The importance of Cristianity can be fully understood by a visit to one “Sacro Monte”, a Sacred Mountain, a group of chapels assembling a path on a hill integrated into the surrounding natural landscape. Among the most enigmatic and spiritual Sacri Monti of Northern Italy recognized by UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Sacro Monte di San Francesco in Orta San Giulio, the only one dedicated to just one saint, is waiting for you to show its amazing life-size polychrome statues, Renaissance Baroque architecture and hundreds of square meters of frescos authored by the greatest masters in the art of design and colour of their time. 

DETAILS 

Departure is planned at 9:00 from Piazza Castello. 

The bus will take you toward the Alps, you will have catch a glimpse of Lake Maggiore before turning west and reaching the small Lake Orta. As many other Alpine lakes it reflects the high mountains as well as the beautiful villas built during the centuries by aristocratic families to spend holidays and relax. 

Friedrich Nietzsche visited the place and was so affected by the landscape that said it has deeply affected his life, Honorè de Balzac and Robert Browning were also enchanted by the lake’s quite beauty. No wonder the spiritual walk of the Sacred Mount is still so important. Art, architecture and landscape reinforce each other to create unique surroundings. 

Follow the guide on the path of the twenty chapels of the devotional complex before lunch. 

Take a short walk to discover Orta a beautiful village from which you take a boat to the island, inhabited since Neolithic times the island is almost totally occupied by the Mater Ecclesiae Abbey. 

From there to Pella and back to Orta and Milan, where the bus will take you just in time for dinner. 

Dates: Saturday 2nd July or Sunday 10th July from 9:00 to 20:00

Group: Minimum 6 – Maximum 15 

Deadline: 9th  June 

Price: 180 € per person (Special Price for ICOM) +  lunch (tasting menù) or bag lunch on demand.

Services included: guide tour, transfer, entrance ticket.