1 Swimming Tour to Italy 5 th to 12 th September 2016 Information Brochure and Program Experience some of the world s most spectacular scenery View magnificent ancient architecture and artworks Stay in a beautiful, small, 12 th Century town Swim in idyllic Lake Orta, the most romantic of Italy s lakes Otter Aquatics, a Brisbane-based aquatic education, training and swimming tourism company, will be leading a week-long tour to one of northern Italy s most scenic and history-rich lakes in the late European summer of 2016. Our location is Lago d Orta (Lake Orta), a relatively small lake with all the advantages of nearby better-known lakes, such as Lake Como, but so much prettier and without the crowds. We will be staying in luxurious accommodation in the lovely 12 th Century town of Orta San Giulio and we will immerse ourselves, literally and figuratively, in the amazing architectural and artistic history and beauty of the village, the lake and the region. The swimming As open water swimmers around the world know, what better way to become thoroughly saturated with the essence of a place than to swim in it. we will swim to and around the lovely island of Isola di San Giulio, just 400 metres offshore of Orta San Giulio, with its 15 th century Benedictine monastery and with a built history dating back to the 5 th Century we will also undertake more adventurous cross-lake swims for those interested, including to the village of Pella, one kilometre away on the other side of Lago d Orta and a swim of about two kilometres in Lake Mergozzo and we will do day trips to nearby Lago Maggiore and other places of interest. While we expect the days to be fine and warm with daily air temperatures in the high 20s or low 30s, the weather everywhere being a fickle beast means that we will include in our
2 program a number of alternatives and we may swap some days activities around to suit conditions. See the attached tentative program. So what will the water be like? First of all, there are no sharks, crocs, stingers, rips, currents or surf in the lakes altogether a bit of a bore you might say. But the lakes are sparklingly clear and clean that get their water off the snow-clad surrounding mountains. Don t worry about the temperature; when I led the trip at the same time in 2015, the water temperature was about 24 degrees much the same as a heated lap swimming pool in Australia. But, if you are concerned about the temperature, you are welcome to bring your wetsuit (they will be available for hire too). All swims will be supervised by a qualified surf lifesaver and pool lifeguard (i.e. me). They will all be non-competitive, cater for all swimming abilities and will be optional. You do whatever swims you feel like doing on the day or none at all if that is what you want. Non-swimming partners are welcome too we always need people to take the photos and hold our towels and clothes! A safety boat will accompany all swims in Lake Orta beyond 100 metres from the shore. The boat can also carry the non-swimmers in our party, those who choose not to swim on a particular day or those who want to be picked up along the route. Our boat will also carry our clothes and towels, etc. If there are more non-swimmers than the boat can accommodate, there are regular ferries to our destinations. Italian law requires swimmers who go beyond 100 metres from the shore to wear a red bathing cap (we will supply you with an Otter Aquatics cap) and to tow a red safety buoy to ensure that they can be seen by boat traffic on the lake. This may seem a little strange to Australian swimmers, but they are not an encumbrance and it just adds to the exotic nature of our special holiday. We will be especially visible to boats as we will also swim in groups.
3 One of our swims will be from the town of Orta San Giulio to Isola San Giulio (in the distance here), where there is a 15 th Century Benedictine monastery a short 400 metres off the coast. Just fantastic! Non-swimming activities There will be swimming opportunities every day, but not for the whole day. The rest of the time will be divided between expert English-speaking guided tours of the history, architecture and art of this wonderful part of the world or you can just do your own thing. There will be plenty of opportunities for souvenir shopping in Orta San Giulio and for walks in the town and its vicinity. And there are quaint restaurants, cafes, pizzerias and gelatarias galore (we will provide you with a list of recommended ones). Guided tours will include: public, private and religious buildings and shrines in the town of Orta San Giulio, including the 12 th century town square, Piazza Maria Motta, and the old town hall, the Palazzotto the 15 th Century basilica and Benedictine monastery on Isola di San Guilio nearby Sacro Monte di San Francesco, a place of pilgrimage dedicated to Francis of Assisi. Sacro Monte and its surrounding nature reserve received World Heritage listing from UNESCO in 2003. There will be some optional extras if there is a demand, such as a shopping day at a factory outlet near Milan (I think Italians invented factory outlets), a day s trekking in the mountains and possibly Italian language and cooking lessons if you want (we will ask you for your wishes early in the tour).
4 Beautiful Orta San Giulio The cost The cost will be A$2,000 per person. This assumes double/twin room occupancy. There will be an additional charge of A$500 for single occupancy. We require confirmed bookings by 31 st January 2016 together with a 50% deposit. The hotel needs this deposit to confirm our booking. Numbers are limited to fifteen. Unfortunately, the hotel has a non-refund policy in the event of a cancellation so, as the hotel cost is by far the greatest component of your fee, we are also not able to offer refunds. Substitutes, on the other hand, are acceptable. More stuff What will be provided: you will be met at Milan s Malpensa airport at 11am on Monday 5 th September 2016, the first day of the tour, and dropped off at 10am on Monday 12 th September, the last day, in an air-conditioned minibus
5 seven nights accommodation at Hotel Albergo Leon d Oro, a superior standard hotel right on Lake Orta and right adjacent to the town s piazza. The hotel has wifi and an excellent restaurant (see http://www.albergoleondoro.it) breakfasts every morning supervised swims in Lakes Orta, Maggiore and Mergozzo safety boat and swimming safety buoys coaching and stroke correction tips guided tours in Orta San Giulio, Sacro Monte and Isola di San Giulio a welcome reception on the night of our arrival to meet your fellow swim-tourers a farewell dinner on the last night of our tour in a local restaurant featuring specially selected local produce Otter Aquatics peaked cap, swimming cap, t-shirt and back pack a list of recommended places you may wish to visit by yourself, a list of recommended eateries and a guide to local food. What you will need to provide for yourselves: swimming togs, goggles (but the lake is very clear and clean and you may not need goggles) and towel fins/flippers (if you want them) wetsuit if you need one but they will be available for hire funds to cover the cost of all lunches and dinners (except for the final farewell dinner) and beverages. As a general guide, 25 should be more than enough to cover each meal per person funds to cover souvenirs and other purchases if you wish to take part in the optional factory outlet shopping or trekking trips, funds to cover the hire of a minibus and guide as well as any purchases you may wish to make clothing and personal items including medications. It will be late summer/early autumn in Europe. At the same time in 2015, it was warm to hot, so shorts, t- shirts and sandals will be all the go. But the weather being what it is, it would be a good idea to bring a light jumper or jacket, perhaps a rain jacket or umbrella and a pair of jeans, just in case bring a good pair of walking shoes/joggers, sunnies, sunscreen, a hat, a water bottle and a camera. Some of our non-swimming activities will involve some walking. Orta San Giulio has plenty of hilly streets just what you need to get the heart pumping Italy s power supply is 220V /50Hz which is fine for Australian appliances, but you will need a European two-point power adaptor ensure that you have global roaming on your mobile phone (but be careful, data charges are very high when overseas but the occasional short phone call or text
6 message using your Australian phone will not break the bank). But remember that the hotel has wifi - or you may wish to purchase a global SIM before leaving home or an Italian SIM on arrival. But it is even better to turn your phone off and enjoy a technology-free holiday decent dollops of senses of adventure, fun and humour, a willingness to enjoy the heck out of the experience and a preparedness to brag about it all once you get home. If you want some help with other European holiday ideas to do before or after your Lake Orta swimming tour or to book your flights contact me and I will put you in touch with a travel agency who will provide you with very attractive rates. In 2015, some people visited Rome, Florence, Venice, Bologna and other places in Italy while others went further afield to the UK, Germany, Croatia and Slovenia. Some people may wish to take part in one or more of Otter Aquatics other swimtours in 2016: Montenegro and Germany. There really is a lot to do in Europe! A little about me and Otter Aquatics I retired from my serial careerist occupations of naval officer, diplomat, academic and environmentalist in 2010 and decided to stay in one place for a while and do something that I enjoy doing. So I took my lifelong interest in swimming and became a swimming instructor, coach and surf lifesaver. I set up Otter Aquatics in 2012 to concentrate on teaching adults, especially adults with a fear of the water. I encourage my students, once they become confident in the pool, to get into real swimming, i.e. the open water. Once I did this, it seemed logical to organise tours to wonderful parts of the world and to see these places from the vantage of the water. Having taken part in international swimming tours myself (especially the Hellespont, aka the Dardanelles, in Turkey in 2014 and the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia in 2015), I decided to organise international swimming tours of my own. Lake Orta in 2015 was the first one. It turned out to be an ideal choice as it is the prettiest and quietest of Italy s northern lakes and, according to the locals, it has the finest scenery in the world. You will meet our local partner, Dr Stefano Falciola, a native of Orta San Giulio, who will be with us the whole time and who seems to know and be known by everyone in town. I hope you can join us on this once-in-a-lifetime experience. For bookings or any enquiries, phone me on 0438 652 696 or email me at mark@otteraquatics.com.au. I will then send you a registration form which will have payment instructions. Mark Otter
7 Swimming Tour to Italy 5 th to 12 th September 2016 Program Monday 5 th September 11am Pick-up from Milan Malpensa airport. Look for Mark and/or Stefano wearing their Otter Aquatics t-shirts. Transfer to Orta San Giulio by minibus and check into our hotel. Pick up your t-shirt, cap and backpack if you do not already have them. In the afternoon, take yourself for a walk around Orta San Giulio and check out what will be your extraordinary new home for the next week. 6pm Gather in the garden terrace of the hotel for a welcoming drink and nibblies, to meet the rest of the tour party, and to get the final program for the week s activities. Oh yes, and to receive your red buoy! Tuesday 6 st September 10am Introduction to swimming in Lake Orta and any coaching or stroke correction tips if required. We will swim within 100 metres of the shore and away from boating traffic. While we do not really need our red buoy for this swim, it would be a good opportunity to get used to using it. 2pm We will meet our expert tour guide, Cosetta Dal Cin. We will spend the rest of the afternoon with Cosetta taking us to the Church of Orta and others places of historical, architectural and artistic interest in and around Orta and including the famous Sacro Monte di Francesco.
8 Wednesday 7 th September 10am We will swim from just in front of our hotel in Orta to Isola San Giulio, a distance of about 400 metres. We will have our safety boat and we will swim in one group with our safety buoys. We will certainly need at least one non-swimming photographer to record this spectacle! The boat will take our clothes as well as valuables such as cameras and wallets. On landing, we will change (under our towels, swimmers poncho or similar modesty saver) and be taken by Cosetta for a guided tour of this enchanting island. After lunch at the restaurant on the island, we will get back into our togs for our return swim to Orta (or you can take the ferry if you have eaten too much at lunch!). Technically speaking, the island is a silent place. It certainly is for the eighty or so nuns in residence in the monastery but, for the rest of us, I guess it just means that we not be too raucous. The rest of the day is free. Thursday 8 th September 10am We will travel by minibus to Lake Maggiore for a swim at the town of Baveno and then we will travel to the town of Stresa where we will have lunch. In the afternoon, we will go by ferry to two offshore islands in Lake Maggiore: Isola Bella and Isola Pescatori. Later in the day, we will return by ferry to Stresa and the bus will take us home to Orta. Friday 9 th September 10am We will travel by minibus to Lake Mergozzo. There we will have the choice of two swims: the 2.3k length of this delightful small lake or a 400 metre swim. By a stroke of amazingly clever planning, both swims will end up at the same place a lovely beach on the outskirts of the town of Mergozzo. We will have lunch in Mergozzo after which we can explore the town before we swim back to where we started or we can take our minibus back to the start and then back home to Orta.
9 Saturday 10 th September 10am We will swim departing from just in front of our hotel in Orta to the town of Pella on the opposite shore of Lake Orta, a distance of about one kilometre (or perhaps just a little more, depending on who you talk to). We will have our usual procession of safety buoys and our safety boat. We will visit the village and have lunch there. In the afternoon, we will swim back to Orta or, for the wimps among us, we can return by ferry. Sunday 11 th September Today will be a choice day. Here are some suggestions: We can walk around the Orta peninsula and swim wherever we feel like (as long as we stay within 100 metres of the shoreline we do not need our caps or safety buoys). Or we can circumnavigate Isola di San Giulio, a distance of about one kilometre (for this, we will need our boat and buoys). Or we can walk elsewhere in the area, discovering new places or re-visiting some of the places we have already seen. Or it will also be an ideal day to do one of the optional extra activities the day-long trek or the factory outlet shopping trip. We will ask your intentions a few days beforehand so we can make bookings. For the factory outlet shopping trip we will leave Orta at 10am by minibus for Vicolungo. 6pm We will gather for our farewell dinner at Ristorante Olina, a short walk from the hotel, for our farewell dinner featuring typical local dishes. Monday 12 th September 9am We will transfer back to Milan Malpensa Airport by minibus, arriving about 10am. Notes: All lunches and dinners will be at your own expense with the exception of the farewell dinner on the last evening.
We may have to make some changes to this program if, for example, the weather turns nasty. Also, because it is your tour, we will always take on board your suggestions for other activities. Some suggestions for optional extra activities may be classes in Italian cooking, language or history (or perhaps Italian history and politics as seen through the prism of football/soccer). 10 We will provide you with lists of other places to visit in the region, restaurants to eat at and typical local dishes for you to try. Our local partner, Stefano Falciola, and our tour guide, Cosetta Dal Cin both Orta locals will be on hand to answer any questions and to make suggestions. Our hotel right on the water! Check out a slide show of photos from our 2015 trip at http://www.otteraquatics.com.au/orta.html.