Duomo

The duomo has 3,400 statues.There 135 gargoyles on the duomo.

Theres a golden statue on the top of the duomo.The duomo is a church. The duomo is very famous. It is in a centre square in Milan. I took this picture from my room.

Venice

Sebastian says:

Today we went on a gondola ride it was very Relaxing. He sang and he whistled. I bought a mask.  We saw glass blowing; he made a horse. It was amazing. I bought a horse. I got a photo with the Glass Master. The Glass Master worked for years in the factory. The island was called Murano. On the gondola I got to wear the gondola hat.

Sebastian e Boris piace biscotti margharetine.

We all fell in love with the Margheritine Di Stresa. It is a biscuit named after the first Queen of Italy. She was queen from 1878-1890 during her husband, King Umberto I's reign. She used to spend her summers in Stresa at the Villa Ducale. The yummy biscuits are named in her honour and created by Pietro Antonio Bolongaro, a pastry chef from Stresa. They are light and crumbly, dusted in icing sugar and melt in your mouth! 

In 1868 the eldest daughter of Elizabeth of Saxony, Margherita, married Umberto I of Savoy, later becoming the first Queen of Italy.   Margherita asked for the new biscuits, which became a permanent part of the tables at court. The name of the biscuit also looks like the daisy (Margherita) and when they are dusted with icing sugar and placed in rows on a tray they resemble a field of white flowers. 

Today these biscuits of noble origin are sold all over Stresa. The little secret behind the special fragrance of the Margheritine is the use of boiled egg yolks, passed through a sieve until they become virtually flour.

 

In Napoleon's Shoes

On our last day in Stresa, we caught a boat out to Isola Bella, the world famous castle and gardens and main attraction of the area. It has even been put into the same league as the Butchart Gardens in Canada! The garden has a ten-tier centrepiece, called the Teatro Massimo.

The castle was one of the properties of the House of Borromeo, being owned by a Count and his family. If the walls could talk, they would have told some fascinating stories. 

We saw the bed that Napoleon's Bonaparte and his wife Josephine slept in 1797. They visited (almost unannounced) with a party of sixty guests, but their manners and cleanliness following their pheasant hunting trip to Isola Madre left a lot to be desired. Castle staff were glad when they left! 

We walked through the room that Mussolini and the Allied Heads of State met in to condemn Hitler's policies. 

We walked through, and Dad and Sebastian sat in, the ballroom where Prince Charles and Princess Diana danced in the 1980s. 

The man-made grottoes were like nothing we'd seen before. These led out to the garden that was topped with a unicorn ridden by Love atop a beautiful fountain. There were pure white peacocks walking around and the flowers were really pretty. 

The unicorn is part of the House of Borromeo emblem and has been since the Year 1445! It symbolizes honor, virtue and devotion. The motto “HUMILTAS” written in a black, gothic font appeared for the first time in 1445 and became the motto of San Carlo Borromeo, pointing out the humility you need to reach out God.

It was truly a beautiful island to visit. 

On the way to Venice

Today we went to the train station we got on a train then we got off then got on to another train.We played a few games with cards. We got on the iPad and did our blogs.We are going to Venice. 

Switzerland For The Day

Today we went to Switzerland for a day. There were heaps of waterfalls while we were on the train going to Switzerland. We bought Swiss chocolate in Switzerland. We had heaps of sight-seeing. There were a lot of rivers. There were a lot of mountains. It was very foggy. We took a boat home. 

Bus ride

Today it was raining. We went to Verbania on a bus. We saw the ferry coming and going. Then we came back to Stresa. We had a delicious  lunch at Cafe El Gato Negro, the Black Cat Cafe. Yesterday I lost a tooth. The tooth fairy came to me. She gave me €2. We had a good walk around. Mum bought some clothes for Milana and I. 

I learnt how to play the card game, Twenty-one. It is fun. I had to use counting on and partners to ten. It was fun being the dealer. Boris liked it too.