Lake Orta sits in Piedmont, immediately west of Lake Maggiore and separated from it by the ridge of Monte Mottarone. It is about 13 kilometres long and the smallest of the significant northern Italian lakes, and it is the only one that drains north rather than south, which is a geographical oddity locals mention.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, Roman Trail earns a small commission at no extra cost to you.
THE WHOLE DESTINATION IS ESSENTIALLY ONE VILLAGE AND ONE ISLAND, and saying so plainly is the most useful thing this post can do. ORTA SAN GIULIO is a village of about 1,100 people on a small peninsula on the eastern shore, with a single sloping piazza opening onto the water and a knot of cobbled lanes behind it. ISOLA SAN GIULIO lies 400 metres offshore and is occupied almost entirely by a basilica and a Benedictine convent. Together they take a day to see properly and a weekend to enjoy.
THE POSITIONING AGAINST MAGGIORE IS THE REASON TO COME. Stresa and the Borromean Islands are twenty minutes away over the hill and are magnificent and very busy, with grand hotels, coach parties and a lake steamer system. Orta has none of that. It is smaller, quieter, cheaper and almost entirely pedestrian, and the usual visitor experience is being surprised that somewhere this pretty is this empty on a Tuesday in June. If you are doing the lakes properly, our Lake Maggiore packing list covers the larger neighbour and the two combine into one trip easily.
WHAT YOU PACK IS SET BY COBBLES, BY A LAKE THAT GENERATES ITS OWN WEATHER, AND BY THE FACT THAT ALMOST EVERYTHING IS ON A SLOPE.
The Village, the Island and the Sacro Monte
One piazza, one monastery island, and twenty chapels up the hill behind.
PIAZZA MOTTA is the centre of the village and one of the loveliest small squares in Italy: it slopes down to the water on three closed sides with the island directly in front, and the sixteenth-century Palazzo della Comunita sits at its head on open arches. It is where the boats leave, where the Wednesday market happens and where you will eat. The lanes behind it climb steeply and are cobbled throughout.
ISOLA SAN GIULIO is a five-minute motorboat ride and the boats run constantly from the piazza in season. There is ONE PATH around the island, taking about twenty minutes, and the convent is enclosed so you cannot enter it, though the Basilica di San Giulio with its eleventh-century pulpit is open. The path is signed with two sets of meditative inscriptions, one for the way out and one for the way back, which sounds twee and is quietly effective. There is nowhere to eat and nowhere to buy water: the island is a church, a convent, a seminary and a few private houses, and that is all.
THE SACRO MONTE DI ORTA rises behind the village and is a UNESCO World Heritage site: twenty chapels built between 1591 and 1770 along a wooded path up the hill, each containing life-size painted terracotta figures telling the life of Saint Francis. It is free, it is a steady twenty-minute climb from the village, and the view from the top over the island is the one in every photograph. Go early or late; the chapels close in the middle of the day in some seasons.
Otherwise: a short lake walk south along the shore, swimming from the small beach at the north end of the village and at Lido di Gozzano, and the narrow-gauge railway at the lake's foot. The water is clean and COLD, which is the trade for an alpine-fed lake.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Maggiore, the Mountain and Milan
Twenty minutes to the big lake, a cable car up Mottarone, and an hour and a half to Milan.
LAKE MAGGIORE is the obvious pairing: Stresa, the Isola Bella and Isola dei Pescatori, and the Villa Taranto gardens are all within half an hour by road. MONTE MOTTARONE, the ridge between the two lakes, is reached by cable car from the Maggiore side or by road, and from the top you see both lakes and, on a clear day, Monte Rosa.
Further out, the Valsesia and the Val Grande wilderness are north, Lake Como is about an hour and a half east, and the Swiss border is forty minutes north at Domodossola, from which the Centovalli railway runs to Locarno and is one of the best short train journeys in Europe. MILAN is about an hour and a half by car or two by train with a change.
Getting around: ORTA SAN GIULIO IS ALMOST ENTIRELY PEDESTRIAN. Cars are kept to the car parks above the village and you walk down into it, which means carrying bags on cobbles and a slope. The station, Orta-Miasino, is about a twenty-minute walk from the piazza and is served by slow regional trains from Novara and Domodossola. The lake has a small boat service between Orta, the island and Pella on the far shore, which thins outside summer. A car helps for Maggiore and the mountains and is a nuisance in the village itself.
When to Go
May, June and September. Much of it closes in winter.
A pre-alpine lake climate: summer from June to August at 26 to 29C with afternoon thunderstorms, winter from December to February at 4 to 7C with fog and damp, and mild changeable shoulder seasons. The lake is fed cold and stays cooler than Garda or Trasimeno, reaching about 22C at the surface in August.
MAY AND JUNE ARE THE PICK: the gardens and the hills are green, the camellias and rhododendrons on this side of the Alps flower in spring, the days are long and the village is still quiet. SEPTEMBER is the other, warm and settled with the light turning and almost nobody there.
JULY AND AUGUST bring the Italian holiday trade and the lake is at its busiest, which here means pleasantly full rather than overwhelmed. Afternoon thunderstorms are frequent and arrive fast over the ridge.
WINTER IS THE SEASON TO CHECK BEFORE BOOKING. From November to March the boat service reduces to almost nothing, several hotels and restaurants close, and the fog that settles on these lakes can sit for days. The village is atmospheric and genuinely empty, and you will have limited choice about where to eat.
Is Lake Orta Safe for Women Travelers
Extremely safe. Cobbles, cold water and the walk up are the hazards.
US State Department travel advisory: the Italy advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/italy, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
THE COBBLES AND THE SLOPE ARE THE PRACTICAL RISK, as in most Italian hill villages but concentrated here because the whole settlement is on an incline and the car parks are above it. The stones are rounded, worn and slick in rain, and the walk from the car park down to the piazza with luggage is the moment people turn an ankle. Flat shoes with grip, and a bag you can carry.
THE WATER IS COLD. Orta is alpine-fed and deep for its size, reaching about 143 metres, and the surface warms to around 22C only in high summer while the water a short way down stays far colder. Cold shock on a hot day is the risk rather than current, and there are no lifeguards outside the lidos.
THE SACRO MONTE PATH is a steady climb on a wooded hillside, well made but uneven in places and unlit, so it is a daylight walk rather than an evening one.
Italy is in the EU, so a UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EU European Health Insurance Card gives you state-provided medically necessary care on the same terms as an Italian resident. That means the same ticket, the co-payment Italians make, rather than nothing, and it does not cover repatriation, so travel insurance sits on top of it. Italian public hospitals are good and the emergency department, the pronto soccorso, treats anyone who arrives. Pharmacies, farmacie, are marked with a green cross, are staffed by pharmacists who can advise and dispense for minor problems, and post a rota for nights and Sundays on the door. Tap water is drinkable across the country, including from the public fountains that are common in Italian towns.
On crime there is essentially nothing to report: a very small, prosperous, pedestrian village where the usual Italian caution about bags belongs in Milan rather than here. Leave nothing visible in a car in the upper car parks, which is the only property crime of note.
Socially this is one of the easiest places in Italy to be alone. The village is tiny and safe to walk at any hour, eating alone in the piazza is completely normal, and the visitor mix is quiet, older and largely Italian, German and Swiss. Less English is spoken than at Stresa, which is part of the character.
The Lake Orta Packing List
Shoes with grip for cobbles on a slope
Rounded worn stone, wet frequently, on an incline, with the car parks above the village. This is the single most useful item here. For the Sacro Monte and the hills, waterproof hiking boots and merino wool socks.
Base layers, because a pre-alpine lake evening is cool
The lake sits under the Alps and the evenings drop sharply even after a hot day, and the boat to the island has wind on it. Merino regulates in both directions and keeps working when the afternoon storm catches you. Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is the garment you will wear most days here in any season.
A rain layer that handles a fast storm
A packable rain jacket for women. Summer thunderstorms come over the ridge quickly, the piazza has limited shelter and the island has none at all.
A warm mid layer
A fleece mid layer, for evenings in any month outside July and August, and for the Mottarone cable car, which is markedly colder than the lakeshore.
Sun protection on the water
A wide brim sun hat and sunscreen. The island path, the piazza and the boats have no shade and the water reflects.
Water, and the island note
An insulated water bottle, refillable in the village. Carry it to the island, because there is nowhere there to buy anything at all.
The small things
Swimwear for the small beaches, accepting cold water. Something that covers shoulders and knees for the basilica and the convent church, which is a real requirement rather than a suggestion. A phone torch for the lanes after dark. AND THE TWO PRACTICAL NOTES: bring a bag you can carry down a cobbled slope, and check the boat timetable for the day outside summer, when it thins to very little.
Essential Resources for Women at Lake Orta
Emergency numbers: 112 for all emergencies, the single European number for police, ambulance and fire. 113 for police directly. 1530 for the coastguard, which covers inland water. Coverage is good in the village and patchy on the Sacro Monte and in the hills.
Main hospital or clinic: the nearest emergency department is the Ospedale Castelli in Verbania, about 40 minutes away on the Maggiore side, with the larger Ospedale Maggiore della Carita in Novara about an hour south. Omegna at the lake's north end has a local health facility. Dial 112.
Official health authority: the Ministero della Salute, the Italian health ministry. Carry a UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EU card. There is no hospital on Lake Orta itself, so anything serious means 40 minutes to Verbania or an hour to Novara
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Rome.
Official tourism authority: ENIT, the Italian national tourist board. And with the local tourist office in Orta San Giulio, which holds the boat timetable, the Sacro Monte chapel opening hours and the Isola San Giulio crossing times, all of which change by season
The village is almost entirely pedestrian. Cars stay in the car parks above it, so you walk down on cobbles with your bags.
There is nothing to buy on Isola San Giulio. No cafe, no shop, no water. It is a basilica, an enclosed convent and a single twenty-minute path.
The Sacro Monte is free and is a UNESCO site, twenty chapels on a twenty-minute climb, with the best view of the island at the top.
Much of the lake closes from November to March, with the boat service reduced to almost nothing. Check before booking.
Solo women safety assessment: Lake Orta is one of the easiest places in Italy to travel alone. Orta San Giulio is a pedestrian village of about 1,100 people, safe to walk at any hour, where eating alone in Piazza Motta is completely normal and the visitor mix is quiet, older and largely Italian, German and Swiss; less English is spoken than at Stresa over the hill, which is part of the character rather than a problem. Crime is essentially absent and the usual Italian caution about bags belongs in Milan, with the only property risk being a car left visibly loaded in the upper car parks. The hazards are physical. THE COBBLES AND THE SLOPE COME FIRST, because the whole village is built on an incline with the car parks above it, the stones are rounded and worn smooth and genuinely slick in rain, and the walk down with luggage is where ankles turn, so flat shoes with grip and a bag you can carry matter more than anything else packed. THE WATER IS SECOND AND IS COLD: Orta is alpine-fed and 143 metres deep, the surface reaches only about 22C in high summer while the water below stays far colder, so the risk is cold shock rather than current, and there are no lifeguards outside the lidos. Third, the Sacro Monte path is a well-made but uneven wooded climb with no lighting, so it is a daylight walk.
Reading On
For the country-level picture, start with the Italy travel guide for women. For the larger lake over the ridge, which pairs with this one in a single trip, see the Lake Maggiore packing list. For why merino rather than cotton when an afternoon storm arrives over the hill, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
