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Located on the edge of the lovely village of Someraro di Stresa, with superb panoramic views over Lago Maggiore, its islands, Verbania, Stresa and the pre-Alpine mountains, 'Casa sul Lago' is a sunny, tastefully restored stone-walled 'rustico'; most features and fittings have been specially created by craftsmen to the highest standards using traditional techniques and materials and respecting as much as possible principles of eco-friendly architecture; chunky floor tiles for example were hand-made in Tuscany. Furniture is top quality. Restoration work and fitting have taken place over the last 6 years.
The house is on 3 levels; on the top floor is the cozy master bedroom with wooden flooring, and wooden eaves, and spectacular views; bed linen is organic. There is 1 double bed and one single bed. The middle floor boasts an open-space area running from the fully-fitted kitchen area with its locally made hand-painted tiles and plenty of hand-made wood-work utilising local hard woods, to the luminous dining area with large panoramic windows on three sides, a truly dramatic vantage point over one of the world’s most famous views. Downstairs is the bathroom (all fittings are new and towels are organic), a store room containing the washing machine and the second bedroom with two single beds.
Outside the house, meals can be enjoyed on the patio overlooking the lake and the red-tiled roofs of other houses in the village. At 400 metres above sea-level, the evening temperature is quite bearable whilst mosquitoes are almost non-existent here. The patio paving is made of recycled 'piode', thick antique stone roofing tiles. Behind and to the sides of the house there is a partially terraced grassy slope where there is a play- area for children, garden furniture and an 'orto aromatico' containing various types of herbs which guests are free to gather for cooking.
At approximately 150 metres there are two restaurants, a bar and a small village shop with fresh bread 7 days a week and offering home delivery.
The only drawback to the Casa sul Lago is that there is not yet a parking lot; cars have to left in the village. It’s usually possible to find parking space less than 100 meters from the house.
From Stresa there are frequent boats to the main sites of interest and there are many high-speed trains to Milan and Switzerland. A nearby cable-car visible from the house takes visitors from the lake shore up to the top of 1,400m Mottarone from which they can descend along beautiful wooded paths either on foot or on rented mountain bikes. From Someraro there are many walks through the chestnut and beech woods to places of interest. Guests are given notes on walks, trips, sports activities (where to swim, windsurf, trek, horse ride, sail, play golf etc), little-known attractions and factory outlets and farm shops for which the region is famous (wine, cheeses, kitchen ware, Alessi, clothing etc).
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