located_on_terrain_feature borromean islands
___MASK29___ ( literally ' Greater Lake ') or Lago Verbano is a large lake located on the south side of the Alps . It is the second largest lake in Italy and the largest in southern Switzerland . The lake and its shoreline are divided between the Italian regions of Piedmont and Lombardy and the Swiss canton of Ticino . Located halfway between Lake Orta and Lake Lugano , ___MASK29___ extends for about between Locarno and Arona . An archipelago , sometimes called an island group or island chain , is a chain , cluster or collection of islands . The word " archipelago " is derived from the Greek "  -  arkhi -" (" chief ") and "   pélagos " (" sea ") through the Italian " arcipelago ". In Italian , possibly following a tradition of antiquity , the Archipelago ( from medieval Greek "*  " and Latin " archipelagus ") was the proper name for the ___MASK30___ and , later , usage shifted to refer to the Aegean Islands ( since the sea is remarkable for its large number of islands ). It is now used to refer to any island group or , sometimes , to a sea containing a small number of scattered islands . Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a unitary parliamentary republic in ___MASK47___ . Located in the heart of the ___MASK96___ , Italy shares open land borders with France , Switzerland , Austria , Slovenia , San Marino and ___MASK99___ . Italy covers an area of and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate ; due to its shape , it is often referred to in Italy as " lo Stivale " ( the Boot ). With 61 million inhabitants , it is the fourth most populous EU member state . Stresa is a town and " comune " of about 5 , 000 residents on the shores of ___MASK29___ in the province of Verbano - Cusio - Ossola in the Piedmont region of northern Italy , about northwest of Milan . Since the early 20th century , the main source of income has been tourism ; like other places on ___MASK29___ , it benefits from spectacular views as well as areas of historical and architectural interest . It is situated on road and rail routes to the Simplon Pass . ___MASK60___ , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic in Europe . It consists of 26 cantons , and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities . The country is situated in Western - ___MASK10___ , and is bordered by Italy to the south , France to the west , Germany to the north , and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east . ___MASK60___ is a landlocked country geographically divided between the Alps , the Swiss Plateau and the Jura , spanning an area of . While the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory , the Swiss population of approximately eight million people is concentrated mostly on the plateau , where the largest cities are to be found : among them are the two global cities and economic centres Zürich and Geneva . Verbania is the most populous " comune " ( municipality ) and the capital city of the province of Verbano - Cusio - Ossola in the Piedmont region of northwest Italy . It is situated on the shore of ___MASK29___ , about north - west of Milan and about from Locarno in Switzerland . It had a population of 31 , 121 at 30 April 2009 . An island or isle is any piece of sub - continental land that is surrounded by water . Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets , skerries , cays or keys . An island in a river or a lake island may be called an eyot or ait , and a small island off the ___MASK80___ may be called a holm . A grouping of geographically or geologically related islands is called an archipelago , e . g . the Philippines . The Borromean Islands ( It . Isole Borromee ) are a group of three small islands and two islets in the Italian part of Lago Maggiore , located in the western arm of the lake , between Verbania to the north and Stresa to the south . Together totalling just 50 acres ( 20 hectares ) in area , they are a major local tourist attraction for their picturesque setting . Their name derives from the Borromeo family , which started acquiring them in the early 16th century ( Isola Madre ) and still owns the majority of them ( Isola Madre , Bella , San Giovanni ) today . Isola Bella , named for Isabella , countess Borromeo , was originally a largely barren rock ; after first improvements and buildings , opened by count Carlo III between 1629 and 1652 , his son Vitaliano the 6th built an attractive summer palace , bringing in vast quantities of soil in order to build up a system of ten terraces for the garden . The unfinished building displays paintings by Lombard artists and Flemish tapestries . Isola Madre , the largest of the three , is also noted for its gardens , which are maintained from about 1823 in an English style . Its palace , though uninhabited , is splendidly furnished with 16th - to 19th - century Italian masterpieces and paintings . Isola dei Pescatori or Isola Superiore is now the only inhabited island in the archipelago . It has a fishing village , which in 1971 had a population of 208 . Isolino di San Giovanni is located just off Pallanza ( today part of Verbania ) to the north . The tiny uninhabited rock of Malghera , with an area of only 200 square meters , lies between Isola Bella and Isola dei Pescatori and offers bushy vegetation and a small beach . The Simplon Pass is a high mountain pass between the ___MASK18___ and the Lepontine ___MASK11___ in Switzerland . It connects Brig in the canton of Valais with Domodossola in Piedmont ( Italy ). The pass itself and the villages on each side of it , such as Gondo , are in Switzerland . The Simplon Tunnel was built beneath the vicinity of the pass in the early 20th century to carry rail traffic between the two countries . Water is a transparent and nearly colorless chemical substance that is the main constituent of ___MASK45___ ' s streams , lakes , and oceans , and the fluids of most living organisms . Its chemical formula is HO , meaning that its molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms , that are connected by covalent bonds . Water strictly refers to the liquid state of that substance , that prevails at standard ambient temperature and pressure ; but it often refers also to its solid state ( ice ) or its gaseous state ( steam or water vapor ). It also occurs in nature as snow , glaciers , ice packs and icebergs , clouds , fog , dew , aquifers , and atmospheric humidity . Lake Island is an island on the ___MASK80___ of the Canadian province of British Columbia . It is located between Mathieson Channel and Lady Trutch Passage , and is flanked by Dowager Island ( to the northwest ), Lady Douglas Island ( to the west ), and a long finger shaped peninsula of the Canadian mainland to the east . Ironically , Lake Island is not a lake island , as it is in an inlet of the Pacific Ocean , and lies only some 6 kilometres from the open sea . Locarno (; Ticinese : ; formerly in ) is a southern Swiss town and municipality in the district Locarno ( and its capital ), located on the northern shore of Lago Maggiore at its northeastern tip in the canton of Ticino at the southern foot of the Swiss ___MASK11___ . It has a population of about 16 , 000 ( proper ), and about 56 , 000 for the agglomeration of the same name including Ascona besides other municipalities . The Philippines , officially the Republic of the Philippines , is a sovereign island country in ___MASK26___ situated in the western Pacific Ocean . It consists of about 7 , 641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions from north to south : Luzon , Visayas , and Mindanao . The capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City , both part of Metro Manila . Bounded by the South ___MASK57___ Sea on the west , the Philippine Sea on the east and the Celebes Sea on the southwest , the Philippines shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north , Vietnam to the west , Palau to the east and Malaysia and Indonesia to the south . A continent is one of several very large landmasses on ___MASK45___ . Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria , up to seven regions are commonly regarded as continents . Ordered from largest in size to smallest , they are : ___MASK6___ , Africa , North America , ___MASK25___ , Antarctica , Europe , and Australia . In geology , areas of continental crust include regions covered with water . A cay ( or ), also spelled caye or key , is a small , low - elevation , sandy island on the surface of a coral reef . Cays occur in tropical environments throughout the Pacific , Atlantic and Indian Oceans ( including in the ___MASK37___ and on the Great Barrier Reef and Belize Barrier Reef ).