Shops in Orta San Giulio include speciality food, gift items, and banks.
The village shop in Vacciago (La Bottega, see pictures) is open seven days a week, and has fresh bread, cold meats, local cheeses, fresh fruit and veg, frozen meats, a selection of good wines, and often has superb home-made pasta and pies made by the owner (Sig. Edoardo).
In Ameno there is an excellent butchers shop, 2 general groceries, a bakery, and a chemist.
Pella has several small groceries, and there is a supermarket (Conad) on the road to San Maurizio d'Opaglio. A new shop specialising in fresh home-produced pasta (it sells nothing else) has opened in Pella this year (2009), it is just 50 metres from Casa Fiori.
Omegna, Gozzano, and Borgomanero are larger towns with a very wide range of shops and banks. You'll find many good buys for clothes and shoes.
There are several big supermarkets on the main road (SR 229) between Gozzano and Borgomanero, including Uni, Ipercoop, and Carrefour. All these supermarkets have separate delicatessen, pasta and meat counters and a wide range of bread. A new supermarket, Esselunga (opened November 2009) is on the left just before Borgomanero. The opening hours of these four supermarkets are as follows (correct as of 1/1/2010):
Uni |
Ipercoop |
Carrefour |
Esselunga |
|
| Monday | 0830-2000 | 0900-2100 | 0800-2100 | 0800-2100 |
| Tuesday | ||||
| Wednesday | ||||
| Thursday | 0900-2200 | |||
| Friday | ||||
| Saturday | 0800-2100 | |||
| Sunday | 0900-1930 | closed |
closed |
closed |
Many towns have thriving markets, e.g. Orta San Giulio on Wednesday morning (mainly antiquarian), Armeno on Saturday morning (food), and Borgomanero on Friday morning (very large market with food, clothes, household, preserves, leather goods, etc).
Omegna at the north end of Lake Orta is home to some of the top italian brands of metal kitchen accessories, so don't miss the factory outlet shops of Alessi (Via Privata Alessi 6, phone 0323-868.648, open Monday to Saturday 0930-1800, closed Sundays) and Lagostina (Via IX Novembre 39, phone 0323-652.255, open Tuesday to Friday 0900-1230 and 1530-1915), both of which are at Crusinallo, just north of Omegna. Bialetti, the producers of the popular stove-top Italian coffee makers, also started at Omegna, but don't seem to have a presence there anymore.
Further afield, you are just one hour from Milan, with its range of fashion boutiques and department stores (try the Via Montenapoleone just to see how the other half live!). Ask for our directions to Lampugnano park-and-ride from where you can get on the metro just a few stops from the Duomo.
The main road between Arona and Sesto Calende (along Lago Maggiore) has a large number of out-of-town shops, including several large clothing shops.
About one hour from Lake Orta, at Vicolungo (signposted from exit Biandrate on the A4 Torino-Milano autostrada), just near the water theme park Ondaland, is Vicolungo Outlets, web site www.vicolungooutlets.com with massive discounts on a range of italian and other designer brands, all conveniently in one out-of-town location.
Another large designer outlet with some 180 shops (the largest in Europe apparently) is Serravalle Designer Outlet, near Novi Ligure, about 80 minutes drive from Lake Orta (towards the coast). Take Serravalle Scrivia exit from the Milan-Genova auostrada (A7), or the Novi Ligure exit on the short 'link' autostrada between the A26 and A7 (it is just called the A26/7). Web site www.mcarthurglen.it/serravalle .
More details tailored for your apartment are provided in your location pack.
There is a longer list of factory outlets around Piedemont at www.dolcevita.com/outlets/region/piemonte.html
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