The tourist resort of Stresa, the “jewel of Lake Maggiore”, owes its fame to its grand luxury hotels as well as to its marvellous view of the Borromean Islands and the surrounding mountains.

These splendid buildings with their opulent interiors, often built on the site of earlier villas, are still magnets for international celebrities. King Umberto II of Italy, Princess Margaret of England, Eleonora Duse, Gabriele d'Annunzio, George Bernard Shaw, Toscanini, Clark Gable, Andrew Carnegie, Rockefeller, Hemingway and Charlie Chaplin are only a few of the famous personalities captivated by the beauty of the spot.

Up to the first decades of the 19^th century Stresa was nothing more than a quiet little lakeshore village. Its subsequent development as a major tourist resort took off thanks to the farsightedness of the Omarini brothers, who in 1859 initiated work on the magnificent hotel Des Iles Borromées. Today the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees is the symbol par excellence of the prestigious position that Stresa occupies in the sector of luxury tourism.

Stresa’s hotels line the lakefront Corso Umberto I, and offer a striking vista, with their variety of different styles of architecture, from the Art Nouveau of the Regina Palace Hotel to the modern appearance of the Grand Hotel Bristol.