Stresa
Stresa is a town and comune of about 4,600 residents on the shores of Lake Maggiore in the province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola in the Piedmont region of northern Italy, about 90 kilometres northwest of Milan. Stresa is the venue for the "Settimane Musicali", an international classical music festival which is held annually in the summer.
The name of the town first appeared in documents on January 15, AD 998 as "STRIXSYA". Later "STREXIA", "STREXA", and "STRESIA" were also used..
In the 15th century, it grew into a fishing community and owed feudal allegiance to the House of Visconti of Milan. It subsequently came under the control of the Borromeo family. In 1948 American author and journalist Ernest Hemingway visited the town. He had set part of his 1929 novel Farewell to Arms in the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees. In 2002, Stresa hosted the 10th International Hemingway Conference.