Isola Bella was a barren rock in Lake Maggiore until the Borromeo family began converting it into a private baroque world in the seventeenth century. A palace occupies one end; behind it, ten garden terraces rise 37 metres above the water, giving the island the shape of an enormous stone ship. Its decks are crowded with grottoes, fountains, obelisks and statues, culminating in a giant unicorn—the Borromeo family emblem.
Isola Bella
