A short, steep walk up from the centre of Orta brings you onto the wooded ridge of the Sacro Monte, a tranquil parkland of chestnut trees scattered with twenty chapels built between 1591 and 1788. Each chapel contains a tableau of painted terracotta figures — over 370 in total — telling an episode from the life of Saint Francis, with frescoed walls behind. The figures are by various artists working in a vivid, popular style, and the cumulative effect of moving from one to the next is closer to a graphic novel than a museum.
The grounds are open from dawn to dusk and free to enter, though most chapels are viewed through grilles or windows. Allow an hour and a half to walk the full circuit at a relaxed pace. Combined with the view down across the lake to the Isola San Giulio, it is the single most memorable thing to do in Orta.