Lake Orta

Lake Orta lies to the west of Lake Maggiore in northern Italy. This lake is quite small compared to the others nearby. It is a little jewel in the crown of the subalpine lakes, full of charm and history despite being so small.

View from Terrace

Lake Orta is known above all for the little town that gives the name to the lake, Orta. Orta  is a very beautiful, charming old town on the lake; it is rather small and mostly pedestranized so you can easily stroll around and see most of it in a rather short time. If you do feel tired you can always stop in Piazza Motta - the main square - and enjoy a lovely cup of coffee or if you prefer a nice 'gelato' (ice cream).

From there you can also take a boat trip to the small island in the centre of the lake called Orta S. Giulio or you can visit Pella just across the lake. Alternatively, you could go to Omegna which is the biggest town on the lake. Here they also have a market day every Thursday so it is the perfect place to do some shopping. On the top of the Orta promontory there is Sacro Monte consisting of twenty chapels in which some scenes from the life of San Francesco d’Assisi have been recreated.

We prefer this lake because it is not overcrowded by tourists and its waters are very clean. Here we spend most of our summer holidays in a small village called Pettenasco overlooking the lake and the  picture above has been taken from our terrace.

Panoramic View of Orta S. Giulio

Piazza Motta

Lale View

 

Lake Orta is just perfect: beautiful scenery, fantastic setting, not to be missed. We would recommend it to anyone, the best place to spend your holidays if you like some  peace and quite.

Omegna

 

How to get to Lake Orta

 

To get to Lake Orta you preferably fly to Milan Malpensa. Then if you drive you have to take the motorwayA26 direction Gravellona Toce and exit at Borgomanero. From here you have to follow the signs to Gozzano and Lago D'Orta. Once you reach Gozzano you are about 10 minutes away from the lake. You cannot really go wrong.