Dwight Peck's personal website

Winter 2004-2005

as life's hectic non-stop party threatens to get out of control and really exhausting


Kristin's April 2005 visit to Switzerland (and Italy)

You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.

Views of the Hotel Pironi, Cannobio, Italy

Here's our home away from home for a few days, the extremely exceptional Albergo Pironi in the village of Cannobio on the Lago Maggiore just over the Simplon Pass. This lovely restoration is a 3-star upper-medium-priced, very comfortable 15th century palazzo, formerly a Franciscan monastery, that's still loaded down with original frescoes, vaulted ceilings, medieval stone columns, and great views out over the lake.

Prices are a bit more than the campground at the edge of town, but not all that bad. We peeled off 120 euros per night for the room, and in return got atmosphere, cleanness, friendliness, historicalness, lake views, an elevator that we didn't use since we're on a fitness kick, and a private parking place a few blocks away. There's no restaurant in the Pironi, but there are about 85 wonderful restaurants within a two minutes' walk and the Pironi's breakfast buffet, included with the room price, makes eating lunch a work of supererogation.

The photo's been taken from the loo, which in this room is one flight up.

Kristin calling back to anyone who's still in the john: "Don't forget to turn off the light."

The main salon, with its pointy corner overlooking the street

A landing between floors

Frescoes in the breakfast room

and more breakfast than you can shake a big shovel at.

The other end of the breakfast room, with all of the best morning newspapers in Italian and German.

Lago Maggiore from our window

The mainly pedestrian street in front of the Pironi

And another view from the front. Visit the Pironi's Web site, and then, if you can, visit the Pironi.

Cannobio, Italy, in April 2005
The Hotel Pironi in Cannobio
The Horrible Orrido di S. Anna
Verbania and the Borromeo Islands
Locarno and the Centovalli


Feedback and suggestions are welcome if positive, resented if negative, . All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 5 May 2005, revised 1 July 2008, 5 August 2014.

 


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