Orta: Casa Longhi

Orta — short for Orta San Giulio — is a lovely little town overlooking Lake Orta … in Italy’s Piedmont Region.

The plan was to meet Nicolò, our host, at 4:00p. The GPS gave our arrival as 3:20p, however. So I texted him and he agreed to meet us earlier at the covered parking lot where the free parking for Casa Longhi is located. Once we met up, he opened the barrier gate for the garage, led us to the designated parking floor, helped us transfer our carry-on bags to his car, and drove us to our accommodations.

Casa Longhi, which dates back to 1459, is Nicolò’s family home. In fact, the family still live here. They converted an attached two-story cottage into the rental that we booked through Booking.com … for an unbelievably reasonable price for the area (especially in hindsight).

The apartment has been modernized with all the conveniences … without losing its old-time charm. Simply lovely … warm and welcoming. Pristine. A cute little balcony with a courtyard and street view of the neighborhood. Quiet … despite its proximity to centro storico just a one-minute walk away. Most deserving of the excellent reviews that led us to book the place.

Had we known back when we booked Casa Longhi that we would fall in love with the cottage as well as the town, we would have made this place our base for the duration for our time in Italy. As it is, we’ll be here for just two nights.

After dropping off our bags, we went for a stroll … primarily an errands run. It was hot and Piazza Motta was crowded with day-trippers. The eateries lining the square were doing a booming business; small boats were ferrying people back and forth to Isola San Giulio in the middle of Lake Orta.

Purchases completed, we returned to Casa Longhi to get settled and start our laundry. We had wine and snacks for dinner, and then went back out to explore the town.Read more