Lake Orta is small enough to walk around — roughly 40 kilometres for the full circuit, which is a long but perfectly feasible day, or a comfortable two days if you split it. That fact appears in every guidebook. What the guidebooks are less good at is telling you that the full loop is rarely the best use of a day here, because the finest walking is vertical rather than horizontal: it is the paths that climb away from the water and give you the lake all at once.
The full loop, honestly assessed
Doing the complete circuit means about 40 km with a fair amount of up and down, and stretches where the route runs along or beside the road rather than through woods. It is a satisfying thing to have done. It is not, section for section, the most beautiful walking on the lake.
If you want it, split it over two days with a night on the far shore, and walk it in spring or autumn — in August the low sections are hot and shadeless.
Sacro Monte: twenty minutes, the best return on effort
Straight up from the village on a paved and cobbled road, with steps in places. Twenty minutes gets you into a wood full of twenty seventeenth-century chapels and, more to the point here, to a series of openings where the whole lake appears below you with the island in the middle.
This is the walk to do if you only do one. It is also the one that works with children and with people who do not think of themselves as walkers.
Madonna del Sasso: the widest view there is
On the western shore, a church sits on a rock spur high above the water, and the terrace in front of it gives the single most complete view of Lake Orta — both shores, the island, the mountains closing the north end. It is the view at the top of this page.
You can drive most of the way up and walk the last stretch, or climb from the lake for a proper half-day. Either way, go in clear weather: the whole point is the distance you can see.
The shore paths
North and south of Orta San Giulio, paths run close to the water, in and out of gardens and small bays, connecting the lakeside villages. They are flat, shaded and easy, and they are what you want on a hot afternoon or with a dog. You can walk out for an hour, have lunch somewhere, and come back by boat.
The hills behind
Above the eastern shore the country opens into a plateau of small villages, chestnut woods and old farm tracks — the Anello di Ameno, marked as Il Quadrifoglio, links several of them in loops that can be shortened or extended. It is quieter than the lakeside, and in autumn it is the best walking in the area.
Practical notes
- Surface: much of it is cobbled or stone-paved, not soft trail. Wet stone is genuinely slippery — proper shoes, not trainers with worn soles.
- Season: spring and autumn are better than summer for anything with a climb. See Lake Orta in autumn.
- Water: the villages have fountains, but the higher routes do not. Carry it.
- Getting back: boats connect the villages, so you can walk one way and sail the other. Check the timetable first, especially out of season.
Starting from the door
One advantage of staying on the lake rather than above it: the walks start where you are. From Villa Volpe the shore path and the village are a few minutes on foot, and the foot of the Sacro Monte hill not much further — you can be climbing before the first coach party has parked. And when you come back down, the lake is three metres from the door.
For the water-based side of the outdoors — swimming, boats, wakeboarding — see our guide to outdoor activities on Lake Orta.