The mayors of Verbania and Stresa talk about the deeper meanings of a day to remember
Lake Como dresses up in spring when March comes around again. Its lakeside villa gardens and botanical parks reopen to the public, offering scenarios in which nature and architecture meld together into a dazzling water-mountain spectacle. It is wisteria which steals the show at the beginning of the season, enveloping pergolas and house facades with its purple cascades at the end of the month, making for romantic scenes along lakeside promenades and in villages.
Next come the camellias, azaleas and rhododendrons, and the first bulbs, ahead of the great April explosion of colour. Emblematic destinations include Villa Carlotta in Tremezzo whose terraced gardens host botanical collections of great value and dazzling flower spectacles in spring, down panoramic avenues and across lakeside terraces. And the parks of other historic villas on both sides of the lake are no less stunning, with citrus, exotic plants and centuries’ old trees dialoguing with Alpine foothill landscapes. A walk along Lake Como at this time of year plunges you into a world-apart atmosphere suffused with delicate fragrances and pastel colours reflected by the sky.
