Orta San Giulio
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Orta San Giulio

Orta San Giulio

Lakeside town on Lago d'Orta, facing Isola San Giulio and backed by the Sacro Monte.

Lago d'Orta is one of the most beautiful and least crowded lakes in northern Italy, easily rivalling the more famous Lago Maggiore next door. The tiny Isola San Giulio, reached by boat from the waterfront, is a medieval gem of cobbled lanes you can walk around in half an hour, with a Romanesque basilica at its centre and a working Benedictine monastery on its eastern half.

The town of Orta San Giulio itself is a delight, with a handsome piazza on the water, good restaurants along the lakefront, and regular boat services to the island. Above town, the wooded paths of the Sacro Monte — a UNESCO-listed Counter-Reformation pilgrimage route with twenty chapels of life-sized polychrome figures — make the best long walk in the area. At the entrance to town, the Moorish-revival Villa Crespi is the most unlikely building on any Italian lake.

Orta makes a fine day trip from Stresa or a peaceful base for exploring the quieter side of the Italian lake district.

Guide

Eating Out

For a town of fewer than a thousand residents, Orta has an unusual concentration of good restaurants — partly because of its day-trip popularity, partly because of Villa Crespi's gravitational pull on regional chefs. The lakefront restaurants on Piazza Motta and along the waterfront promenade are the obvious choice for lunch, with terraces facing the island; quality is solid rather than exceptional, and prices reflect the view.

Locanda di Orta, a small place in the historic centre with one Michelin star, is the best mid-range option for dinner: tasting menus rooted in Piedmontese cooking — agnolotti, vitello tonnato, Bra sausage — at a fraction of Villa Crespi's prices. Venus on the waterfront does dependable lake fish: perch (persico) on risotto is the local signature. For something more casual, Edera does wood-fired pizza, and the small bakery off the piazza serves espresso and lakefront-priced pastries from early morning.

Note that many places close in winter (roughly November through March), and the few that stay open keep shorter hours.

Guide

Getting There

Orta sits roughly 90 minutes by car west of Milan Malpensa airport, and the drive — north on the A8 motorway then west on the A26 — is straightforward. From the centre of Milan it is about two hours.

By train, the nearest station is Orta-Miasino on the Novara-Domodossola line, about a kilometre uphill from the town centre. Service is sparse (a handful of trains a day), and changes are usually required at Novara coming from Milan. Most foreign visitors find it easier to rent a car or arrange a transfer. From Stresa on Lago Maggiore, Orta is about 40 minutes by car — many people combine the two lakes on the same trip.

Driving in Orta itself is restricted: the historic centre is a pedestrian zone, with a paying car park at the top of the slope and a short walk down to Piazza Motta.

Guide

Things to Do

Orta is small enough that the whole town can be walked in an hour, and most visitors spend their time alternating between the lakefront piazza and the island just offshore. The Sacro Monte above town and the Madonna del Sasso sanctuary across the lake are the two longer outings that make a full day in Orta worthwhile. Add a meal at one of the lakefront restaurants and you have everything the place offers — which is, deliberately, not very much.