The Borromean Islands are a group of three small island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

s and two islet

Islet

An islet is a very small island.- Types :As suggested by its origin as islette, an Old French diminutive of "isle", use of the term implies small size, but little attention is given to drawing an upper limit on its applicability....

s in the Italian part of Lago Maggiore, located in the western arm of the lake, between Verbania

Verbania

Verbania is a city and comune on the shore of Lake Maggiore, Piedmont, in northwest Italy, about north-west of Milan and about from Locarno in Switzerland.-Overview:...

 to the north and Stresa

Stresa

Stresa is a town and comune of about 5,000 inhabitants on the shores of the Lago Maggiore in the region of Piedmont, northern Italy; it is situated on the road and rail routes to the Simplon pass, about 90 km north-west of Milan. Since the early 20th century, the main source of income has been the...

 to the south. Together totalling just 50 acres (20 hectares) in area, they are a major local tourist attraction for their picturesque setting.

Their name derives from the Borromeo family, which started acquiring them in the early 16th century (Isola Madre) and still owns the majority of them (Isola Madre, Bella, San Giovanni) today.

1. Isola Bella
   Isola Bella (Lago Maggiore)
   Isola Bella is one of the Borromean Islands of Lago Maggiore in north Italy. The island is situated in the Borromean Gulf 400 meters from the lakeside town of Stresa...
   
   , named for Isabella, countess Borromeo, was originally a largely barren rock; after first improvements and buildings, opened by count Carlo III between 1629 and 1652, his son Vitaliano the 6th built an attractive summer palace, bringing in vast quantities of soil in order to build up a system of ten terraces for the garden. The unfinished building displays paintings by Lombard
   Lombards
   The Lombards , also referred to as Longobards, were a Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin, who from 568 to 774 ruled a Kingdom in Italy...
   
    artists and Flemish
   Flanders
   Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
   
    tapestries.
2. Isola Madre
   Isola Madre
   Isola Madre, at 220 m wide and 330 m long, is the largest island of the Isole Borromee archipelago which falls within the Italian part of the Alpine Lake Maggiore, in the Province of Verbano Cusio Ossola, Piedmont....
   
   , the largest of the three, is also noted for its gardens, which are maintained from about 1823 in an English
   English garden
   The English garden, also called English landscape park , is a style of Landscape garden which emerged in England in the early 18th century, and spread across Europe, replacing the more formal, symmetrical Garden à la française of the 17th century as the principal gardening style of Europe. The...
   
    style. Its palace, though uninhabited, is splendidly furnished with 16th to 19th century Italian masterpieces and paintings.
3. Isola dei Pescatori
   Isola dei Pescatori
   Isola dei Pescatori is an island of Lago Maggiore in northern Italy. As the most northerly of the three principal Borromean Islands it is also known as Isola Superiore and, with a population of about 50, it is the only one to be inhabited all year round...
   
   or Isola Superiore is now the only inhabited island in the archipelago
   Archipelago
   An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...
   
   . It has a fishing village, which in 1971 had a population of 208.
4. Isolino di San Giovanni
   Isolino di San Giovanni
   The Isolino di San Giovanni is a small island belonging to the Borromean group of Lake Maggiore, one of the main subalpine lakes of northern Italy. It is situated some way to the north of the others in the group, 30 metres west of the shoreline of Pallanza, a frazione of Verbania...
   
   is located just off Pallanza (today part of Verbania
   Verbania
   Verbania is a city and comune on the shore of Lake Maggiore, Piedmont, in northwest Italy, about north-west of Milan and about from Locarno in Switzerland.-Overview:...
   
   ) to the north.
5. The tiny uninhabited rock of Malghera, with an area of only 200 square meters, lies between Isola Bella and Isola dei Pescatori and offers bushy vegetation and a small beach. http://www.illagomaggiore.com/poi/Isolotto%20della%20Malghera%20The%20Malghera%20Islet200424152053

See also

• Borromean rings
  Borromean rings
  In mathematics, the Borromean rings consist of three topological circles which are linked and form a Brunnian link, i.e., removing any ring results in two unlinked rings.- Mathematical properties :...
  
  
• Carlo Borromeo
• Federico Borromeo
  Federico Borromeo
  Federico Borromeo was an Italian ecclesiastic, cardinal and archbishop of Milan.-Biography:Federico Borromeo was born in Milan as the second son of Giulio Cesare Borromeo, Count of Arona, and Margherita Trivulzio...
  
  
• Isole di Brissago
  Isole di Brissago
  The Isole di Brissago are a group of two islands located in the Swiss part of Lake Maggiore close to Ronco sopra Ascona and Brissago, both in the Distretto di Locarno of Canton Ticino....
  
  

External links

• Official Tourism Gateway Lake Maggiore Official Tourism Gateway
• http://www.verbanensia.org/biografie_details.asp?bID=532&action=B&tipo=2
• http://www.verbanensia.org/archivio_details.asp?archID=1461
• http://www.verbanensia.org/loca_select.asp?tipo=1
• Isola Superiore, Isola Superiore on Lake Maggiore - Tourist Guide.
• Isola Bella, Isola Bella on Lake Maggiore - Tourist Guide.
• Isola Bella, from The Official Tourism Gateway of Lake Maggiore.
• Isola Madre, from The Official Tourism Gateway of Lake Maggiore.