“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore..”

The world is a big place, isn’t it? It’s funny how small you can feel when you really look out into the world and see all the wonders it contains. Visiting the Stresa Isles and seeing the Swiss Alps this weekend really showed me just how gorgeous our green Earth is and can be.

First off, at the Isola Bella we visited the palazzo owned by the Borremeo family, and goodness gracious… It was seriously probably the most beautiful building I have seen thus far. Now, don’t get me wrong, it was beautiful in a royal and sparkly kind of way – there have been other historically beautiful things on this trip too. 

 The rooms in this place were HUGE with walls decorated from top to bottom and other intricate furnishings. One thing I really did notice in this place was the amount of horticulture that was basically everywhere in the palace. Of course, flower prints are always used as a way to decorate, but I think the way this palace used different bundles of plants and flowers to decorate everything really added to its preciousness. 

Moving along, the next part of the palace was the Gardino del Amore which was still just as stunning. I will admit, the garden has a different feel seeing it in front of you compared to seeing it as a whole in a picture but it was still pretty nonetheless. Everything was just so intricate and you could tell it was all for a purpose – to represent something. Every time I would turn a corner I would just wonder how long it could have possibly taken for them to create that masterpiece of a garden. It was interesting to learn, though, that the owners don’t really live there, they only rent it out for events. Unfortunately our tour was in Italian, so it really would’ve been cool to actually get to learn more about that island.

Finally, the last thing that really just put me in awe this past weekend was our ride on the panoramic train through Switzerland. The scenery was just breathtaking watching forests, creeks, rivers, and waterfalls all passing us by meanwhile the Swiss Alps could be seen in the distance. In all seriousness, it was in this moment that I was reminded how little we truly are and how much we need to live life to the fullest. It just really put into perspective how little our problems and worries are compared to these wondrous sites of our world.

Ciao4Now!

Christy Adkins (: