Three islands in Lake Maggiore featuring a 17th-century palazzo and associated Italianate garden. The nerdy part is that Hotel Adriano from Hayao Miyazaki’s anime Porco Rosso strongly resembles an amalgam of two of the islands, Isola Bella and Isola Madre. Ghibli fans should not miss this!

They are accessible by ferry from the on-shore towns of Stresa, Laveno, Pallanza, and Intra—best to go in the morning if you want to see all of them as the last trip usually departs early in the afternoon.