Wednesday 3rd - Thursday 4th August, Stresa, Italy.

We've walked almost the entire lengh of Stresa, over the last couple of days, including climbing the streets to the hills above the coastline, to see what makes this town tick!

We've been totally shocked to see how many HUGE properties have gone totally to wrack and ruin, through neglect.  Not at all sure what can have led to this situation, but there are what were very large, houses on vast acreage, which are just mouldering away, roofs caved in and neglected gardens overtaking the property..   The land alone, in prime positions would be worth millions, so we can't understand someone isn't interested enough to do "something"....   We called into an estate agent whose office is situated in one of these buildings, and asked what's going on?  He didn't attempt an explanation, but told us we could have the three adjoining, waterfront properties for 100,000,000 Euros.  I checked my bank account on the spot, but couldn't come up with the money - sadly!!! Although god knows what you would do with it anyway.

There seems to be a bit of a dearth of wildlife here in Stresa - pretty much the only 'animals' we have seen are pigeons, sparrows, the odd duck and a few Seagulls.   You really notice how noisy and 'present' our Aussie birds are, when there are none!!  Of course there are domestic cats, and small dogs are everywhere.....

The exception to this was a visit to the gardens of another vast estate nearby, which has been turned into a "Zoo"...   Sounded pleasant enough - free ranging sheep, goats, deer and a donkey or two..   We hiked up the hill, and finally came upon the first fenced area which housed these animals.   Kinda okay so far...... apart from one lactating Nanny Goat, whose kid seemed to have gone missing, and who was standing, frozen to the spot, on a bridge, with the most enormous distended udder and teats I have ever seen, obviously in great discomfort!!!    Then we wandered off to the enclosures of the more exotic animals - OMIGOD.....  It was like revisiting the Melbourne Zoo of the 1960s - pacing animals, walking back and forth within wire cages, bare dirt, hardly a 'house' for them to snooze in.  There was one enormous Eagle of some sort which was almost comatose on its big perch.....  There was plenty more to see apparently, and families with kids kept streaming in, but it was too much for me to bear, so we had to leave.....
Bad...   Very bad....
I did (of course) stop to tell the woman in the ticket booth what I thought of the situation, and she nodded - bewildered.   Arthur was by this time, hiding out in the street, totally embarrassed....

We've been highly amused by the fact that almost every shop in town closes in the middle of the day - and not for one hour, but often for three hours!!!   Even the supermarket closes - for hours....WTF???

Can you imagine walking down Bourke Road in the middle of the day to see ...... no-one?????
Wonder how Woollies would feel about taking a good portion of the middle of the day off - to do what we wonder?   Do they go home?   Sleep out the back?  Count the money they DON'T have in the till?

You would think, that with the economy down the toilet anyway, they would make every waking minute a winner, and rope in as many tourists as possible - Winter is just around the corner!!!

We ran into an English couple (from the midlands) in a bar last evening, quite amusing, and they are the sort of people who go to the same places year after year, because it's comfortable.   They're here for three weeks... and have been here before....    THREE WEEKS???     Not sure I would commit to three weeks in Stresa.

Anyway, after again running into them in a restaurant after we thought we'd parted ways, we also had dinner with them - promising to catch them up for a drink tonight....    Really hoping they've forgotten.......

They did - apparently!!!!

We were served by a waitress in a restaurant a couple of evenings ago, and she was very,very dark skinned.   Not a problem, except it looked SO wrong.....Couldn't stop looking at her - her features were so NOT consistent with a dark skinned individual, and her skin looked so dry and weird it could have been coated in ash!!!    All the while puzzling about this, she returned to take our order and lifted her head!!!!!   Omigod....   there were two white as white streaks across her throat region, which it occurred to me had obviously escaped the tanning process!!!     God knows how much she had spent in the process of turning white skin into black, but I was so tempted to tell her they had been banned in Australia due to their serious health risks.....  

What was she thinking???

Anyway, we had an early very light dinner and returned to our lovely hotel to have a few drinks on the terrace, and watch the sun go down.    Lovely Stresa - farewell....