buried in a mausoleum built for the purpose, in the garden. In the same mausoleum now rest also the estate's administrator Antonio Cappelletto and his family. The Ente's purpose is to preserve for Italy and the world this incomparable botanical treasure and its natural beauties. When visiting the gardens, one can find dream landscapes and captivating reflections in the water of mysterious flowers, sacred to Egyptian mithology. From the romantic Valletta to the carpets of Erikas, from the hot-houses with "Victoria amazonica" to the Azalea, Maple, Rhododendron and Camelia avenues, from the rare lilies and the gardens of Dahlias with more than 300 varieties to the miriad hues of spring blooms, against the background of the Italian Garden or in the mellow glow of autumn, Villa Taranto rewards the visitor with endless scenes of changing beauty and deep inner poetry.

• la statua di Carlo Borromeo ad Arona, in Piemonte
• funivia Stresa-Alpino-Mottarone (1500 metri), in Piemonte
• lago d' Orta con l' isola di S. Giulio, in Piemonte