Our last full day in Italy. I’m going to be missing this beautiful country very, very soon. Another beautiful morning watching the sunrise over Lake Maggiore. 

We are heading out today to visit the gardens at Villa Taranto. These gardens lie near a village around the lake a bit. Our plan is to travel there by taxi since it’s shorter this way. After our visit, we will catch the ferry and travel back to Stresa by crossing Lake Maggiore one more time. 

Our driver from our arrival in Stresa at the train station is available to come pick us up this morning. The drive was interesting as we drove along the coast around a gulf to reach Villa Taranto which we can actually see from across the water from Stresa. Along the way, we drive past a marble quarry in the side of the mountain. This is where the marble used to build the Milano Duomo is from... when we reach the parking lot to Villa Taranto we bid our driver arrivederci until we will see him tomorrow morning for our ride back to the train station and on to the airport via Milano.  

Villa Taranto is an expansive garden set on many levels and amidst large and small trees. The paths lead us by garden after garden of stunning plantings and park-like areas. There is a exhibition planting of dahlias that are breath-taking. So many different shapes, sizes and colors - all beautiful. There are also fountains and a view of the villa across the lawn. All of this is set against a backdrop of mountains and Lake Maggiore in the distance. 

One of our favorite sections of this garden is a huge water lily pool. These are the gigantic water lilies that are taller than people. Just like on Isola Madre yesterday but a much bigger area of them. Never have seen such a plant. It’s amazing and beautiful. 

After we visit all of the gardens, we are ready for a little refreshment. With the help of the wait staff, we get situated in a table that is in the bar section (for drinks) and not the restaurant section (for whole meal). The restaurant table is just next to our bar table but has a tablecloth on it. We order some drinks - I try a Campari and Orange Juice which is quite nice.  

The ferry dock is right across the street from the Villa Taranto parking lot. We go over there to buy our tickets and wait for our ferry. The ride across the lake takes about 50 minutes or so with a change on Isola Bella. Once back over in Stresa / Carciano dock, we are ready for our next adventure. 

Holly & Cindy have decided on our afternoon activity between hiking, ferry to a monastery or a ride up the mountain in a cable car... they chose the later so we get ready to go up, up, up ! 

The cable car station is right across the parking lot from the ferry dock so we just walk over there and buy a ticket. Waiting a little bit, we cram into a cable car with a whole bunch of other people. Unfortunately, I’m stuck in the middle between all these big, tall men and when the cable car goes flying through the junctures and wobbles I have nothing to hang on so I don’t feel like I’m about to fall over or crash into these sweaty strangers. So the first cable car was not pleasant at all for me and I’m more than happy to get off and transfer to the next cable car. Here I am standing by the window and have something for hanging on... at least. I can see the views over the lake and mountain and they are amazing!

Once we are off the second cable car, we wander around the mountaintop and take in all the views. Next there is a chair lift that takes people up to the very tippy-top of the mountain. This is a little more scary than the cable car but Holly is brave and agrees to go up to the top. So off we go and we get on the chair lift. At the top, the 360 degree views are so crazy beautiful. We cannot get enough. The lake looks incredible. We can see so far in the distance. 

Going back down the mountain, the cable car rides are so much better. I can enjoy the views. As we arrive back down the mountain, we see some dark clouds coming over the mountain. We got down just in time. A quick dip of the feet in the water of Lake Maggiore and then we are heading back to our villa for a packing party / aperitivo. 

We are leaving for Toulouse, France in the morning. We have a very, very early start as we are visiting Milan to see the Duomo before catching our plane from Milano Malpensa airport in the afternoon. We have a short layover in Lyon before catching a plane to Toulouse. So off to packing our bags... 

Once we are basically packed, we head back out to a pizzeria around the corner and across the street (basically behind our villa) for dinner. I enjoyed a beautiful gnocchi with a sauce made from local cheese. Holly had a wonderful pizza with four different toppings while Cindy had a tomato and mozzarella cheese salad. Now it’s time for us to head back to our villa for a good night’s rest before our 5:00 AM wake up call for our day of travel. 

Back at the villa I checked my email. Oh crap! We have a disaster happening. AirFrance has cancelled our first flight in our journey to Toulouse tomorrow morning. That’s all the information we are given besides their promise to figure out alternative arrangements and let us know... huh? So in our panicked mode, we hope online to investigate. Yep, flight cancelled. Looking up alternatives, we find no way to get to Lyon to catch that second flight that doesn’t including an early morning flight that would ruin our entire day tomorrow. I found a couple alternative flight combinations that have short layovers to get us to Toulouse. They only leave a few hours later so we’d get into Toulouse later which is not a huge problem. So we only have to reach AirFrance to get this change made. 

AirFrance in Europe does not answer the phone after 30 minutes of being on hold and then just hangs up on us. We figure out that that customer service line is only open until 10 PM, huh?? So we call Delta in the US. They cannot help us but direct us to the US AirFrance number. After about 45 minutes on hold and then working with this AirFrance lady, we are booked on our first choice alternative. We are finally able to go to sleep after midnight. What an ordeal but we are super happy that we were able to get a flight that will work. 

Good night!