[2025]
[Sunday 27 July 2025]
Signature Tour: Lake Maggiore, Orta and the Matterhorn: Lake Orta
Illustration from the Flipbook
According to Riviera Travel “My account”:
- Discover Northern Italy’s hidden gem, Lake Orta, on a visit to Orta San Giulio.
On our final day we experience one of the tour’s real highlights. Orta is probably the prettiest of the Italian lakes, yet one of the least well-known. You’ll understand why it’s regarded as something of a hidden gem, as there’s an exceptional atmospheric charm that’s immediately discernible. Surrounded on three sides by deep blue water, the romantic lakeside village of Orta San Giulio has so far avoided the tourist hordes. Its pebble-studded lanes and stepped alleys – lined with a myriad traditional food shops selling the gorgeous produce for which Italy is renowned – lead down to the shore and a main square. You’ll adore the village’s medieval architecture of picturesque buildings with shuttered windows in typically Italian shades of ochre, magenta and light blue, which create a kaleidoscope of
colour.
A boat trip takes you to the island of San Giulio, which features an enchanting basilica with an opulent interior containing a spectacular carved black marble pulpit, wonderfully preserved frescoes and a vertebra which, according to legend, belonged to a dragon.
Flipbook:
- Today, you will leave Lake Maggiore to visit the beautiful Lake Orta. The coach will take you to the lovely village of Pella where you will board the ferry to visit the Island of San Giulio. There, you will have time to explore the island at your leisure, maybe visiting San Giulio’s Basilica, with its perfectly preserved 14th century biblical frescos.
The ferry will then take you to the charming lakeside resort of Orta San Giulio. This is a “must see”; a haven from mass tourism, with its myriad of traditional food shops, its pebble-studded lanes and stepped alleys that takes you down to the lakeshore and the main square. The ferry will then take you back to Pella, where you will rejoin the coach to return to the hotel.
… The alarm clock sounded (07:00), and
Janet got up ¼-hour later (07:15).… I occupied the bathroom after Janet vacated it;… shaved and showered. We went down for breakfast; I had the end of a crusty, dark baguette with cheese, a flat peach, and coffee. We went back to the room to get what we’d need for going out, and I took my medications (09:00). We noticed that the swifts were back, wheeling and making their noise; somehow, they’d been absent for the past two days. Kate’s posted itinerary said “Depart 09:00” for today; but yesterday, she’d told us to make that 9.30am. We went down to the lobby (09:20). Kate told us the three departure times from the hotel for flights home tomorrow. So for ours, I noted down “06:35 for Manchester”, and added “06:00 breakfast”. She had posted (or would be posting) the details in the glass cabinet in the lobby where the daily itinerary had been posted. When we boarded the coach, our name card was only a few rows from the front, on the right side. And so we were off (09:00). “It was already hot and sunny,”
Janet noted.
Route from Stresa to Pella, plotted using Google Maps
[Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Monday 28 July 2025 09:31:56
En route to Pella: in Piazza Marconi, Stresa, just after setting out
En route, we had a brief stop to see the Colossus of San Carlo Borromeo. We’d heard much about the Italian noble family of Borromeo during this holiday, and had visited two of their stately homes (as they would be called in the UK). Until then, I’d never heard of the Borromeo family. I’d heard of the Borgias (though that family was Spanish in origin) and of the Medicis, but not of the House of Borromeo. They started as merchants in San Miniato around 1300 and became bankers in Milan after 1370. Vitaliano de’ Vitaliani, who acquired the name of Borromeo from his uncle Giovanni, became the count of Arona in 1445. His descendants played important rôles in the politics of the Duchy of Milan and as cardinals in the Catholic Counter-Reformation. One of the latter was Carlo (1538–1584), who was canonised by Pope Paul V in 1610. In his honour, his cousin Cardinal Federico Borromeo commissioned a massive copper statue, designed by Giovanni Battista Crespi, which was erected between 1614 and 1698. It was then the tallest in the world that could be visited inside, only surpassed in 1886 by the Statue of Liberty.
Monday 28 July 2025 10:02:32
En route to Pella: Colossus of San Carlo Borromeo, near Arona
Monday 28 July 2025 10:03:42
En route to Pella: Colossus of San Carlo Borromeo, near Arona
One thing, not visible to the naked eye from my standpoint, and only realised back at home when I studied the photograph below, was that Carlo Borromeo had “designer stubble”!
Monday 28 July 2025 10:03:56
En route to Pella: Colossus of San Carlo Borromeo, near Arona
Monday 28 July 2025 10:04:28
En route to Pella: Colossus of San Carlo Borromeo, near Arona
“We arrived in Pella,” Janet wrote: “I was feeling very queasy due to lack of sleep, but felt better once off the coach.” We walked from where the coach stopped, and proceeded along Via Lungolago, to Piazza Motta, where there was a landing stage and where we boarded the boat;
cf. photos “14:42:42” to “14:44:50”, taken on the walk back to the coach from the landing stage. There was nowhere to have a pee, though; and the feeling of need to “go” was exacerbated by not knowing how long it would be till we’d arrive at the boat’s destination. But
Janet had a solution to the problem. “We walked to where we boarded the boat,” she wrote, “after we’d done what I often do: went in a bar for a pee and proffered €2. Others followed suit.”
According to the Flipbook, “The coach will take you to the lovely village of Pella where you will board the ferry to visit the Island of San Giulio.… The ferry will then take you to the charming lakeside resort of Orta San Giulio.” But, in fact, the boat took us first to Orta San Giulio, and it was a second boat trip that took us to Isola San Giulio.
Monday 28 July 2025 11:07:44
Piazza Motta, Pella
Monday 28 July 2025 11:07:44 (detail)
War memorial in Piazza Motta, Pella
Positions of Pella, Orta San Giulio and Isola San Giulio, courtesy of OpenStreetMap
[Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Monday 28 July 2025 11:08:04
Boarding a boat from Piazza Motta, Pella, to Orta San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 11:09:06
Aboard the boat to Orta San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 11:09:36
Aboard the boat to Orta San Giulio: looking back at Pella
Monday 28 July 2025 11:13:36
Aboard the boat to Orta San Giulio: passing Isola San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 11:13:36 (detail)
Aboard the boat to Orta San Giulio: passing Isola San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 11:14:40
Aboard the boat to Orta San Giulio: passing Isola San Giulio
Kate had earlier given out maps of Orta San Giulio, and either had made or now made suggestions about what one could do there. She told us about the Sacro Monte di Orta. “Sacro Monte” (“Sacred Mountain”) in Italian refers to a complex of chapels built on a hill for pilgrimage and worship. The Sacro Monte di Orta (shown on the map in dark yellow with dark red text) consists of 20 such chapels built between the late 16th and 17th centuries. They depict scenes from the life of St. Francis of Assisi, told through detailed frescoes and terracotta sculptures. This dedication to a single saint makes it different from other Sacri Monti. I think Kate said that alternatively one could take a coastal path around the promontory.
We did neither of these things. “We wanted a relaxed, non-active day,”
Janet wrote.
Map of Orta San Giulio
[Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Monday 28 July 2025 11:18:32
Disembarking at Orta San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 11:19:20
Piazza Mario Motta, Orta San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 11:19:28
Piazza Mario Motta, Orta San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 11:21:40
Palazzo della Comunità, Piazza Mario Motta, Orta San Giulio
We went first to the establishment immediately to the north of where we’d disembarked (left in the above photo), where we sat in the shade of an umbrella on the terrace overlooking the lake. I had a
Lemon Soda and Janet a Coke Zero.
Monday 28 July 2025 11:29:50
View of Isola San Giulio from the terrace of Ristorante Venus, Piazza Mario Motta 50, Orta San Giulio
From placing our order, it took a long time for us to be served.
Monday 28 July 2025 11:39:26
Refreshments on the terrace of Ristorante Venus, Piazza Mario Motta 50, Orta San Giulio
We wanted to find somewhere for lunch. We wandered northwards along Piazza Ragazzoni. There were a number of establishments, but none appealed. Finally, it was near the far end of Piazza Mario Motta that we made our choice. I’d been drinking
Aperol Spritz, and wondered how a Campari Spritz would compare to it. It was similar, though a little more bitter. That was my aperitivo. To go with the food I had another of those Belgian-style red ales, while
Janet had Coke Zero.
Monday 28 July 2025 12:40:28
Lunch at La Piazzetta, Piazza Mario Motta 12, Orta San Giulio
In essence, I had steak and chips (“Patate ‘Country’”). The steak was medium grilled and cut in pieces (“Tagliata”).
Monday 28 July 2025 12:44:48
Lunch at La Piazzetta, Piazza Mario Motta 12, Orta San Giulio
Janet had (as she wrote) “a salad of tuna, grated carrot, croutons, black olives, mixed leaves, tomatoes and corn, with no dressing.” (The bill said, “senza salsa”; we already knew “sin salsa” from ordering at a restaurant in Granada where English was not
spoken.)[i]
- [i] 5 September 2017
Monday 28 July 2025 12:45:02
Lunch at La Piazzetta, Piazza Mario Motta 12, Orta San Giulio
We both had coffee (Janet’s was decaffeinated), and I finished with a generous tot of grappa.
Monday 28 July 2025 13:27:26
Lunch at La Piazzetta, Piazza Mario Motta 12, Orta San Giulio
My phone rang unexpectedly: it was G— B—, wanting to confirm flight details (13:34–13:36). I didn’t have them to hand.
Monday 28 July 2025 13:41:28
German-style Flaschspüler toilet, with a poop-inspection shelf, at La Piazzetta, Piazza Mario Motta 12, Orta San Giulio
It was almost the time (i.e. 13:45) we’d been told to meet for the boat to Isola San Giulio, but we only had a few yards to walk along the piazza to join the others, so we weren’t late.
Monday 28 July 2025 13:51:26
Boarding the boat from Orta San Giulio to Isola San Giulio
While we were on board, and to just after we went ashore, there was an exchange of text messages with
G— B—:
13:53
Sorted, John. I think it’s EJU1986.
13:58
Yes, G—, we have it as EZY1986:[ii] Terminal 1, landing 13:15.
13:59
EZY1986
13:59
Sorry, 12:15.
14:00
OK mate, thanks for that. I’ll explain tomorrow. See you then. Thanks G—.
14:01
[ii] Riviera Travel had the flight number as “EZY1986”; the
easyJet boarding passes had it as “EJU1986”. According to the
easyJet website:
When you book your flight with us, your flight booking is issued by easyJet Airline Company Limited. There are three operating airlines in the easyJet group all of which offer the same service on board and throughout your journey. Your flight will normally be operated by:
- easyJet UK Limited if your flight number begins EZY
- easyJet Europe Airline GmbH if your flight number begins EJU
- easyJet Switzerland S.A. if your flight number begins EZS
Monday 28 July 2025 13:56:12
Views from the boat of Isola San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 13:56:18
Views from the boat of Isola San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 13:57:00
Views from the boat of Isola San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 13:57:14
Approaching the landing-stage, Isola San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 13:59:08
Disembarking on Isola San Giulio
We visited the Basilica of Saint Julius. Julius and Julian, Kate told us, were 4th-century brothers who travelled in Italy, spreading the Christian faith and building churches. They are credited with building 100 churches, with this one being the hundredth. Or perhaps Julian stayed with the 99th in Gozzano, and Julius built the 100th. According to legend, Julius couldn’t find any boatman who were willing to ferry him across, afraid as they all were of the terrible serpents and dragon that infested the island. Undeterred, Julius spread his cloak on the waters and used his staff to row to the island, where he slew the dragon and serpents. In the basilica, a large vertebra is kept in the sacristy, believed to be from the defeated dragon. (I forgot to look for this when we were in there.)
Monday 28 July 2025 14:00:14
Isola San Giulio: about to enter the door ahead,—
Monday 28 July 2025 14:01:14
—to ascend two flights of steps to the Basilica di San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 14:04:14
—to ascend two flights of steps to the Basilica di San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 14:05:11
Basilica di San Giulio, Isola San Giulio: pulpit of black serpentine marble quarried from the nearby town of Oira
Monday 28 July 2025 14:05:35
Basilica di San Giulio, Isola San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 14:06:13
Basilica di San Giulio, Isola San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 14:06:44
Basilica di San Giulio, Isola San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 14:07:40
Basilica di San Giulio, Isola San Giulio: another view of the black serpentine marble pulpit
Monday 28 July 2025 14:08:21
Basilica di San Giulio, Isola San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 14:09:34
Basilica di San Giulio, Isola San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 14:10:39
Basilica di San Giulio, Isola San Giulio
Janet pointed out to me a fresco, which she said was a depiction of hell and which she found rather disturbing. Then I noticed that the one in it to whom torments were being applied had a halo, so I supposed that it must be purgatory. The truth, which I only discovered after we’d returned home, was that it depicted St. Lawrence, in an attitude of prayerful resignation, being martyred by cooking on a grill.
Monday 28 July 2025 14:12:41
Basilica di San Giulio, Isola San Giulio: Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, fresco, second half of the 14th century
Monday 28 July 2025 14:14:23
Basilica di San Giulio, Isola San Giulio: descending to the crypt
Monday 28 July 2025 14:15:36
Basilica di San Giulio, Isola San Giulio: reliquary in the crypt, containing the remains of Saint Julius
Monday 28 July 2025 14:16:26
Basilica di San Giulio, Isola San Giulio: reliquary in the crypt, containing the remains of Saint Julius
Monday 28 July 2025 14:16:50
Basilica di San Giulio, Isola San Giulio: crypt
Monday 28 July 2025 14:17:32
Basilica di San Giulio, Isola San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 14:19:18
Basilica di San Giulio, Isola San Giulio
On leaving the basilica, we descended the upper one of the two flights of stairs. To the left of the landing, was an alley with public toilets along it. So we availed ourselves of those, before returning down the shorter second flight of stairs.
Monday 28 July 2025 14:20:38
Descending from Basilica di San Giulio, Isola San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 14:26:48
View north from the south-westerly corner of Isola San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 14:27:10
View west from the south-westerly corner of Isola San Giulio: Pella
Monday 28 July 2025 14:27:38
The boat to Pella at the landing stage, Isola San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 14:28:02
Landing stage, Isola San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 14:28:44
Another view north from there, Isola San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 14:31:08
The boat to Pella at the landing stage, Isola San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 14:33:16
Boarding the boat to Pella from Isola San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 14:34:24
Seen from the boat to Pella from Isola San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 14:42:00
Disembarking from the boat at Pella
Monday 28 July 2025 14:42:42
Going ashore from the boat at Pella
Monday 28 July 2025 14:43:02
Looking west at the town of Pella
After disembarking at Pella, we proceeded back along Via Lungolago to rejoin the coach.
Monday 28 July 2025 14:44:08
Near the west end of Piazza Motta, Pella
Monday 28 July 2025 14:44:50
Proceeding more or less south-westwards on Via Lungolago, Pella
Monday 28 July 2025 14:46:14
View south-southwest from Pella: Sanctuary of Madonna del Sasso
Monday 28 July 2025 14:46:14 (detail)
View south-southwest from Pella: Sanctuary of Madonna del Sasso
Route from Pella to Stresa, plotted using Google Maps
[Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Either on the way there or on the way back, Kate pointed out the many factories producing high-quality, stylish
rubinetterie (taps and associated fittings and fixtures) in the area.
On the way back we passed a very Moorish-looking mansion. It was commissioned in 1879 by wealthy textile entrepreneur Cristoforo Benigno Crespi as his family holiday home; he wanted it to look like buildings he had seen on business trips to the Middle East. Since the late 1980s it has been a hotel.
Monday 28 July 2025 15:14:16
En route back to Stresa: Villa Crespi, Orta San Giulio
Monday 28 July 2025 15:28:24
En route back to Stresa: in Via Giuseppe Mazzini, Omegna
Monday 28 July 2025 15:29:38
En route back to Stresa: in Via E. de Amicis, Omegna, looking ahead
Monday 28 July 2025 15:30:04
En route back to Stresa: in Via E. de Amicis, Omegna, looking to the right
We arrived back at the hotel, ca.4pm. We went for a pee in the lobby toilets—
Monday 28 July 2025 16:04:14
Cabinets in the corridor from the lobby, Regina Palace Hotel, Stresa
Monday 28 July 2025 16:04:56
Grotesque jugs in one of the cabinets in the corridor from the lobby, Regina Palace Hotel, Stresa
—before going off to the Carrefour supermarket.
Janet wrote: ”I got two cans of sugar-free Orange Soda, two peaches, black grapes and a banana. [John] got a sandwich, Pringles, two peaches, a Toblerone, a ½-litre carton of red wine and a 1-litre carton of blood orange drink —
sixteen euros! [i.e. very inexpensive.]”
I photographed Kate’s information on departures tomorrow—
Monday 28 July 2025 16:37:35
Arrangements for tomorrow’s departures, posted by Kate, Regina Palace Hotel, Stresa
—on the way back up to our room.
Monday 28 July 2025 16:47:47
Eating in our room, Regina Palace Hotel, Stresa
“Back in the room,” Janet continued, “I did most of the packing, washed my hair, sorted my bits and pieces, and was in bed at
ca.8.00pm. So tired! Pick-up [tomorrow is at] 6.35am, so [I] must be up
ca.3.30am! [John] was up for a while doing his stuff. Excellent last day!”
I ate and drank, then lay down and slept till just before 19:30. I poured away what was left undrunk of the orange drink and the wine.
Janet was getting ready for bed. I copied 68 photos from the camera’s SD card (18:40–18:41
BST),[iii] but 15 were from from 25 July 2025, so I deleted these (19:45 CEST). I connected the phone to the computer with a USB cable, and copied 17 photos (18:52
BST).[iv] I deleted one of the photos taken with the camera (19:56 CEST). I looked at today’s photos using
Windows Photo Viewer. Solitaire (20:01–20:31): lost 9; won 1; lost 1. Shut down the computer (20:31–20:32); cleaned teeth; and went to bed (20:45).
- [iii] 18:40–18:41: Those were the times shown in
File Explorer on the computer. As I’ve mentioned before, I was unable to change the time zone on it.
[iv] 18:52: This was the time shown in File Explorer on the computer.
[Tuesday 29 July 2025]
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