Leaving Domo on the morrow, the Darcys passed through Villa d’Ossola, and thence through Ponte Mazzone and Manangione, where the road reached the wide, level valley, and thence through Orvanasco, Gravelona, and Feriolo, crossed the great bridge of Baveno, with its view of the lovely Madre Islands, and into Stresa, on the shore of Lake Maggiore. After one night’s stay at Stresa, Elizabeth and Darcy left Georgiana, who wished to remain there to rest, and embarked upon a boat trip across Lake Maggiore to stay the night on Isola Bella, before they rejoined Georgiana and their carriages at Sesto-Calende. Isola Bella was the site of a palace and chapel built by the Counts of Borromeo, now partially in ruins; on the southern part lay a grove of citron and orange-trees, figs and peaches surrounded by myrtle, jessamin, and roses of all colours. The Darcys learnt that, as the island was not protected from the strong winter winds, as were the other Madre Islands, the Borromeos went to the extraordinary expense each year to cover the vegetation on the island with thick, interfitting planks to protect the delicate plantings. The Darcys settled in at the only such habitation on the island, the curiously named Dolphin Inn. Before supper—which was served quite late, even later than the European practise—they circumnavigated the island, viewing the walls of the castle, atop which sat many marble statues, obelisks, and urns of exotic plants. An immense unicorn, the emblem of the Borromeo family, topped the castle. Rain-water, carefully collected from the terraces and stored in a reservoir beneath the gardens, was then distributed to fountains and jets d’eau. The view from the upper-most terrace was magnificent, giving a panorama of the lake and all of the surrounding mountains as far as the glaciers of the Simplon.

The Darcys rose tolerably early, and took a barque along the western shores of Lake Maggiore past Stresa, Arono, and Dormelletto, to Sesto Calende, where the Tessino leaves Lake Maggiore. Arriving at Sesto Calende, the Darcys met their carriages and Georgiana and continued on, as Milan was yet beyond the reach of a day’s journey by carriage. They noted that the Simplon Road did not end at Simplon, or even Domo, but the wide, flat road, bridges, aqueducts, railings and other works of Buonaparte’s effort appeared all the way to Milan. Sesto was succeeded by the plains of Lombardy, a flat expanse cultivated with immense swaths of corn and other grains, interspersed here and there with grape-vines and mulberry trees. Somma claimed to be the city where Hannibal defeated Scipio. In one of the gardens that surround that city was said to be a cypress tree of enormous girth, but the Darcys agreed that they would suspend the pleasure of seeing another tree—even a very large one—in favour of reaching their inn at an earlier hour. They stopt the night at Cerro Maggiore which, despite its grand name, afforded only one inn, poorly kept, and deplorably dirty.