Lago d'Orta

This weekend, as it is the last one we have here before I go back to South Africa, Laura and I went to Italy, more precisely to Lago d'Orta. It is less than 4 hours drive from Lausanne, provided that, unlike for us :
- there is no works on the road
- there is no traffic
- there is no snow on the Simplon pass
- you use only highway
- you go straight to Orta
Well, it took us more than that, since we left at 9am from Lausanne, and we arrived at the hotel around 4pm. It may sound a long drive, but it's not too bad, actually. We really took our time, and we did not go straight to Orta with the highway.

So, from Lausanne, we went towards the Simplon pass, which looked like that :

But there was no snow on the road, the road is actually very good and well-maintained. After the pass, it starts going downhill, until the border with Italy. We left the main road in Domodossola, to take a more scenic view. We passed by nice villages, like that one, with a lake and fancy cars :

We also stopped quickly close to Lago Maggiore (?), it was very windy ... And then we crossed some mountains to enjoy the view, and to reach the Lago d'Orta.

Lago Maggiore

Lago d'Orta

Although the first day was not so nice weather, we could swim a little bit when the sun was there ... and enjoy some drinks !

The lake was actually horizontal ... don't worry :-)

Then we came back to Lausanne, and the snow had disappeared on the Simplon pass ! It was a nice weekend, we bought Italian stuff (mainly, food :-) ), we enjoyed the lake and the landscapes, we had snow and sun ... all perfect !

Simplon, without the snow !