17 - You Orta read this one

Having had a nice few relaxing days around Lake Garda, we decided to leave the final touristy town to the day of our departure. The town of Sirmione lies at the south of lake Garda on a peninsula into the lake, en-route to our next destination, Lake Orta.

This would have worked out perfectly had the Roman town planners in the 4th century AD had the foresight to include ample parking in their design. We were swiftly waved on from the marked Car Park on the map that was very much “Completo” and forced to battle it out for street parking around the oval loop before you enter the town, resembling a rather farcical game of musical chairs. Cars moved slowly to create a gap on the off chance that the tourist walking down the sidewalk was miraculously going to get his car key out and vacate his space that he could nip into. We spent no less than an hour trying to find a spot by driving round an ever increasing loop to include some of the car parks located away from the town centre. I finally spotted a man walking with a key in his hand and asked where he was parked. We followed him and bagged our spot around 3km or 30 minutes walk from where we actually wanted to be. We were also met with some steep parking fees but by this point were so ecstatic to have found a spot that we didn’t care. Sirmione itself was pretty impressive. Old narrow streets, surrounded by the clear waters of Garda with great views. It’s a shame we didn’t stay very long to see more of it because our parking meter only had enough time to cover the walk to and from the car.

Our next stop was to be our final Italian destination and another of the beautiful lakes in the Northern part of the country. Lake Orta is a much smaller and lesser known than it’s neighbours of Lake Maggiore, Como or Garda, resulting in a very different feel and atmosphere to some of the more developed towns we visited. We stayed in Orta San Giuilo, a very quaint old town jutting into Lake Orta, where our experiences across the 3 nights can be split, Clint Eastwood style, into the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

The Good:

Our meal on the final night at La Motta was one of the best meals we’ve had on the trip so far.
The lake is painfully picturesque. To me, no other place seemed as magical as when we were sat in the old town square looking out to the Isola at sunset.
I beat Melissa at Mini Golf. Comfortably.

The Bad:

Our meal out on the second night at Cafe des Artes was possibly the worst we’ve had all trip. Who knew that when they mention chicken wings and “sauce” that sauce actually refers to some kind of weird curry mixture. Serves me right deviating from the tried and tested pizza/pasta options I suppose.
The ferry that we took to Omegna and to the Isola was very underwhelming. So much so that when we got to Omegna, we waited for the crew to turn the boat around and got on the next available one back.
There is very little to do in Orta, other than:

- The Isola in the middle of the lake is picturesque but 30 minutes there is more that enough to follow the path laden with some inspiring quotes about peace and silence around the island.

- The collection of old chapels that sit on top of the hill and offer a lovely view of the lake.

- The mini golf course that needs a lot of work doing to it. That Melissa agreed to play me at mini golf is testament itself to how little else there was to see.

The Ugly:

As you will have read in Melissa’s blog from Garda, we enjoyed a delightful pizza that was hand served by a waiter that may or may not have been suffering from bird flu. Sadly, the cliff hanger that Melissa left in her blog post doesn’t have an unexpected twist, we both came down with the sniffles in Orta and forever cursed the coughing waiter at that pizzeria the week earlier.

So, with Orta, we come to the end of our Italian adventure. I enjoyed Orta San Giulio. I found the town to be quite enchanting and enjoyed hopping from bar to bar enjoying the aperotivos on offer. Melissa was less enthralled but I’ll chalk that down to her being sour at me beating her at mini golf.

J & M