Isola Bella — the terraces and the citrus wall

The Borromeo family spent most of the seventeenth century turning a rock into a ship: the palace sits at the bow and the garden climbs behind it in ten terraces, topped by a theatre of niches, statues and obelisks. From the water the whole island looks like a stone vessel moored two hundred metres off Stresa.

The frame everybody wants is not the theatre but the long terrace wall above the lake, lined with lemon and orange trees in terracotta pots. It faces roughly south-east across open water, so the light is soft and directional in the first two hours after the gardens open and hard by eleven. Behind it, the stepped terraces give you height without a climb: put someone two levels up and the camera looks along a diagonal of clipped hedges.

White peacocks live on the upper lawn and they are not shy, which is either a gift or a distraction. The garden opens for the season roughly from mid-March to late October, admission is charged, and the first boat of the day usually arrives before the gates do.

One warning: the terraces are gravel and shallow steps, and the wall above the water has no rail. It is fine to stand at, but not a place to sit a small child on.