Isola Bella and Pescatore

Did I mention that Willie and I had a bet going. Last summer he was supposed to quit smoking as soon as we left San Diego. Guess what...he didnt last 2 days. He lost - the deal was he has to change Sophia's poopy diapers. For the full effect we gave her lots of veggies and seafood. It was a sight, sound and smell experience for him!

We took the train out to Stresa and then its just a few minute walk to the first area where the boats leave from. There are more as you go down further too. This time we got to explore the island of Pescatore. Its small but cute to walk around. And then it was over to Isola Bella for a walk through the palace around the gardens (ps bathroom is up the stairs and to the right, as soon as you get out of palace, but before going to the gardens!!)
Went back to the mainland and decided to go exploring and walking around. We walked quite far, almost to the top of the hill, we got to Levo. Had a drink/popsicles and then walked back down. We found a haunted looking abandoned old house. There seem to be many of them there. But this one we got to actually jump down to and walk around. It was really crickety! I didnt really get any good pictures. I was getting too tired. We of course got lost on the way back and ended up wayyyyyy far away from our original destination, so we had a long walk back. And of course one of the last trains was coming as soon as we got back to Stresa and we hadnt eaten. We walked quickly to town got some panini and ran to the train station. Where of course the stupid machine didnt work and we had to board the train without anything. They just issued the ticket on.board and charged us a few extra euros. No big deal, I was worried though...i always fear for the worst! The stupid pedometer kept re-setting, but im sure that we walked well over 30,000 today.

It's so hard to resist a park and the timer button on the camera!

Lago Maggiore

Drove out to Lago Maggiore and had some lunch in Stresa with Holly and Mike.



Took a little boat to Isola Bella, as usual Sophia is not happy to be in a picture with her mom and dad...




Got to the island and ran into Mom and her Posse. Unfortunately I dont have a pictures of that and someone will send me one! I knew that they were staying in Stresa, but I thought that they had already visited the islands. We didnt get to chat much as they were leaving and we were just arriving. Max is such a good Daddy, he played with Sophia and carried her around the island there isnt much room for a stroller and there are too many steps. Note to self, bring the baby wrap instead of leaving it in the car. Luckily the museum was nice and they held onto the stroller at the entrance until we finished walking around. Unfortunately we arrived late and so poor Max had to cut his garden tour short and run back to the front and get the stroller.