This elegant apartment in a stunning villa makes for a wonderful holiday. Tiled and wooden floors, granite staircase, floor to ceiling windows, beautiful furniture and breathtaking views of the lake and Orta. The garden has a terrace, and perfect seating and viewing area on the boathouse, which is also a great diving/jumping off point into the clear deep water. We felt lucky to have the place to ourselves for 2 weeks (nobody stayed in the first floor apartment during our break). The villa is a 2 minute stroll to the town which has restaurants, shops and wine bars, and you can get a water taxi to the island or other lake towns from the main square. Orta SAN Giulio is a charming town with winding streets, quirky shops, and its Sacre Monte is stunning.
The three bedrooms comfortably accommodate 6 people, and the apartment is very spacious and clean. A wide range of cooking equipment is provided, including BBQ. There are lots of books, Wi-fi is good, and Stefano kindly let us use his paddle board on the lake.
We swam every day - the lake is clear, warm and calm.
The apartment provides a perfect base from which to explore the region, Maggiore and Borromean Islands are about 40 minutes drive, Varallo with its picturesque streets and historic Sacre Monte well worth a visit, a little under an hour away. Mottorone’s Alpyland is half an hour away and great fun. The view of the lake from the Madonna Del Sasso opposite the house is not to be missed. And this is also magnificent walking and cycling country.
You can also easily reach Milan and Turin however the lure of the lake proved impossible to resist so we didn’t visit those cities.
Stefano is an exemplary host, patient with queries before the holiday, and helped us book restaurants when we arrived. Always quick to respond, but not at all intrusive and we felt privileged to be able to make his wonderful house our home for two weeks.
This is a magical place to be, can’t recommend it highly enough.