We awoke to a beautiful day in Orta on Wednesday. After a thunderstorm the night before, it was so great to see blue sky and sun the weather was in the mid-70s throughout the day. I wish our friends and family and Georgia and Tennessee could get a day like this soon.
We had an optional walk up another mountain to see another church, but opted to skip that and explore Orta instead. Plenty of churches here to see.
We had a lazy morning. Betsy caught up on a lot of work and I reviewed our plans for the next part of our trip.
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Our Terrace |
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The door to our room on the left and our windows on the right. That’s our own private porch. |
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We walked outside and learned it was Market Day. We didn’t look around much because we don’t have an inch of space to pack anything. Hopefully that changes today.
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We found a great seat at Piccolo Bar on the piazza and had lunch. Even though we skipped breakfast, we weren’t that hungry so we both had a salad and then shared a pizza of just cheese and onions…lots of onions. Then we sat and watched the world go by for a while.
A group of older women, in their 80s, were seated at our right and some others came and joined them. They needed help moving chairs around, so we did that for them. After they had finished their coffee and chatting and were leaving, one who spoke English stopped by our table to thank us. Betsy said it seemed they had been friends for a long time, and she said they had known each other since they were knee-high. There were six of them and it was nice to watch them walk away through the piazza together. The woman who spoke to us has a house here and one in Venice.
We also saw something less pleasant. A family of three was walking around a bit in the market area and then the parents stopped to read a posted menu at the cafe. The child, maybe 6 years old, slipped away from them and went over to some tables displaying jewelry made of stones. We watched as looked around carefully and then slipped his hand up on the corner of the table and took one of the necklaces and placed it in his pocket. His parents didn’t see and neither did the vendor.
We didn’t call any attention to it, either. That seemed like a bad idea in a foreign country over an incident involving a small child. But, it was definitely a surprising thing to see play out in front of us.
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This is where we had lunch |
After lunch we took one of these private boats over to Isola Orta San Giulio, a small island in Lake Orta. It was quiet…it seemed mostly closed for the season, if anything is there at all. It was hard to tell. There was one souvenir place open, but other places were boarded up for the winter. Still, it was pretty and peaceful and the basilica was impressive.
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Leaving the shore heading to the island. |
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| Approaching the island |
Below are some scenes from the island. There were signs posted throughout the island about the importance of silence and some other thoughts.
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Leaving the island and headed back to shore |
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Walking up to a church in Orta |
We walked to a fancy hotel, S. Rocco, on the water for a cocktail. It was a really nice atmosphere. And again, every time you order cocktails, they bring snacks of potato chips. But at this place, they also brought two little salmon sandwiches, two little BBQ sliders (not really, but that seemed like what they were), two dollops of burrata, a bowl of olives and a bowl of nuts. If we had eaten all of that we could have skipped dinner. But we wanted to try some more local food, so we refrained from eating it all. Just a few bites.
We found a cute little restaurant tucked back inside a building in a small open courtyard. It was so comfortable and quaint. Except for the two American women talking loudly about their own travel experiences (not us), it was perfect.
Betsy was smart and ordered a light fish dish. I ordered lasagna. It was good, but too heavy.
We were not out late. After dinner, back home to organize our packing to leave.
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Staircase to our room |
Now the trip takes a big turn. We have a taxi picking us up in 30 minutes (8 a.m. our time) to take us to Milan to pick up a car and start our drive south. We hope to stop in Parma, Modena and then make our way to Orvieto, where we have a reservation for the night. There’s always some excitement and nervousness when the walking holiday ends (which has been handled by the company we booked with) and we start on our own adventure. Plus, driving in a foreign country comes with its own trepidation.
We’re off!
Kim & Betsy 
