The apartment owner got in touch in good time with information about arrival and access. The information was comprehensive and helpful, including photographs of the apartment building to help us find the right place. The information also provided recommendations for eating out in Verbania, and other places to visit. We visited Orta san Giulio on the basis of this advice and it was well worth the trip. The apartment is on a clean and relatively quiet road. The apartment and underground parking are behind locked gates. Some reviews have expressed disappointment about the underground parking. However, we managed to get our mid-sized SUV with a roof-box in the garage (just), so found it fine (although the garage lock could be temperamental). The apartment itself was clean and airy. We didn’t find the sofa particularly comfortable but with cushions/pillows it was fine. The balcony looks out over neighbouring properties and up to the mountains; for an urban property, the view was excellent. With the shutters kept closed, the apartment stayed fairly cool in mid-June (although we used a small fan we had in the bedroom at night). The kitchen was well-equipped and there is a washing machine in the bathroom (& clothes line on the balcony). We had a couple of minor problems; the balcony door jammed and we accidentally switched off the boiler (it is controlled by a switch next to a power socket, which we automatically switched off when we finished with the kettle, as it wasn’t labelled). In both cases the property owner’s mother, who lives in the same block, came round to help, once we had notified them of the problem. In the case of the boiler, she was able to easily fix the problem for us. She could not fix the problem with the door, but the owner managed to get a workman round the next day to resolve that problem. The property owner was polite and helpful in all our communication, which was very welcome.

The apartment isn’t right in the heart of Verbania, but this is reflected in the price and it was an easy 5-10 minute drive to the lake shore (maybe 40 minutes on foot?) or to supermarkets for supplies. It might be useful to have a couple of fans in the apartment during the summer, but as mentioned above, the apartment stays fairly cool with the shutters closed. The biggest drawback was the limited number of electric sockets. There was only one usable socket in the kitchen area, so we were swapping round kettle, toaster and microwave (hence switching off that socket that also controlled the boiler). It would be useful to have a note by that socket telling guests not to turn it off!). If there were more sockets, we missed them. We could also have done with another couple of sockets in the bedroom. However, overall, it was a good base.

Proprietaria molto gentile e disponibile nel fare in modo che il soggiorno scorra nel miglior modo possibile. Abbiamo molto apprezzato anche tutto l’occorrente per la cucina ed addirittura caffè, olio, pasta e sugo. Molto apprezzato anche il posto auto coperto ed il bel terrazzo sul giardino.

Nota dolente , abbiamo trovato il materasso scomodo che, essendo datato, affonda molto. Anche cambiando cuscini, potrebbe causare dolori alla cervicale, purtroppo come accaduto nel mio caso.

Die Lage war nicht ganz zentral, aber für uns prima, weil man recht schnell in die verschiedenen Richtungen gelangen konnte. Und insbesondere hat uns gefallen, dass eine geräumige Tiefgarage dabei war. Die Vermieterin hat zu Beginn des Urlaubs viele gute Informationen bezüglich Restaurants und touristisch interessanter Ziele geschickt und die waren richtig gut.

We liked that dogs were allowed and that the kitchen had most of what we needed

The construction site in the building wasn´t nice. The balcony wasn´t to be used for nice breakfast and there was no air conditioning which was my mistake when booking. We couldn´t use the garage for the car as we had an EV which was a bit low to drive down hill but came in handy for our bikes