violetduck

If you discovered something you enjoyed not on the standard to see/do list in
Stresa, Lucca, Siena, Bologna hope you will share it. Also any good restaurants
with vegetarian options would be very helpful. Thanks.

bobthenavigator

Have lunch at Hotel Verbano on Isola Pesactori.

adrienne

I second Bob's advice. Great lunch and view.

Wayne

I really doubt that there is a "standard see/do list" for any of the named cities except Stresa. The other three are all quite different, and each is worth visiting if you have the time. If you will be in the general area and don't have enough time, I'd suggest a visit to Lucca for a more intimate feeling city and to Bologna for a great experience in food, architecture, and culture.

Therese

Hotel Verbano (restaurant there also recommended by yours truly) is on Isola Pescatori aka Isola Superiore. For dinner you need to book, as there's no ferry service at night and they send a boat to fetch you from Stresa (and also take you back, all part of the experience). Your hotel can call for you.

Things that I enjoyed in Stresa (which may or may not have made it to your tourist radar) included visiting Santa Caterina del Sasso (you can take a ferry from Stresa, but check the schedules carefully as there aren't too many) as well as Angera, where there's a very nice castle/museum called La Rocca. Included in the castle is a very cool (for me and my daughter, anyway, museum of dolls and toys) and there's a lovely cafe with a patio overlooking the lake.

Arona's market is a good one, and not touristy. Seems like it was on Friday, though you'd want to check. You can reach Arona by ferry or by train (very brief ride).

If you're athletic there are some great hikes in the area, and if you take the funicular to Mottarone you can rent mountain bikes for the ride down. My husband and kids did this, and as I recall they rented the bikes (and helmets) at the base and took the bikes up with them.

There's a very nice family-run restaurant up the hill from Stresa called Cardini. It's technically in a wide spot in the road called Someraro, but really just a (steep) walk up from Stresa.

Does the vegetarian consume dairy/eggs? If so he/she will have no trouble finding dishes to suit.

violetduck

Thanks to everyone for all the good information to ponder.
Therese-DH and I are both vegetarians and pizza,
pasta and salads are not so tasty after a couple of weeks. However, we do eat eggs/dairy so we will survive.

Therese

Since you eat dairy and eggs you'll be fine, violetduck. Italians tend to be pretty conservative in their food choices, so if you're used to a varied diet you can begin to get pretty tired of it even if you're not vegetarian. There are lots of standard dishes, and restaurants in a particular region will tend to stick to a certain repertoire that varies with the season, but not otherwise.

In addition to pizza, pasta, and salad, you'll probably find risotto and polenta, as grilled vegetables are often offered as a side dish ("contorno"). Pickled vegetables also show up in some areas---pickled onions (cipolline) were common in the area around Stresa (not Stresa proper, but up the hill, where we were the only non-Italians) when we were there.

Really upmarket restaurants (as you might find in Bologna) that do multi-course tasting menus sometimes offer a vegetarian combination, but these tend to be nosebleed expensive.

yestravel

Not too far from Stressa (maybe 30 minutes by car) is Cannobio which we thought a thoroughly charming town. Not sure if there are any sites there to visit, but its worth checking out for an afternoon or few hours just to sit in a cafe and stroll the streets. if you eat chicken and/or seafood both were generally on the menu. in addition to the grilled veggies always on a menu as mentioned, we found that vegetables are prepared in interesting and different ways frequently. Also u might check out an appetizer as a main courses. Portions are generally huge and I often ate an app instead of a first or second course.

violetduck

Therese and yestravel-Thanks again for the your help and good tips. I could survive on the grilled
veggies. I know the last visit to Italy I never got tired of the salads and seemed to crave them, but got very tired of the pastas and pizza. As Therese mentioned it seemed the choices were very conservative. After being in Italy we went to Lugano, with all it's Italian influence,saw a Chinese restaurant and thought we were about to have a different type meal.
Checked the menu in the foyer and it was all Italian. Very strange, we thought.

zeppole

bob is going to get paranoid, but my evening meal at the hotel verbano lives in legend in my household as among the 3 worst meals we've ever eaten in Italy. (bob, try not to take it personally.) And it wasn't just us. Two men at another table sent back their food. The view is fine.

Off the beaten track in Stresa: Take the funicular up for a walk in the mountains as mentioned-- and the bar at the bottom of the fuinicular, l'Idrovolante, makes nice homemade pastas for lunch (cheap too).

When touring the Borromeo Islands, some people skip the Isola Madre -- big mistake! The puppet theatre is enchanting. Also, many people don't go into the Palazzo on the Isola Bella. It's nicer, in my view, than the crowded garden.

For Siena, many people miss the marvelous set of paintings known as the Allegory of Good and Bad Government. Track them down!

For Bologna, a near-secret gem is the oratory of St. Cecilia:

In Lucca, I found it quite nice to relax in the modern bar that is actually inside the walls at the Baluardo Colombano (at the passageway to the train station). It serves light meals, gelati, coffees and cocktails.

http://iat.comune.bologna.it/iat/iat...6?OpenDocument

Also, do not miss Santa Maria della Vita (the church) and the surgical theater.

zeppole

Sorry, I need to clean up the above post a bit:

here is the link to St. Cecilia in Bologna

http://iat.comune.bologna.it/iat/iat...6?OpenDocument


Santa Maria della Vita and the surgical theater are in Bologna as well, not Lucca.

greg

Tagging onto this thread, any place to get olive oil in Lucca where one can taste them before buying?

Jean

My husband has a Ducati, so we had to tour the factory and museum just outside Bologna. I thought it was going to be just a "boys and their toys" thing, but I actually enjoyed it. Or maybe it was the tour guide that looked like a young Al Pacino.

http://www.ducati.com/heritage/museo/contatti.jhtml