Author: Italian Tours

12 Aug WHO WAS AUGUSTUS AND WHY IS AUGUST CALLED AUGUST?

Posted at 04:57h in Destinations, Travel Tips by Italian Tours

Image of the Ara Pacis (above) by Rabax63, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Since 1582 our daily lives have been regulated by the Gregorian calendar, a solar dating system that counts our lives in days, months and years. The origin of this calendar goes back much further than this, to ancient Roman times, when society operated under a ten month system. Some months such as marzo were named after gods, while others were simply numbers.

August was originally known as sextilla, the sixth. But in 8BCE the emperor Augustus renamed the month after himself. As you do!!

So who was Augustus and what is his story?

Augustus was a noble Roman, born Gaius Octavian, and adoSpted by his great uncle, Julius Caesar. As a result he changed his name to Gaius Julius Caesar.

Adoption of heirs was common among upper class families in ancient Rome. Romans were very concerned about succession and family legacy and if there was no male heir, it was a common practice to adopt young male family members so that the family name, assets and status could survive.

Julius Caesar intended his adopted son to inherit the leadership but fate intervened. Acting in response to Caesar’s autocratic approach and penchant for radical change, and indeed fearful that he would appoint himself king of Rome, a dissident group of senators carried out the now notorious assassination of their leader, scuttling Gaius’ chances of inheriting the leadership role. In response Gaius joined forces with Mark Antony to fight and defeat Caesar’s assassins in a bloody civil war.

The senate accepted that Rome would thrive under the leadership of Augustus as a single ruler. He was given the title Augustus, meaning the venerable one. His appointment was consecrated by the auguri , a religious group of mystics whose role was to observe and interpret the signs (usually the behaviour of birds) to determine the approval of the gods for any proposed action. This meant that not only was he emperor, but he was also the head priest, and a god.

In English august means a respected, impressive, magnificent, honourable, exalted type of person. So what was so impressive about the emperor Augustus?

Statue of Augustus from the Villa of Livia near Rome
Image by Sailko, CC BY-SA 3.0 and found on Wikimedia Commons

Augustus was first and foremost an astute politician. He had clearly observed and learned from the downfall of his adoptive father Julius Caesar and set out to promote improvement of the status quo without forcing radical change.

His program of improving existing systems of civic government and management resulted in marked improvements to the daily lives of Romans.

He introduced the concept of vigili with the Vigiles Urbani, literally the Watchmen of the City. They were the first urban police and fire fighting forces, and interestingly their name lives on in the vigili urbani, the town police, and the vigili del fuoco, the firefighters in Italy today.

He established the cursus publicus, Rome’s first postal and official transportation service, which conveyed messages, officials and tax revenue between the provinces and Rome. The system involved teams of animals, wagons and drivers moving along routes that connected the various parts of the empire, requisitioning facilities from local communities as they went.

As a clever politician Augustus was also aware of the power politics underlying the gladiatorial games. Under Julius Caesar’s rule, the spending on gladiatorial games had become exorbitant as the elite vied with each other to sponsor more and more extravagant events in order to win prestige and political power. Augustus stepped in to curb this excess, placing limits on both private and public spending and tying the games to the state sponsored imperial religious cult, which of course further strengthened public recognition of the his own position.

Augustus was also interested in the fine arts, and state sponsored artists, writers and philosophers joined the ranks of those surrounding him. He appointed an advisor called Clinio Mecenate whose role was to introduce the best of these people into this circle; and we can thank Mecenate for ‘discovering’ the likes of Horace and Virgil! On top of his interest in the arts, he also completed a massive programme of civic works including the Ara Pacis, the Temple fo Caesar, the Forum of Augustus and the Baths of Agrippa.

Although Augustus was a politician rather than an active fighter, the Roman Empire doubled during his reign. Whether you regard him as the first of the ‘strong men’ or as a model for subsequent politicians, there’s no doubting his achievements. ‘I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble,’ he said. Under Augustus, Rome saw the end of a republic and the beginning of an empire, the end of internal warring and the onset of a long period of social stability and peace, known as the pax romana.

Fireworks for the Festa del Redentore Venezia

14 Jul FESTA DEL REDENTORE – A FESTIVAL OF THANKSGIVING

Posted at 01:31h in Destinations, Travel Tips by Italian Tours

Fireworks and celebrations in the street, a thanksgiving mass and a flotilla of Venetian barges – no, this is not a celebration of Italy’s win in the 2021 Euro Cup this past week but something more ancient and arguably even more important.

This weekend Venetians will celebrate the Festa del Redentore, the Feast of the Redeemer, an annual event that gives thanks to the Madonna for the city’s redemption from the plague of 1575-1577.

This major plague decimated the population of Venice, with an estimated death toll of around 55,000 people, about a third of the city’s population. The brilliant Venetian painter Tiziano (Titian) was just one of those who died. Desperate for an end to his people’s suffering, Doge Alvise I Mocenigo promised the Madonna that he would build a church as an offering and make an annual thanksgiving if she would rid the city of the disease.

The doge’s prayer was answered and the city delivered from the plague. The Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio was promptly commissioned to build Il Redentore as a votive offering on the island of Giudecca across the lagoon from the main island. Every year since, on the third weekend of July, Venice has honoured the doge’s promise, with Venetians and visitors alike gathering to celebrate the end of the pestilence.

Main image (above) by Marco Chilese on Unsplash

The Chiesa del Redentore on Giudecca
Image by Luukas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Those who have spent time in Venice may be familiar with the vaporetto stop called Zattere, where you board the vaporetto that will take you across to Giudecca. Zattere literally means ‘pontoon’ and it refers to the pontoon bridge that was set up for the grateful inhabitants to walk across from the main island to visit Il Redentore. The bridge is erected every year and its official opening signals the beginning of the festival, which goes on to celebrate the city’s deliverance with a huge fireworks display, a regatta of traditional boats along the Giudecca canal and a holy mass at Il Redentore.

Venetians have maintained this important annual festival for over 400 years with a single exception: ironically the event was cancelled in 2020 because of the Covid19 epidemic. We join with all Italians in welcoming the return of the Festa del Redentore this year in anticipation of a brighter future in the months to come.

The pontoon bridge linking Zattere and Giudecca
Image byAisano, CC BY-SA 4.0 and found on Wikimedia Commons

08 Dec COPING IN THE YEAR OF COVID

Posted at 00:28h in Destinations, Travel Tips by Italian Tours

2020 has been a devastating year for so many of us, and while the pandemic has completely knocked our business over, Luca and I are so fortunate that our friends and family have all remained safe and well. And particularly so when so many of our family, friends and colleagues live in Italy where the pandemic has been so much worse.

While our tours have been suspended in 2020, Luca and I have turned our attention to a new initiative, that we hope will go some way towards easing your ‘homesickness’ for all things Italian, as well as supporting some of the Italian artisan producers who are missing us as much as we are missing them.

Over many years of taking travellers to Italy we’ve built close relationships with local people who produce specialised products including oils and vinegars, distinctive Venetian glass jewellery, handmade olive oil cosmetics and beautifully patterned tableware and linens.

And so we have launched Origine Italiana, a small online boutique dedicated to beautiful things, all 100% made-in-Italy! We’ve started with a small but gorgeous range of Italian gifts and homewares: Florentine table cloths and tea towels, Venetian glass jewellery and a line of cosmetics for men and women, made in Tuscany.

If you’re still looking for Christmas gifts or would like to treat yourself, head across to our online store to browse the collection!

Shop Now!

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12 Oct PALAZZO SCHIFANOIA – A RENAISSANCE TREASURE IN FERRARA

Posted at 02:24h in Destinations, Travel Tips by Italian Tours

Article by Emanuela Mari.

After well over two years of renovations, the Great Hall of the Months in Ferrara’s Palazzo Schifanoia, one of the most extravagant and fascinating residences of the Italian Renaissance, has reopened to the public gaze. Borso d’Este commissioned a group of local artists to complete the celebrated fresco cycle that decorates its walls in 1469. The careful restoration, complemented by the new and much-improved lighting, has given it new life.

Borso d’Este was an illustrious member of Ferrara’s Este family, which ruled over the city for around 400 years from the 13th Century. He was very fond of sumptuous and magnificent displays of grandeur, which he used to great success to impress his subjects as well as neighbouring States. He wasn’t alone in this type of exercise: it was common in most Renaissance courts, where culture and shows of magnificence were often used as a political tool.

The fresco cycle of the months on the walls of Palazzo Schifanoia’s Great Hall is a result of these attitudes. The whole palace itself is a celebration of leisure and frivolous diversion as the name of the palace suggests — Schifanoia derives from the court’s use of the palace to avoid boredom (schifar la noia). It was also used to entertain and house foreign dignitaries and important guests.

The artwork is an enormous calendar that represents and glorifies the good acts and positive outcomes of Borso d’Este’s government. These are set out month-by-month and are depicted as being influenced and protected by the classical divinities and the stars according to the medieval astrological tradition.

The fresco portrays a loggia in the foreground with various scenes playing out behind it. The columns of the loggia frame the months, and each frame is divided horizontally into three sections. The top section portrays one of the classical divinities (on a triumphal float surrounded by followers and proteges). The middle is an astrological representation, with the sign of the Zodiac, surrounded by the three patrons of that month according to an Arabic reading of astrology and magic. The bottom section depicts scenes of Borso d’Este surrounded by his court, busy with the activities of government and court life, such as hunting with falcons.

Detail from the month of March by Francesco del Cossa – The Triumph of Minerva
Image by Sailko / CC BY-SA and found on Wikimedia Commons

The details of the frescos are so intricate and astounding that the meaning of some, especially in the middle section, are today shrouded in mystery. The fresco cycle, with its sophisticated and complex iconographic language, was conceived by the great Pellegrino Prisciani, Borso d’Este’s court intellectual. He was an important and influential figure in the cultural scene of the Ferrara court, an all-round humanist, well-versed in many disciplines, including astrology.

As for the artists and their work, they were a very talented group that created one of the most extraordinary works of art of the Renaissance. There is one artist in particular whose talent stands out from the rest. Francesco Del Cossa’s superior technique and exceptional artistic style make his contribution to the hall’s Eastern wall the most impressive. His work has survived the test of time much better than that of his colleagues.

Francesco Del Cossa is one of the most noteworthy, yet forgotten artists of the 15th Century. We know very little about his formative years. What we do know is that he worked between Ferrara and Bologna and that he was sought-after and much respected by his contemporaries and peers, including Michelangelo. So much so, that his work inspired an important school of followers.

As a final note, a warning to the prospective visitor. Unfortunately, not all of the fresco cycle has survived intact. If Del Cossa’s work on the Eastern wall (the months of March, April and May) is still in exceptional shape, and that of various masters (June to September) on the Northern wall is well maintained, the same cannot be said about much of the rest, where only faint traces of the old decorations remain. This is in part due to the ravages of time and partly because the fresco was painted over and forgotten for centuries.

In 1598, when the Este could not provide a direct line of succession, the Pope, who had granted the Este feudal rights to Ferrara, expelled them from the city and annexed it to the Papal States. Palazzo Schifanoia like the majority of the more than 50 leisure residences interspersed throughout the territory, fell into decay.

The Este’s expulsion brought to an end an era of fervid artistic activity and arguably the most prosperous period in Ferrara’s history. Their court was considered one of the most refined and progressive in all of Europe. They left the city of Ferrara a fantastic blueprint to their Ideal City they had cultivated for centuries, echoes of which are still evident today. The fresco cycle of the months in Palazzo Schifanoia is a magnificent example of this.

We visit Ferrara on our Undiscovered Riches – Discovering Emila Romagna tour, next scheduled for September 2021 and Emanuela will take us on a guided visit to the Palazzo Schifanoia.

Thank you to Emanuela Mari, local tour guide from Ferrara for contributing this article.

Emanuela fell in love with her city from a very early age — its art, history and culture were so intriguing that she decided to turn it into a career. She first completed a humanities degree (Lettere Moderne) at the University of Ferrara. She then undertook additional studies to become a licensed tour guide for the province.

She’s been working as a tour guide for more than twenty years and loves introducing her clients to Ferrara and its treasures. She speaks Italian, French and English fluently.

If you’re thinking of visiting Ferrara once this pandemic is over, you should definitely book a guided tour of Palazzo Schifanoia with her! You can contact her via her Facebook page, or of course, through us.

Detail from the month of April by Francesco del Cossa
Image by Sailko / CC BY-SA and found on Wikimedia Commons

Detail from the month of March by Francesco del Cossa
Image by Sailko / CC BY-SA and found on Wikimedia Commons

14 Aug HOW TO EAT PARMIGIANO REGGIANO – LET ME COUNT THE WAYS!

Posted at 02:26h in Destinations, Food and Wine by Italian Tours

Sitting at the Trattoria Corrieri in Parma we are presented with a plate piled high with golden, crumbling wedges of Parmigiano Reggiano, and a knife and fork. This is how they do it in Parma. At Luca’s mother’s house we spoon great clouds of the golden cheese onto our pasta. At our friend Theo’s place, we drizzle the best balsamic vinegar over hunks of Parmigiano and eat it with pears. Luca simmers Parmigiano rinds in his winter broth.

Parmigiano is perhaps the best known, the best loved and the most versatile of Italian cheeses. Italians have been making it since the thirteenth century, mainly in the region that takes in Bologna, Parma, Reggio Emilia and Modena.

As part of our Unexpected Riches – Discovering Emilia Romagna tour we travel up into the lower part of the Apennine Mountains above Bologna to visit a caseificio or cheese maker. This is a cooperative of milk producers who raise the original Bruna Alpina cows, the breed that has traditionally produced the milk used for Parmigiano in this area. While other producers have switched to the more productive Friesian style cow, the milk the Bruna Alpina produces has a unique nutty taste and a much higher content of cream.

The cooperative aims to compete with larger companies on the basis of the quality of their cheese. As a group they can combine their technologies and reduce production costs to make this type of process financially viable. They are passionate about their cattle and the quality of the type of cheese produced in the mountain. They belong to a new group called the Consortium of Mountain Producers that is promoting traditional food production.

We make a day trip of this, heading out of Bologna early so that we’re at the caseificio in time to see the cheese being made. If we’re lucky we can see the Bruna Alpina cattle grazing in fields along the way. And of course, the highlight of all this for many people is a tasting of this very special cheese.

Above is a short clip from our visit to Caseificio Pieve Roffeno last year, showing the cheesemakers shaping the soft cheese into what will become a wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano. It’s just one step in a very long process that has been done like this for centuries and strictly regulated by the Italian Parmigiano Consortium for many years.

We’re planning to run our Unexpected Riches – Discovering Emilia Romagna tour again in mid-2021. Please get in touch for more details.

13 Nov THE MANY FACES OF LAKE MAGGIORE

Posted at 00:43h in Destinations, Travel Tips by Italian Tours

Secluded gardens, a magnificent waterfall, a monastery built into the cliff face – Lake Maggiore offers a lot more than the average day-tripper from Milan can see.

All the Italian lakes have beautiful private gardens on their shores. But just outside the town of Intra is a little known garden with links to Australian history. The Botanical Gardens of Villa Taranto were established by Captain Neil Boyd McEacharn, the son of a former Mayor of Melbourne, Sir Malcom Donald McEacharn and Maryanne Watson, daughter of Australian mining millionaire John Boyd Watson. A passionate Italophile, McEacharn spent the decade between 1931 and 1940 establishing this garden at his lakeside villa. Visitors wandering the garden’s seven kilometres of paths can enjoy 20000 plant varieties, and 300 different types of McEacharn’s greatest passion, his dahlias.

Not only are there secluded gardens around the lake, but following the Toce River up the Val Formazza to its source, one finds oneself in an area populated by a group of Italians whose elders still speak a dialect similar to High German, the language of the original settlers. At the top of the valley is the Cascata del Toce, the second largest waterfall in Europe. This waterfall is one of the most spectacular in the Alps, with a stunning freefall jet of water cascading to the rocks below.

Perched on a rocky ridge on the eastern shore of Lake Maggiore is the Hermitage of Santa Caterina del Sasso. Since the 1300s the monastery has been inhabited by members of the Dominican order but is today inhabited by a group of Benedictine oblates. Visitors must maintain silence but are welcome to walk the lovely balconies that overlook the lake and take in the very special atmosphere of the place.

There are other more famous tourist destinations on the lake, most notably the Borromean Islands, Isola Bella, Isola Madre and Isola dei Pescatori, with their justly famous gardens, buildings and vistas. From the Renaissance period they have all been owned and inhabited by members of the Borromean family. The most spectacular of these is Isola Bella, built in 1632 as a wedding present by Charles III for his wife Isabella, and containing Baroque gardens, grottoes and even white peacocks.

We stay on Lake Maggiore as part of our 14-day Milan and the Best of the Italian Lakes tour in May-June 2020 and on our 8-day Lakes Discovery tour in September 2020.

30 Jul The living gem that is Bergamo

Posted at 02:52h in Travel Tips by Italian Tours

Bergamo is one of our all-time favourite small Italian towns — a medieval hilltop borough bristling with towers and atmospheric buildings that are carefully protected and maintained, so that the visitor feels completely immersed in history.

The town is built on three ascending levels. The modern part of the town sits at the base of the hill, and is a thriving commercial centre with pleasant tree-lined streets, parks and gardens. The upper town, or città alta, is reached via a funicular that carries visitors to the medieval centre, the citadel at the top of the hill. Another funicular takes visitors to the third and highest level of the town, San Vigilio, so-called because of the castle that sits at its summit.

Before heading for the città alta, those interested in art galleries might want to spend time in the Museo Accademico di Carrara which is located just outside the Venetian walls that surround the mediaeval centre. It has an excellent collection of Renaissance and medieval paintings and fine art, and is an important regional museum.

The città alta is a wonderful area for walking, with narrow stone streets that lead through various piazze to offer delightful surprises for the casual wanderer.

The walls, originally built by the Venetians, have never been breached and are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Visitors can walk around, along and even within the walls.

However the undoubted highlight is the Palazzo della Ragione, a twelfth century building that was revamped in the 1500s to meet Venetian aesthetic standards — one of those standards being to make the civic building more important than the church! The Venetians created a new piazza, Piazza Vecchia, by demolishing a building, and then rebuilding the town hall so that it faced onto the new piazza and would be the first thing a visitor would see. They completed the new work with the installation of a charming fountain boasting a series of lovely lions.

The town contains a beautiful and intact religious precinct, with two magnificent churches sitting side by side. One is the duomo and one the basilica. The duomo of Bergamo, San Alessandro, is the principal Catholic Church of the city, built in the mid 1400s, while the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore was funded by local people in a show of wealth and importance in the 1100s. The Bergamaschi traditionally viewed the basilica as the more important church, so when one of the autocratic and powerful local lords had a section of that church demolished in the middle of the night to erect a mausoleum for himself, people were understandably outraged. However, the mausoleum remains and is considered one of the prettiest Renaissance structures in the city to this day.

We’ll be visiting Bergamo – and staying in a medieval tower hotel in the città alta – as part of our Milan and the Italian Lakes tour in May-June 2020.

09 Apr THE UNEXPECTED RICHES OF RAVENNA

Posted at 00:44h in Travel Tips by Italian Tours

Tucked away on the Adriatic coast, not really on the way to any of the major tourist destinations, is a small city that contains some of the most astonishing and beautiful Roman mosaics anywhere in Italy.

After the Roman Empire was divided into two, Constantine established his eastern capital in Constantinople and Ravenna became the capital of the Western Roman Empire from 402AD until its collapse in 496AD. Ravenna then became the capital of the Christian Ostragoth kingdom until 540, when it was taken over by the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) empire as part of a move to reconquer parts of their original homeland on the Italian peninsula. They held the sliver of land along the coastline from Puglia to Venice. Throughout this period of change, however, Ravenna remained a rich and thriving port city with a constant population that maintained its established Roman culture, trade and crafts.

Ravenna’s famous mosaics were completed over a roughly hundred year period from the mid 400s to mid 500s. This artistic tradition of Roman origins, was maintained and influenced by the latter civilisations that inherited the city and in particular by the Byzantines. UNESCO has listed eight buildings as World Heritage Sites, which for what seems like a small town today, demonstrates the enormous wealth and prestige it had at the time.

The mosaics are unusual in that they are so prolific, largely intact and utterly dazzling with huge amounts of gold and brilliant lapis lazuli blue. Before Christianity, Romans used mosaics as decoration for their houses and villas but the Ravenna mosaics represent a shift to religious imagery, and in the style of public art. Significantly, because of the time it takes to create mosaics of this scale and detail, they must have been completed during a period of peace and stability.

The most famous of the churches is the Basilica of San Vitale, which inspired Charlemagne who visited Ravenna three times and used the basilica as his model when he built the Palatine chapel in Aachen in Germany. The central apse towers over the rest of the church so that the visitor gazes upwards to see the intricate golden mosaics that line the cupola.

However, the oldest and possibly the most beautiful of the buildings is the mausoleum of Galla Placidia, the tomb of the daughter of the Roman Emperor Theodosius I. This small rounded building is set in the grounds of San Vitale and the entire barrel vaulted ceiling is decorated with gorgeous brilliantly coloured mosaics. Looking up the visitor sees hundreds of dazzling golden stars in a midnight blue sky. At the end of the vault the lunette features an image of a beardless Christ, very different from the normal iconography which portrays Christ with a beard.

All of the buildings containing these unique mosaics are collected around the centre of Ravenna and it’s easy to visit the sites in a day or two.

We stay in Ravenna and visit the mosaics as part of our new Unexpected Riches – Discovering Emilia Romagna tour, which runs from the 16 – 27 September 2019 and there are still a couple of places available!

09 Jan MATERA – A CITY FROM ANOTHER TIME

Posted at 05:14h in Travel Tips by Italian Tours

As you look out over the sassi districts in the city of Matera, you could be forgiven for thinking you had been transported back in time to a city out of the bible. The view of stone dwellings, reaching far back into ancient caves, with narrow donkey paths winding in between them, is quite unforgettable. Indeed film director Mel Gibson used this city as the setting for his movie The Passion of the Christ.

Matera, in Basilicata just to the west of Puglia, is probably the oldest continuously inhabited city in the whole of Europe. Matera is built on top of a cliff on the edge of a gorge, about 250 metres deep, with a river running through it. There is a stratum of stone that is soft and white, like a cross between sandstone and limestone, and since prehistoric times people have burrowed out shelters into the sides of the gorge. Over time they became more sophisticated than simple holes in the rock, though some of those still remain and were used as animal shelters by shepherds or as wine cellars. People began building small structures at the front incorporating the door, the window and the kitchen with its chimney and would then excavate the other rooms into the rock behind. Others would build into the rock above them, so the whole place became like an anthill, with people living one on top of another in chambers carved out of the rock with little frontages to allow for kitchens and chimneys, a bit of light. There might only be a metre and a half of rock between the ceiling of one dwelling and the floor of the one above it.

Later Matera became the capital of Basilicata and work began to gentrify the city on the top of the ravine. There was no burrowing there, as the rock was too hard, but the erection of high quality standard buildings instead. An upper class moved in to administer the area and provide services, so the two sassi areas became places where the poor lived. It became a shameful thing to live in the sassi, and the upper city was built to deliberately hide any view of these poor areas from the centre of town. Later however, Matera lost its position as regional capital and the wealthier people moved on. Without the investment of the elite, living conditions in the sassi became appalling with no running water, no sewerage and no roads. The area became a hotbed of disease – malaria, cholera, typhoid, tuberculosis. It wasn’t until a novelist wrote a book about the area that the Italian government sat up and took notice. In the 1950s they began a slum clearance program to move the 17,000 residents out of the area and it was abandoned.

In the late 1980s the area began to be revalued and became a World Heritage site. People started restoring dwellings and moving back in while today the government will lease dwellings to those who are prepared to pay for restoration. There are lots of hotels and B&Bs springing up and tourism is beginning to really bite. In 2019 Matera is the European Cultural Capital which will also have a huge effect on visitor numbers.

Matera is definitely a place to see right now, before the rest of the world arrives. Our Puglia, the Road Less Travelled tour for May 2019 is already sold out but we do have places available on the September 2019 tour which includes a wonderful day exploring the town of Matera.

27 Feb A POSTCARD FROM LAGO D’ORTA

Posted at 04:58h in Travel Tips by Italian Tours

The Lago d’Orta or Lake Orta is one of the relatively undiscovered gems of the Italian Lakes district, a smaller lake, not too distant from Lake Maggiore. It is quaint and extremely picturesque especially on its southern side.

The small town of Orta San Giulio is undoubtedly the pearl of the lake. The town spills down the hillside to the lake shore, overlooking the water and the romantic island of San Guilio below. Visitors can while away lazy afternoons exploring the narrow streets with their quaint houses and baroque palaces, sipping coffee in the piazza on the water’s edge in front of the Island of San Giulio or wandering along the lakeshore.

The island of San Giulio reputedly has mystical properties. It is no wonder therefore that it was the site of an early Christian community fighting against paganism in the area. The first known structure dates to the end of the 300s. Legend has it that the proselytising Saint Giulio defeated a dragon on the Island and then built the first basilica with the help of wolves. On that site today stands the 11th century Basilica of Saint Giulio, one of the most significant examples of Romanesque architecture in Piedmont, and seminary, now a Benedictine monastery, which towers over the rest of the island. The Basilica is an impressive, solid structure. It has some interesting frescoes, some from the 1350s, others from the early 1500s. Its most impressive possession, though, is the 12th century pulpit in black marble. The Romanesque bas-reliefs are exquisite, one portraying either William of Volpiano or Saint Giulio. William of Volpiano was a Benedictine reformer, born on the island and renowned for being the architect of the Abbeys of Mont Saint-Michel, of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris and of Fécamp in Normandy.

A ferry service takes visitors out to the island where they can explore the churches and enjoy the peace and atmosphere of this enchanting place.

If you’re feeling energetic, take a walk up the hill behind Orta San Giulio to the Sacro Monte di Orta, a devotional complex of 20 chapels built between the 16th and 18th Centuries. The chapels are interesting, but the views out over the Lago d’Orta and the Isola San Giulio are breathtaking.

SOME PRACTICALITIES

Visit Lago d’Orta with Italian Tours:
Lago d’Orta is featured in two of our itineraries in 2018:
Milan and the Lakes tour (31 May -13 June 2018)
Tastes of Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta tour (3 – 16 October 2018)

Or you can visit Lago d’Orta on your own with these tips:
How to get there:
It’s not easy to get to Lago d’Orta with public transport, so your best option is to travel with your own car. The town of Orta San Giulio is about an hour and half from Milan or 30 minutes from Stresa on Lake Maggiore.

Where to stay:
The Hotel San Rocco is our pick of the hotels located on Orta San Giulio. Set on the lakeshore, all the superior rooms have wonderful lake views and the hotel terrace is a wonderful spot to enjoy an aperitivo or light dinner.

Where to eat:
Located in the centre of Orta San Giulio, Ristorante Venus has a wonderful terrace overlooking the lake.