Toronto

Toronto’s Little Pleasures By: Wendy Penfield	south side and gaze at Lake Ontario’s smooth stretch to the distant horizon. Calm your city nerves with the rhythmic lapping of the surf. Then set out to explore. Bicycles are an ideal way to wander along the many paths. Rent one, or bring your own over on the ferry. If you prefer to take it easy, a free tram system conveys you to all the main attractions. One is Centre Island’s old-time amusement park, with traditional rides and lots of farm animals. Nearby Gibraltar Point encourages you to try your angling skills at a well-stocked trout pond. After that, try windsurfing or flying a kite; lake breezes usually cooperate. And urban seafarers may want to scout the nine miles of lagoons by canoe or rowboat. Torontonians are justly proud of this offshore playground. New visitors, too, will feel its charm when, upon venturing to the shores closest Toronto, they find that the songs of crickets and birds eclipse the sounds of the city. Here you can sit under a willow, watching sailboats flit between you and Toronto’s modern skyline, and realize how nice it is to be so near and yet so far. Ferries leave Toronto from the Bay St. Ferry Dock. For information, telephone (416) 392-8193. For information about Comitato Nazionale Biancofiore Canada, please email us

Twilight view of the Toronto skyline. Photograph courtesy of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development, Trade & Tourism.
Where in cosmopolitan Toronto are milk and bread still being delivered by the milkman? Where do you have to walk or ride a bike to get around because cars are prohibited? Where in this city has it been possible for a flock of Canada geese to establish year-round residence? Stand along Toronto’s harbor front, look out over the deep waters of Lake Ontario, and you’ll glimpse a chain of linked islands—the Toronto Islands. A ten-minute ferry ride from one of Canada’s most modern metropolises, these islands rest in quiet contrast to the glassy glitter of the city’s skyscrapered downtown. Small communities of diminutive cottages, some as cockeyed as the aging boat hulls careened in their yards, line narrow lanes. Sailboats whip past sandy beaches. And acres of parkland invite recreation of all kinds. Board one of the ferries that run between Toronto and the islands, and watch the cityscape recede from you; look the other way, and the islands beckon. To put the city really behind you, once ashore walk around to the islands’