Lake Orta

A short drive east from Valsesia is a lake that’s been described as one of Italy’s best-kept secrets.

Lake Orta is smaller than its ‘big three’ northern lakes neighbours (Maggiore, Como and Garda), and is certainly less well-known. In fact, some say if you’re looking for an authentic ‘Italian lakes’ experience, Lago d’Orta is the place to be.

On the day of our visit the lake was dazzling, all sparkling blue water surrounded by forests of green. Over lunch in the little square of an impossibly pretty village, we watched sailboats gliding across the lake. It was one of those ‘pinch-yourself-to-confirm-it’s-real’ kind of days.

Turns out it was … but could we just keep that between ourselves?

Beautiful Lake Orta

Today the lake is one of the cleanest in Europe, but it wasn't always so

By the 1960's Lake Orta had been so badly polluted by industrial waste nothing could live in it; it took 30 years of effort to repair the damage

Orta San Guilio, one of the towns dotted around the shores of the lake and the main square, Piazza Motta

The town's weekly market has been held in this square since 1228

Orta's only island, Isola San Giulio, is just 5 minutes away by ferry

Also known as the 'Island of Silence', most of Isola San Giulio's inhabitants are Benedictine nuns

About 70 women from the enclosed order live here; the island's 'Walk of Silence and Meditation' passes by their convent

Messages posted along the path were written by Anna Maria Cànopi, scholar, author and the convent's abbess (who's now 87 years old)

The other main building on the island is the Basilica di San Guilio

The basilica's many frescoes date from the 14th to the 19th centuries

On the left you can also see the medieval pulpit carved from black marble

Back on shore, overlooking the lake is another of the region's Sacri Monti (Sacred Mounts)

Sacro Monte di Orta is dedicated to St Francis of Assisi

20 chapels contain hundreds of painted statues telling stories of the life of the saint

And on the western shore, sitting high above the lake atop a huge granite outcrop, is the Santuary of Madonna del Sasso

The complex comprises the parish house, the bell tower and the 'new' church which was completed in 1738

The church contains many important paintings by the artist Lorenzo Peracino who was born in Valsesia (1710-1789)

But it's Peracino's incredible trompe l'oeil work to create the impression of a dome where none actually exists that is most astonishing

Don't tell anyone, but we really loved Lake Orta 🙂