Muppets On Tour: Side trip to Italy

Just driving over the pass and down into Italy for the night.

Stopped at the top of the pass for a quick toilet break.

Proof positive yet again that there are only two areas where men have a genetic advantage over women:

Sports, and public toilet queues.

This is a monument to the soldiers who guarded Simplon pass against attack from Italy during WW2.

I’ll say two things:

First, I’ll stop comparing the terrain over here to Queenstown. It’s bigger. Much bigger. Exponentially bigger.

So big that there is settlement after settlement after settlement, velcro’d to the hill and cliff sides.

Sure, towns like Montreux and Zermatt have a definite Queenstown vibe. Or maybe just an alpine village vibe, that Queenstown copied.

Second, photos really can’t do this area justice. You just have to feel the sheer granite faces leaning over your shoulders.

As we came through Simplon pass, heading for the Italian border, the cliff tops were out of sight through a bus window. No wonder it took centuries before people successfully found passage into Switzerland.

After doing what is now an easy drive on an impressive new motorway, we come to the village of Stresa, on the banks of a lake called Maggiore.

No, I haven’t heard of them either. It’s actually the second largest lake in Italy. Go figure.

A lot of the hotels are grand old affairs, built in the era when the Crawleys and their servants would do their “Grand Tour”. Beautiful.

We did a tour across to a small island in the lake, one of three owned by the wealthy Borromean family. The one we went to has a grand palace, what the Italians call a Palazzo.

On a par with many palaces we’ve recently seen.

Beautiful lake, beautiful island, beautiful Palazzo, with beautiful gardens. Getting the theme?

What amuses me greatly is that the island is called Isola Bella. I assume Isola means island. The logo, or favourite design theme of the family is the unicorn.