Isola Bella

Carlo III Borromeo set his sights on a barren fishing rock in 1630, renamed it for his wife Isabella, and set out to build her a palace, then the plague hit. Construction halted mid-century as the Duchy of Milan was devastated. His sons picked up where he left off, importing thousands of tons of soil by boat to create ten terraced gardens rising 37 meters above the water, designed to make the island resemble a ship. The project wasn’t truly finished until 1948, three centuries and multiple generations later.

The island had, in fact, been Borromeo property well before Carlo got involved. His wife’s dowry included the rock; his ambition supplied everything else. What began as a modest gesture toward Isabella eventually consumed the family’s attention for four centuries, outliving Carlo, his sons, his grandsons, and enough Popes and Habsburgs to make the plague look like a minor scheduling delay. Napoleon slept there. The white peacocks are still walking around like they own the place, which, in a sense, they do.