Out of the kitchen window I can see the crystal-clear water of Lake Maggiore sparkling in the evening sun, while the Alps rising in the background make me feel as if I’m on a movie set. But right now I’m not letting myself be distracted by such jaw-dropping views.
That’s because in front of me is a home-made pasta dough that’s as yellow as the Italian sunshine. This will make the best pasta I’ve ever tasted – and the secrets of how to create it will stay with me for ever.
I’m on a TUI Lakes & Mountains holiday and I’ve booked one of their ‘experiences’ – cooking with Cesarine – to learn how to make pasta using the centuries-old secrets of a local family.
My teacher and host is Giselle Motta, who welcomes me into her spotless home and teaches me the art of real Italian pasta-making.
Giselle learned it as a child aged seven by watching her uncle – a chef at a local hotel. Now in her 50s, she invites travellers into her home, where you learn the same traditional methods of hand-making pasta using eggs and water – and then sit at her charming dining table as she serves the ultimate pasta meal, washed down with local wine, plates scraped clean with freshly baked bread, as she and her cheerful husband chat in excellent English.
I haven’t just learned to make tagliatelli (or should that be tagliaTui?!) – I’ve found a recipe for a better life, too.
The best pasta of my life
I’m super-stressed by London life but there’s something relentlessly soothing about kneading pasta – and it’s more cathartic than any amount of poolside flopping.
Giselle’s secret? Add far more egg than usual recipes call for (ten eggs for 1kg of flour), mix it round with your finger into a well of flour, kneed and then slice thin ribbons that you keep from sticking by sprinkling plenty of your 00 flour.
It’s just one of the experiences that make a Lakes & Mountains break with Tui a truly spectacular event to savour.
Having flown straight into Milan and enjoyed a swift one-hour transfer, I arrived a day earlier at The Grand Hotel Des Iles Borromees on the western shore of Lake Maggiore.
It feels like stepping back in time – and my ornately decorated room overlooks the spectacular 40mile-long Swiss-Italian lake, which – incredibly – is largely overlooked by tourists (no overcrowding here, folks!).
Excursions to try
- Guided half-day tour of Lake Orta, £47 per person
- Private guided boat tour of all three Borromean Islands, £342 excluding entrance fees
- Entry to Isola Bella, Isola Madre and Pallavicino Park, £33 per person
- Hop on, hop off boat services, from £10 per person excluding entry fee
- Cooking with Cesarina experience, £73 per person
- Lake Maggiore wine tasting at the Al Buscion bar and restaurant, £17 per person
- Lake Maggiore Express from Domodossola to Locarno in Switzerland with return ferry to Stressa, £43 per person including seat reservation
The novelist Ernest Hemingway stayed here, along with the aristocrats and elites in the 19th century. A recent multimillion-pound overhaul has kept the history but added a fantastic spa and gym and an outdoor pool, warmed by the sun, where you can swim with a backdrop of mountains, or sunbathe and enjoy drinks from the trendy bar.
If you want a total contrast, book the modern and achingly cool Hotel La Palma next door (in such demand, it’s pretty much booked until next spring!). When I go there for cocktails – and Insta pics, of course – the rooftop Sky Bar offers stunning panoramic views. Tip: dress well and allow plenty of time to ogle the Italian smart set.
Stresa
A ten-minute stroll from the hotel takes you onto the cobbled street and pretty piazzas, lit up with fairylights, in the bustling old town of Stresa, with bars and restaurants filled with locals.
Another Tui experience – wine tasting at the local Al Buscion bar and restaurant with the incredibly likeable Massimo – costs just €20 (£17) per person and involves us all enjoying local wines we’d never normally have the chance to try, in a charming setting.
The Borromean Islands
By day, another experience has you step onto a boat at the lakeside and whisked to the Borromean Islands – Madre, Bella and Pescatori (fisherman’s island) where there are palaces, botanical gardens and the most beautiful restaurants you’ll ever discover, serving fish caught fresh from the lake.
On Madre, we look around the spectacular palazzo, a grand old house designed so that noblemen could ride up the stairs on their horses – the sign of true wealth.
When the island’s giant cypress tree, planted in 1862, was knocked over in a storm in 2006, its exposed roots were kept wet with rags and sprayed with deodorant. Who knew that antiperspirant could save a tree?
The summer house is filled with treasures from the past, including delightfully spooky dolls and a handmade music machine pulled by a lifelike toy donkey – imagine opening THAT on Christmas morning!
The train
Another experience to truly savour is a ride over the Alps into Switzerland, on a delightful funicular railway. There’s a carnival spirit as we queue alongside locals at the station, and as we find our seats, we’re greeted by passengers of all nationalities.
The scenery outside quickly changes to fields, then woodland, and then there’s a spectacular mountain climb with terrifying drops. This is the Hogwarts Express, Italian-style. Once in Switzerland I find myself in an old cobbled square and sit at a café to watch cheerleaders and an oompah band. I’m expecting to be ripped off but my £7 plate of Napoli pasta is a joy to behold.
The journey home is via a ferry – a breathtaking two-hour lake sail where you admire mountains, pretty villages and unspoilt shorelines.
Lake Orta
On our final day we visit the smaller Lake Orta, perhaps the prettiest place I’ve ever seen. It consists of an old village – incredible gift shops with local crafts – and immaculate wooden taxi boats that whisk you to the island in the middle of the island where even the restaurants seem to have stepped back in time.
The verdict
So, is my favourite experience the taxi gliding across Lake Orta with a captain clad in white naval regalia; the sweet train ride into the Alps; or the posh cocktails at the rooftop bar? No, it has to be the wine and laughter in Giselle’s flat, giving me the chance to love her hometown like a local.
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I’ll remember our chats and our cooking for ever – a truly authentic experience to savour in every way. Not to mention the besta pasta ever!
Getting there
Tui Lakes & Mountains provides four-night stays at the five-star Grand Hotel Des Iles Borromees in Stresa at Lake Maggiore, on a bed and breakfast basis from £863 per person, based on two adults sharing a twin room with easyJet flights departing London Gatwick on August 12, 2024.
Four-night stays at the three-star Hotel Lido La Perla Nera in Stresa on a bed and breakfast basis from £547 per person, based on two adults sharing a twin room with easyJet flights departing London Gatwick on August 12, 2024.
All prices include 15kg cabin baggage and transfers, via Tui.
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