Wednesday, July 2: Verbania
A beautiful day! Blue skies, bright sunshine... Jeff and I wanted to take the ferry to Laveno, where you could take the funivia up to an overlook point and see much of Lago Maggiore. Melanie and Noreen had planned to take a different ferry that circled the lake, but decided to join us and go to Laveno first. The funivia (two-person 'buckets', not a big cable car) didn't open until 11am, so we sat in a lakefront cafe for half an hour, watching people walk by. After about an hour on the mountain top, I think we caught the 1:00 ferry back to Intra. We had talked about going to Rocca Borromeo, in Angera, but couldn't make the transportation work to get back, so we decided to go to Isola Madre instead and hoped to catch the 1:30 ferry. Jeff and I split a sandwich and a Coke on the ferry, and Melanie bought a bag of chips to stave off hunger; but by the time we left Isola Madre (probably the 3:20 ferry) for Stresa, we were starved. We found a restaurant in Stresa that was open at 4pm and Melanie and Noreen looked at their hotel options (both had talked about staying in Stresa the next day).
We passed Jessica, Frank and Angie leaving Isola Madre as we were just arriving, and then ended up on the same ferry back from Stresa with them. It was 5pm, but they decided to get off at Isola Bella; we stayed on the ferry and went back to Intra, where we showered and changed for a light dinner. The restaurant Massimo recommended was closed on Wednesdays, so instead we joined Lani and Clark at Ristorante La Tavernetta, where Lani and Clark got a great 1997 Filippo Gallino Barbara d'Alba Superiore (Canale) and Jeff ordered a big, delicious 1999 Bricco del' Uccellone (Braida) Barbara. The six of us then ended up at a bar for Melone (liquore), rum, and cigars for Clark and Jeff.