The lake from the water side: boat, buoy, swimming, fishing

Under the regional law on inland navigation, the municipalities on the shore of Lake Orta are eight: Omegna, Pella, San Maurizio d'Opaglio, Gozzano, Orta San Giulio, Miasino, Nonio and Pettenasco¹. The lake is part of the public inland-waterway estate, and the regional regulation also brings under it the private land covered by water along the banks². Using any part of this estate is, in the law's words, «onerous and temporary»: it takes a temporary authorisation or a concession¹.

Management lies with the municipalities, which may act jointly. On Lake Orta this is the Convenzione Lago d'Orta – Demanio idrico lacuale, led by the municipality of Pella and recognised by the Region as the joint management body³. Applications go from its office to the regional technical department in Novara and Verbania, which gives the hydraulic clearance⁴. What may be done where is set by the «Piano disciplinante l'uso del demanio del lago d'Orta», the plan approved by Pella on behalf of the Convenzione in 2011 and supplemented in 2012⁵.

Two consequences for anyone with a house on the shore. Even with an exclusive concession, the holder may «never prevent public access to the shoreline»². And the regional rules give no priority to the owner of the house opposite: among competing applications, with equal projects, public bodies and non-profit associations come first, and when several parties ask for the same use there is a tender on the technical and financial terms².

The application goes to the authority managing the estate, that is the Convenzione's office, describing the use with drawings of the area; it is posted on the municipal notice board for 15 days, and within 30 days of publication anyone may object or file a competing application². Before the concession is issued the processing fees are paid, at the amount set by the municipalities or the joint body¹. Then these rules apply²:

• for buoys and jetties the concession lasts nine years at most and always expires on 31 December;
• the fee is paid in advance by 28 February each year; within the following thirty days it is paid with a 3% penalty, and if the year is not paid by 31 December the concession lapses;
• renewal must be requested at least 180 days before expiry;
• the deposit, for items on the tariff, equals one year's fee and secures the obligations and the restoration of the site;
• sub-concession is forbidden.

The Region sets the fee every year, updated by the ISTAT index: +1.5% for 2026³. The resolution adds that guarantees are fixed by the municipality or the joint body when it grants the concession³. The 2026 basic rates, which apply on Lake Orta as they stand:

Two examples, at 2026 rates. A 5.5-metre boat on a buoy with an anchoring point on land pays €197.68 + €39.55 = €237.23 a year; if the deposit is one year's fee, the same amount again is lodged as security in the first year. Over nine years that makes €2,135.07 at 2026 prices, somewhat more with the ISTAT update. A 2 × 6-metre jetty, i.e. 12 m², costs €546.24 a year if fixed, €474.60 if floating, €395.52 if movable. Not included: processing fees, the buoy and its mooring block, and insurance for the boat.

For comparison: on Lake Maggiore, Baveno, Verbania and Stresa apply 30% more, and the same buoy for a boat up to 6 metres costs €256.98³.

Where. The plan for the lake estate allows buoys outside the «prohibited areas» drawn on its map, as long as they do not hinder the routes of the scheduled boats, bathing and passage⁵. In 2011–2012 the same plan counted the berths under concession at public jetties: 180 in Omegna, in three harbours, 82 in Pella, 20 in Orta San Giulio (Ortello) and 15 in Pettenasco (Punta di Crabbia)⁵. Those are the figures of the time: today's must be asked of the Convenzione's office.

Without a title. Boats may not be moored at mooring points without a concession, nor to the yellow buoys that mark the lake's zones⁶. Occupying the public estate without a concession carries a fine of €200 to €2,000; occupying the water without the authorisation required for buoys and works that interfere with navigation, €500 to €5,000¹.

If the house you are buying «comes with a buoy». A concession is personal: it passes to someone else only if there are no competing applications, with a new title issued by the authority and keeping the original expiry; heirs take over if they ask within six months². Before the deed, ask the seller for the concession document, its expiry and the fee receipts, and ask the Convenzione's office whether a transfer is possible. In a listing, «buoy» or «jetty» describes a concession, not part of the property.

On public waters «navigation is free», but whoever is in charge must make sure it can be done without danger¹. On Lake Orta the rules are set by regional regulation no. 6/R of 2009, written for this lake⁶:

• Size. Pleasure craft of more than 6 tonnes gross tonnage and more than 3.50 metres beam are banned; living on board is banned.
• Shore strip. Up to 100 metres from the shore only sail, oars, pedal boats, windsurf boards and anglers may navigate; motor boats cross it by the shortest route, at right angles to the shore, at no more than 7 km/h. The strip is marked by round yellow buoys.
• Speed. Never above 20 knots (37 km/h) by day and 4 knots (7 km/h) at night.
• Distances. At least 50 metres from scheduled boats; at least 100 metres from buoys marking divers; no entry into reed beds, archaeological or nature areas, or the 100 metres around them.
• Between the island and Orta. In the water between the Isola di San Giulio and the eastern shore, water-skiing, towing inflatables and jet skis are banned; island residents may use motor boats there.
• Water-skiing and towing. From 8 a.m. to sunset, beyond 100 metres from shore and islands, with a life jacket for whoever is towed; at most 45 km/h with a skier and 20 knots with banana boats and rings; a boating licence is required whatever the engine.
• Jet skis. Only from 9 to 12 and from 16 to 18, beyond 100 metres from shore and islands, at 30 km/h at most, with a licence and a life jacket; they cross the shore strip at no more than 5 km/h and may not be left on beaches or public land.
• Wind. Windsurfing from one hour after sunrise to sunset, with a life jacket; kitesurfing and parasailing are banned, as are seaplanes and free flight.
• Engine. No more than 70 decibels measured at 25 metres; two-stroke engines use biodegradable oil.
• On board. A copy of the regulation, except on jet skis, windsurf boards, rowing and pedal boats.

Breaking the regulation costs €100 to €1,000⁶. The lakeside municipalities may ban or restrict water-skiing, towing, jet skis and bathing with stricter rules⁶: we have not collected the orders in force in each municipality.

Between Ronco and Oira. Because of a landslide on the slope between Ronco (Pella) and Oira (Nonio), a notice to boaters from the Convenzione has suspended all navigation since 5 March 2024, «until the alert ends»: scheduled and private, motorised or not, in the water facing the landslide for 150 metres from the shore⁷. The Pella municipal page that publishes it was last updated on 15 January 2026.

Under national rules, on inland waters a boating licence is needed when the engine exceeds a given displacement (for example 1,000 cc for a four-stroke outboard, 750 cc for a carburettor two-stroke) or a power of 30 kW, i.e. 40.8 hp; and it is always needed for a jet ski⁸. Below those thresholds no licence is needed: from 18 for a boat, from 16 for a small craft (natante), from 14 for a sailing boat over 4 m² or a rowing boat more than one mile from the shore⁸.

On Lake Orta the rule is stricter: anyone towing skiers or inflatables must hold a licence whatever the engine power⁶.

A natante, that is a rowing boat or a boat up to 10 metres long, and a jet ski are not entered in the national pleasure-craft register and have no navigation licence⁹. Third-party liability insurance is compulsory for every motor boat, including detachable outboards of any power; not for boats without an engine¹⁰.

Whether and how a boating licence issued in another country is valid in Italy we have not verified: ask before putting a boat above the thresholds in the water.

The lake has 15 official bathing areas, in 7 municipalities; the European data count sixteen points, because Prarolo and Porto di Lagna are counted separately¹¹¹². Each area has a class, based on the samples of four seasons¹⁴. This is how the 2026 season opened:

The 2026 season ran from 15 May to 30 September¹¹. Each area was sampled five times, the last on 2 September, and none of the 75 samples exceeded the limits¹¹. The two areas rated sufficient are both in Omegna.

Bathing rules. Beyond 100 metres from the shore you may only swim with a support boat and a red cap⁶. No bathing in harbours or within 50 metres of their entrances, nor at public jetties or those of the scheduled boats; no diving from the scheduled-boat jetties⁶. Areas reserved for bathers reach 150 metres from the shore at most, are marked by yellow buoys of at least 40 cm, and no craft may enter them, kayaks and boards included¹³. Where there is no lifeguard the municipality puts up a sign, in English, French and German too, warning that bathing is unsafe for lack of a rescue service¹³.

Two different seasons. The health-monitoring season is set by the Region: 15 May to 30 September in 2025 and in 2026¹⁴¹¹. The season under the navigation law, which governs lifeguards and reserved areas, runs from 15 June to 15 September, and municipalities may bring it forward by up to 45 days or extend it by up to 30¹.

For decades Lake Orta was a textbook case. From 1926–27 the discharges of a Bemberg rayon factory, which used the cuprammonium process, put copper and ammonia into the lake; from the 1960s the metals of electroplating works were added: copper, chromium, nickel, zinc¹⁷¹⁸. The pH fell to between 3.9 and 4.4, and until 1989 Orta was the largest acidified deep lake in the world¹⁷; ARPA describes it as a «dead» lake for more than sixty years¹⁶.

In 1982 ammonium loads were drastically cut, but the acidity remained¹⁷. The remedy was liming, proposed by the CNR institute in Pallanza: between May 1989 and June 1990 about 14,800 tonnes of powdered limestone were poured into the lake¹⁷¹⁶. Since early 1991 the whole water mass has been neutralised, and in 1999–2000 the pH was back to natural values, between 6.7 and 6.9¹⁷. The top ten centimetres of the lake bed still hold about 900 tonnes of copper and as much chromium¹⁸; in 2014 the CNR described an almost complete recovery from acidification and a lake poor in nutrients, with total phosphorus below 10 micrograms per litre¹⁹.

Today. For 2020–2022 ARPA Piemonte rated Orta's ecological status «good», one of only two Piedmont lakes in that class; its chemical status is «not good» because the annual average of PFOS exceeds the quality standard, a substance looked for in lakes only since 2020¹⁵. The report does not publish the concentrations, and in July 2026 the 2023–2025 classification had not yet come out¹⁶. The comparison with Maggiore is in the guide Orta or Maggiore?.

In Piedmont you fish with the regional licence or a temporary permit²⁰. For anglers it is the type B licence: €35, i.e. €12 tax and €23 surtax, valid for 365 days from payment; the receipt is the licence²¹²⁰. The type D licence, reserved for foreign nationals, costs €14 for three months²¹. Payment is through PagoPA, from the «Licenza di pesca» service on Sistemapiemonte; an Italian citizen living abroad chooses «EE – Stato estero» as the province²¹. While fishing you need the receipt and an identity document²¹.

Licences from other Italian regions are valid here too; Italian citizens under 14 and people with disabilities under Law 104 of 1992 are exempt²⁰²¹. Fishing without a licence costs €50 to €300²⁰.

An example: a foreign owner who fishes in spring and in summer spends €28 on two type D licences; whether they may take the type B instead, €35 for a whole year, the regional page does not say.

The lake rules, shared by the provinces of Novara and Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, have been in force since 8 June 2026²². Commercial fishing is not allowed, and exclusive fishing rights belong to the provincial estate or to anglers' associations²². From a boat people fish with the tirlindana, the traditional trolling line: one rig per angler, two per boat and eight lures in all, with a white ball of at least 30 cm clearly displayed as a signal; not at night, and from 1 February to 31 August not within 50 metres of the shore²². With a rod, two rigs with at most five hooks each²². Echo sounders and live sonar are banned while fishing from boats, canoes, kayaks or belly boats²².

For almost all the species in the table the catch counts towards the limit of 5 kg a day²². In the province of Novara the electronic catch record, via an app, starts on 1 January 2027; until then no record is needed there, while in Verbano-Cusio-Ossola the paper record of the holder of the exclusive right applies²². Fishing from the scheduled-boat jetties is not allowed⁶.

Oars and pedals are, with sail and anglers, the only craft allowed within 100 metres of the shore⁶. Canoes, gigs, sandolini and pedal boats go out with a calm lake and good weather, with no more people than the builder allows; they are banned on the route of the scheduled boats, within 200 metres of their landing stages, in harbours except to reach a mooring, and in areas reserved for other activities⁶. They need not carry a copy of the regulation⁶ and do not enter areas reserved for bathers¹³.

National rules let canoes, kayaks and boards without CE marking navigate within one mile of the shore⁹; rowing beyond one mile requires being 14⁸.

The lake regulation does not mention SUP: it speaks of windsurf boards and of rowing or pedal craft. We found no Piedmont rule making a life jacket compulsory on a kayak or a SUP; wearing one away from the shore is still prudent.

A house on Lake Orta is also worth what can be done from the water. But a buoy or a jetty is a concession with a holder and an expiry date: for a buyer what counts is the document, the years left, the fees paid and whether it can be transferred; for a seller, having those papers in order before putting the house on the market makes it possible to say exactly what passes to the buyer and on what terms.

Do you own a house on the lake with a buoy or a jetty and are thinking of letting or selling it? The guide Renting out your lake home explains the rules for letting; the tool From price to net shows what a sale leaves you; if you would like our view on your house, tell us about it.