La Campana

The intimate, candlelit, covered area outside the restaurant attracted us as we headed past it for a stroll along the shores of Lake Orta. The skies were wonderfully dramatic as we walked alongside grand villas, beautiful gardens and lush vegetation, with the beauty of the lake to our right. The heavens opened and huge raindrops pounded down amid rolls of thunder and bright spears of lightning. We sheltered at a leafy lakeside seat until the storm subsided somewhat and headed back to La Campagna. We preferred to sit outside undercover, despite the continuing wild weather, and were cheerfully served by kind waiters who had to dodge the raindrops to bring us our meals from inside the restaurant, some feet away. It was a lovely place to dine and the food was delicious, plentiful and inexpensive, all in all excellent value. We were also welcomed in when we went to pay and offered limoncellos on the house, a tradition that, in my experience, rarely happens these days.