Holiday Homes at Lake Orta

About Us

About Us About Holiday Homes at Lake Orta About Villa Gelsomina

William and Lake Orta - September 2015 - picture by Rob Pearson

Holiday Homes at Lake Orta is run by William Schwitzer and supported by a team of local staff. William works freelance as Business Analyst in Financial Services, and held key roles in several large banks developing payment systems and internet banking services.

From where the love of Italy? William's father said he was enamoured on a 1978 driving tour to San Remo, Pisa, and Lake Como. A 1980 train trip to Venice, Ravenna and Florence certainly made a big impression, as did a solo cycle trip the same year taking in the Italian Riviera, the west shore of Lake Como, and the Maloja pass up to St. Moritz. On that trip, William stayed with friends in a small village near Varese, and experienced some incredible Italian hospitality. After dinner on the Saturday evening, he was invited with a large group of young people to make the drive to Laveno on Lake Maggiore 'for gelati', and we milled about chatting on the lake front in the warm evening air... In the summer of 1985 William took his annual leave, plus some unpaid leave, to attend a month's intensive language course in Florence at the British Institute, an experience which is thoroughly recommend for young italophiles. This prepared me well for my arrival in 1987 in the wonderful city of Turin, where I worked for four years, first at the San Paolo bank in Turin, then Olivetti in Ivrea and doing a stint in Rome in a very traditional financial institution near the Bank of Italy.

During this period we discovered Lake Orta, and it immediately became our favourite Sunday outing, so that whenever friends and family came to stay, we would drive up from Turin for the day. In 1989 we stayed for a long weekend, and fell hopelessly in love with the area. In 1990 we bought our first holiday home at Vacciago, and got married in Orta San Giulio.