Walking around Legro, Miasino and Orta

It’s been less sunny today so we decided to take advantage of the cooler weather and go exploring. We’ve seen a lot!

First we headed uphill out of the campsite to Legro. This is a small ‘painted village’ where colourful frescos adorn the walls of the buildings. They were painted by artists from Italy and other parts of Europe around the turn of the 21st century.

Apparently, the paintings mainly show scenes from films that were shot on the shores of Lake Orta. More recently, other paintings by art students in the area have been added.

From Legro, we headed further uphill on a footpath to another village called Miasino. Our first stop was Villa Nigra, a marvellous country manor built between the 16th and 18th centuries.

From here, we wandered through the old cobbled streets to the magnificent Church of San Rocco, a huge building for such a small village!

The ‘Giardino dei Semplici’, a sort of botanical garden with plants from the Bible, unfortunately wasn’t open today, so we headed back downhill to the campsite.

After lunch, we walked into Orta San Giulio to visit Sacre Monte, a wooded hill overlooking the lake and town. Sacre Monte is dedicated to Saint Francis of Assisi, with 20 chapels in a spiral pattern depicting episodes of his life. Different architectural styles have been used and the chapels are all decorated inside with amazing statues and frescoes.

When we’d had enough of Sacre Monte, we wandered down steep cobbled paths into Orta San Giulio, pausing to see a beautiful church in a pretty street that we’d missed yesterday.

The promised rain didn’t materialise and the sun even appeared this afternoon… perfect for a dip in the lake and a sunbathe before we returned to Molly Moho. I wonder what tomorrow will bring. If it’s thunderstorms we’ll be having a lazy day!