Italy: Romance runneth over

In small barrels you'll find the good wine," says an ancient Italian proverb.
I know this to be true on two counts - the tiny village of Cannobio on Lake Maggiore is a perfect little holiday gem and its Casa Bava cellars have small barrels of maturing wines that are absolutely superb.
Brothers Gabriele and Francesco Bava are fourth-generation winemakers in a family business established in 1901. I sample their eminently palatable Bel Ami chardonnay and Monferrato sauvignon in a cool, dark cellar below the lakefront piazza in Cannobio on magical Lake Maggiore, two hour's drive north of Milan.
"In vino veritas" - there is truth in wine, the locals say, and within a very short time the verities of la dolce vita become clear to me. Most wine, produce, meat, fish and pasta products made in northern Italy are of the highest quality, bursting with freshness and fine flavours. This is apparent as our group of travellers tastes some specialties of the Piedmont region at Cannobio's La Streccia Ristorante.
Our tour hosts, Susan and John of Etruscan Pleasures (Italia), a New Zealand boutique tour company focused on Italy, Portugal and Croatia, join us for a sumptuous feast of antipasto, gnocchi, risotto, ravioli and chocolate pudding with amaretto. The meal evolves like a good story, with each exquisitely tasty course adding a new chapter of gastronomic treats.
After dinner we join the nightly passegiata, or promenade, wandering along the waterfront in the balmy evening air of early summer. A slight breeze ruffles the surface of the narrow, serpentine lake, distorting the reflections of the distant mist-shrouded peaks of the Italian Alps.
Lakeside trattorias and cafes are full of al fresco diners sipping the local vino rosso and vino bianca with undisguised delight and talking rapidly in hushed tones. Three floors above, the last rays of a dying sun illuminate faded stucco walls, green-louvred shutters and window boxes aflame with red geraniums.
There's something inspiring and even life-altering about a visit to Italy, and I'm beginning to think that life in a lakeside village could be just my cup of chianti.
Night falls as I ascend the narrow cobbled lane known as Via Marconi and enter a 15th-century Franciscan Monastery building, now the charming family-owned Hotel Pironi, which offers a warm welcome and comfortable bed.
AS a new day dawns, I notice that my room overlooks a long finger of lake beyond a mishmash of TV antennae sprouting from terracotta roofs. The smooth lake is pure serenity, with a mysterious blue haze hovering over the water, partly obscuring tiny shoreline hamlets on the distant horizon.
On a nearby hillside, pencil-thin cypress trees frame weathered villas matured by time and nature into a dull patina of plaster and stone, enlivened by wild red roses rambling over carved balustrades. The scene is reminiscent of a model landscape from a Renaissance painting.
Our hosts plan to reveal the true romanticism of Lake Maggiore today. For it is indeed known as the "Romantic Lake", beloved of artists, poets and writers throughout the ages - illustrious figures like Goethe, Dickens, Byron, Flaubert and Ruskin.
Our journey takes us first to the town of Verbania, which enjoys the mildest winter climate on the lake. This fact inspired a retired Scottish soldier, Captain Neil McEachern, to create the most prestigious botanic garden in the lake district. We wander leafy paths laid out with geometric precision around fountains, ponds and arboretums. Tulips, irises, cinerarias and azaleas are in full bloom and rich wooded hillsides are ablaze with camellias and rhododendrons. There's even a little corner of New Zealand, with ponga tree ferns laid out in a sheltered fairy grotto.
UNDER the gentle touch of the warm sun, we gather at a lakeside cafe to sip cappuccinos and meet Daniela, our guide for the grand tour of Lake Maggiore's three islands. A water taxi whisks us over to Isola Madre, literally a botanical garden on the water where rare plants and exotic blooms are intermingled with even rarer white peacocks. We move on to explore Isola Madre's magnificent 16th-century palace.
The interior has retained an intriguing belle epoque air of opulence, with fine collections of household ceramics, serving staff liveries, porcelain dolls and puppet theatres. The highlight is Countess Borromea's neoclassical puppet theatre's macabre precursor of Harry Potter wizardry - a mini "horror theatre" with a sinister cast of devilish marionettes leering at palace visitors. There is an aura of severe nobility in the grand halls, as if only a certain blue-blood class of person should enter here.
We rejoin our water taxi to cross over to Isola dei Pescatori, the nearby fishermen's island. On a flagstone terrace overlooking the lake, we find a popular eating place called Ristorante Albergo Verbano. A long Italian lunch can take up to three hours, so we settle for a light repast of pasta, risotto, lake trout and ricotta-filled ravioli accompanied by excellent Piedmont red and white wines. As British writer, George Miller, once said: "The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later you're hungry again."
Across the water, the medieval streets and ornate stone buildings of Verbania fit naturally with the rustic lake and woodland setting. The warm touch of the midday sun and the soporific effect of the wine heightens the artistic image.
Our third island is Isola Bella, a large chunk of rock that resisted the insistent thrust of the ice-age glacier that carved out Lake Maggiore. The water taxi circumnavigates the island, revealing the remarkable shape of the terraced gardens and orderly rows of carefully shaped trees.
The entire island is laid out in the form of a massive ocean liner, with a square stern, 10 decks of formal gardens and a high bridge and funnel formation at the top. This imaginary boat appears to steam down the lake in a weird baroque setting, with the imposing 17th-century Borromea Palace rising abruptly out of its prow. The palace boasts a grand salon with a 23m-high ceiling where the present princes of the Borromea family, who are bankers in Milan, entertain friends during summer. Past guests of the centuries-old family include Napoleon and Josephine in 1797 and Prince Charles and Princess Diana in 1985. Our little group might have been invited for high tea, but we have pressing engagements elsewhere.
I have been privileged to visit this beautiful region and meet some of its warm-hearted people. The writer, Stendhal, once expressed it this way: "Anyone with a heart must visit Lake Maggiore, even if he has to sell his shirt to get there."