Discover Italy’s dreamy lake district, where glacial waters are cradled by jade knolls and the craggy slopes of Alpine foothills. Based in Stresa on Lake Maggiore, spend sun-soaked days exploring the islands and idyllic lakeside towns where poets and writers found inspiration. Enjoy special cruises on lakes Maggiore, Como and Orta. Visit the Borromean Islands, feast your eyes on Leonardo’s “The Last Supper,” and learn culinary secrets during a cooking lesson. From romantic Isola San Giulio to charming Bellagio and chic Milan to elaborate villas, this is a tour of northern Italy’s stunning beauty.
Day 1: Depart
Day 2: Arrive Milan / Transfer to Hotel in Stresa
Day 3: Lake Maggiore / Borromean Islands
Day 4: Milan
Day 5: Stresa / Orta San Giulio
Day 6: Stresa
Day 7: Bellagio / Como
Day 8: Stresa
Day 9: Transfer Milan / Depart
Moderate
Faculty
Steve Swayne, the Jacob H. Strauss 1922 Professor of Music at Dartmouth College, teaches courses in art music from 1700 to the present day, opera, American musical theater, Russian music, and American music. He has written two books—How Sondheim Found His Sound (University of Michigan Press, 2005) and Orpheus in Manhattan: William Schuman and the Shaping of America's Musical Life (Oxford University Press, 2011; winner of the 2012 ASCAP Nicolas Slonimsky Award for Outstanding Musical Biography)—and served as the 2022 president of the American Musicological Society, the premier organization for musicologists in the English-speaking world. He held the 2020 Kluge Chair in Modern Culture at the Library of Congress and received an inaugural Professor John Rassias Faculty Award in 2017 for his exceptional educational outreach to alumni. He specializes in making classical music intelligible to non-musicians and in linking the history of music to larger political, cultural, socioeconomic, and historical trends.
