Lake Orta: A Gentle Guide to Piedmont's Quietest Lake

Most travelers heading for the Italian Lakes turn right, towards Como or the grand hotels of Lake Maggiore. Lake Orta sits just one ridge to the west, and almost everyone drives past it. That is its gift. Barely 13 kilometres long and no more than about 2.5 kilometres wide, it is a small, dark-green, wooded lake in Piedmont, with wooded hills folding down to the water and a single tiny island in the middle, crowned by a bell tower.

The lake is also called Cusio, and it has one charming eccentricity: unlike its neighbours, its outflow — the Nigoglia, at Omegna — runs north. The people of Omegna have made a proud local saying out of it: the river flows uphill, and we make our own rules.

For travelers over 60 this is a happy place to choose. The scenery arrives without effort: you can sit on Piazza Motta with the island in front of you, cross to it in five minutes by boat, and reach the lake's two great viewpoints with either a short shuttle ride or a drive. Nothing here demands a long hike. But you should know where the slopes and the cobbles are, and we will be honest about those.

A little history

The story of Lake Orta begins on its island. According to tradition, a Greek-born priest called Julius arrived here in the late fourth century, found the island infested with snakes and dragons, drove them out, and founded a church in 390. He became Saint Julius of Novara, and the island and the village on the shore still carry his name.

For many centuries the lake was known as the Riviera di San Giulio and was governed, through its bishops, from Novara on the plain below. You can still see the little stone town hall that served that community, built in the sixteenth century on arcades in the middle of Orta San Giulio's main square — a reminder that this was once a self-governing corner of the hills, not a resort.

Above the village, on a wooded hill, is the lake's other great inheritance: the Sacro Monte di Orta, a devotional complex of twenty chapels built slowly between the 1590s and the late eighteenth century, each one telling an episode from the life of Saint Francis of Assisi with life-sized figures and frescoed walls. It belongs to the group of Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list, and the hill around it is a nature reserve.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the lake quietly became a place writers and artists came to for silence. It still is.

Lake Orta photographed from Orta San Giulio, in the province of Novara.

What to see

Isola San Giulio

The island is the heart of the lake and the reason most people come. It is only a few hundred metres long, close enough to the shore that the boats cross in about five minutes, and it holds a Romanesque basilica, a handful of old houses, and a large Benedictine monastery whose enclosed nuns live out of sight.

Inside the Basilica di San Giulio you will find frescoes from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries and an extraordinary carved stone pulpit from the early twelfth century, one of the finest pieces of Romanesque sculpture in Italy. Around the island runs a single paved lane known as the Way of Silence, or Way of Meditation: a loop of maybe twenty or thirty gentle minutes, lined with wooden boards carrying short aphorisms about listening and stillness. There is no traffic, no scooters, nothing to dodge.

Orta San Giulio

The village itself is a tangle of narrow lanes, shuttered pastel houses and small arcaded courtyards, all tipping down towards Piazza Motta — an open square on three sides with the fourth side simply left as lake. The cafés here face the island, and the view changes all day as the light moves across the water. A market fills the square on Wednesday mornings.

Sacro Monte di Orta

The twenty chapels stand among tall trees on the hill directly above the village, linked by broad, gently rolling gravel paths. You look into each chapel through grilles and windows at painted plaster figures frozen mid-scene. Even if the baroque theatre is not your taste, come for the terraces: between the chapels the woods open out and the whole lake, with the island below, lies at your feet.

Omegna and the north shore

At the top of the lake, Omegna is a working town rather than a pretty one — it is the home of Italian design kitchenware — but it has a handsome riverside where the Nigoglia begins its contrary journey northwards, and a lively Thursday market that the boats time themselves around.

The island and the wooded shores of Lake Orta seen from Orta San Giulio.

Gentle walks and the best viewpoints

Lake Orta's scenery is unusually generous to people who would rather not climb. Three viewpoints give you the whole lake, and none of them requires a serious walk.

Madonna del Sasso is the famous one. This eighteenth-century sanctuary sits on a bare granite spur high on the western shore, at around 640 metres, and its forecourt is known locally as the balcony of Cusio. From it you see almost the entire lake, the island as a green speck, the bulk of Mottarone opposite and, on a clear day, the Alps behind. You can drive almost to the door up a winding road from the western shore — allow roughly 30 to 45 minutes from Orta — and then walk only a short, level distance to the parapet. It is the single best half-hour of scenery on the lake.

The Sacro Monte terraces, as above, are reached from Piazza Motta by a steady uphill walk of about 20 to 30 minutes on a paved lane, or without any climb at all by the seasonal tourist road train or by car to the top. Once you are up there, the paths between the chapels are broad, shaded and almost flat, with benches.

Mottarone, the mountain between Lake Orta and Lake Maggiore, rises to around 1,490 metres and offers both lakes at once plus a long row of Alpine summits. Please note: the cable car that used to climb from Stresa has been closed since the accident of May 2021 and remains out of service, so the only comfortable way up at present is by road from the Stresa–Gignese side, roughly an hour's drive from Orta. The summit area has cafés and easy strolling on open pasture.

For a flatter outing, the lakeside promenade running from Piazza Motta past the old villas is level and shaded, and the shore at Pettenasco, a few minutes south, gives you an easy paved walk right at the water's edge. A fourth option, the medieval watchtower of Buccione at the lake's southern tip, has a lovely view but is reached by a short, steep woodland path — attempt it only if rough uphill ground is comfortable for you.

A wide view over Lake Orta from the slopes above Orta San Giulio.

The most comfortable way to see it: by boat

If you do one thing on Lake Orta, take the public boats. A scheduled service runs daily through the warmer months, roughly March to October, with a much thinner timetable in winter, linking Orta, the island, Pettenasco, Pella, Gozzano and Omegna. Crossings are short, the vessels are small and low in the water, and you sit close enough to see the reed beds and the old boathouses.

The little shuttle between Piazza Motta and Isola San Giulio leaves very frequently through the day in season and takes only about five minutes. A longer ride up the lake to Omegna takes something in the order of 45 minutes to an hour each way and is the easiest sightseeing on the lake: no walking, constant scenery, and a seat in the shade if you want one. Day passes allowing unlimited journeys are usually sold in season, which makes hopping between villages painless.

Motorboat skippers in Piazza Motta also offer short private circuits of the lake, useful if you want the island and the shoreline without waiting for a timetable.

Boats and the lakeshore at Orta San Giulio, looking out over the water.

A day trip nearby

Lake Maggiore is astonishingly close. Stresa, with its belle-époque waterfront and its boats to the Borromean Islands, is only about 30 to 40 minutes away by car over the hills, which makes a very easy contrast with Orta: grand hotels, formal gardens and a much busier promenade. Isola Bella and Isola Madre are reached by frequent boats from Stresa's piers, and both involve flat but long-ish walking inside the gardens, with steps in the palace.

If you enjoy scenic trains, continue to Domodossola, around an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half north of Orta, and ride the narrow-gauge Centovalli railway towards Locarno in Switzerland. It climbs through chestnut woods and over high viaducts above deep gorges, and you can do the whole thing seated, with no walking at all. Bring a passport, as the line crosses the border.

Honest advice for comfortable travel

• The centre of Orta San Giulio is pedestrian. Cars must be left in car parks on the edge of the village, mostly uphill on the panoramic road. The walk down to Piazza Motta is roughly 10 to 15 minutes — pleasant going down, a real pull coming back up. In season a small tourist road train shuttles between the car parks, the centre and the Sacro Monte; use it without hesitation.
• Stay on the lakeside, not on the hill. Hotels directly on or just above Piazza Motta put the boats, cafés and promenade within a few level minutes. Some lovely places sit higher on the slope with flights of steps and no lift. Ask before booking. Pettenasco, a few minutes south, has flatter shore-level accommodation.
• Underfoot: cobbles, worn stone slabs and the occasional stepped alley. Nothing extreme, but the surfaces are uneven and become slippery after rain. Shoes with grip matter more than anything else you pack.
• Boarding the boats means a step down onto the deck, usually with a hand from the crew. Tell them if you need a moment; they are used to it. There is seating under cover on most boats.
• On the island, the lane from the jetty is level and short, but the basilica is up a flight of steps and the Way of Silence has a few steps and narrow stretches. There is almost nowhere to sit, so plan on a slow 30 to 45 minutes and no more.
• At the Sacro Monte, drive or take the shuttle up and walk down if you prefer; the descent to the village is far easier than the climb. The chapels are viewed from outside through grilles, so there is no stair-climbing involved.
• Heat: July and August can be warm and humid by the water, often in the mid to high twenties Celsius with little breeze at midday. Do your walking and viewpoints before 11 and after 4, and use the long lunch the way Italians do.
• Shade and benches are plentiful along the promenade and in the woods of the Sacro Monte, less so on Piazza Motta and on the island.
• Winter is genuinely quiet: many boats, hotels and restaurants reduce their hours or close, and the lake can be cold and damp. Beautiful, but not the easy trip.

What to eat

This is Piedmont, so the cooking is richer and more buttery than you may expect from a lake. Risotto is a local birthright — the rice fields of the Novara plain are just down the hill — and it appears with perch, with cheese, or with the dark local red wine.

From the lake itself look for coregone (lavaret) and perch, usually fried or grilled simply, and sometimes served as little fillets over risotto. From the hills come alpine toma cheeses, the smoky mortadella of the Ossola valleys, and gorgonzola, which is a product of this province. The area's most talked-about speciality is tapulone, from nearby Borgomanero: finely minced meat — traditionally donkey — stewed slowly with red wine, garlic and bay. It is not for everyone, but it is authentically of this place.

For something sweeter, Omegna is known for its thin shortbread biscuits, the imperialine and reginette, sold in the old bakeries in town. And do order the local wines: the Alto Piemonte hills just south and east produce serious nebbiolo-based reds under names like Ghemme, Gattinara and Boca, which are far less famous than Barolo and far kinder to the wallet.

Orta San Giulio also has a surprising fine-dining reputation, anchored by an extravagant Moorish-style villa on the lakeshore that is now a hotel with a celebrated restaurant. Book well ahead if that appeals; otherwise the simple trattorie in the lanes above Piazza Motta serve the same lake fish for a fraction of the cost.

Getting there

Our verdict

Lake Orta is the one we recommend most often to travelers who want the Italian Lakes without the strain of them. It is small enough to see properly from a single hotel, the best scenery comes from a boat seat or a church forecourt rather than a mountain path, and the atmosphere is unhurried in a way that Como simply is not any more.

Be realistic about two things: the climb between the car parks and the village, and the cobbles. Solve the first with the road train or a taxi, the second with good shoes, and the rest of the lake opens up easily.

Come in late May or in September, take a room looking at the island, and give yourself three unhurried days. Our ideal version: boat to the island in the morning before the crowds, lunch and a long sit on Piazza Motta, the shuttle up to the Sacro Monte for the late afternoon light, and one half-day drive to the balcony at Madonna del Sasso to see the whole thing laid out below you.

Evening light on Lake Orta, seen from Orta San Giulio in Piedmont.

“A lake small enough to hold in one glance, and deep enough to keep you looking.”

Photo credits

• Orta San Giulio Lago d'Orta 01: Zairon, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Lake Orta San Giulio 167612683: Mohamed Selim, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Orta San Giulio Lago d'Orta 06: Zairon, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Orta San Giulio Lago d'Orta 15: Zairon, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Orta San Giulio Lago d'Orta 21: Zairon, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Orta San Giulio Lago d'Orta 38: Zairon, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons