What to do around Lake Orta (Northern Italy)? Cosa fare intorno al Lago d'Orta (Nord Italia)?

Scotty, no need for Italian translation here.

As for your specific question, have you poked around TripAdvisor at all? They usually have all sorts of suggestions on activities.

Io ti raccomando di visitare l'Isola di San Giulio e il paesino di Orta San Giulio.
Poi, siccome il lago Maggiore e' solo a pochi minuti di distanza, ti suggerisco di visitare anche quello. In particolare fatti un giro in barca sulle isole (Isola Bella, Isola Madre e Isola dei Pescatori) partendo da Stresa o Verbania. Poi con l'auto ti puoi visitare tutto intorno al lago, passando anche per la Svizzera. La mia parte preferita e' la costa piemontese a nord di Verbania, in particolare Cannero Riviera e Cannobio.
Fai buon viaggio e cerca di non usare troppo Google Translate, perche' spesso la traduzione viene fuori un po' strampalata.

@ Michael - I did search and didn’t find anything. I wanted to put it Italian because some who maybe living in Italy and doesn’t write in English will respond in Italian. Google translation is awesome.

@ Roberto - Grazie mille. Ottimi consigli. Scotty

"Google translation is awesome."

Have you seen what it does for the "English" translation of foreign languages? While it's certainly better than nothing, and can be a great help if you just need to get the gist of a hotel review or a website, I'd hardly call it "awesome." Be very careful if you're using it to send something to a native speaker.

You might want to check out TripAdvisor forums in Italian, if you want to get some input from Italians.

Back to the original question....
I was at Lake Orta for almost 3 days with RS Village Italy Tour and then stayed 2 more nights.
I loved walking around the small town, took the boat out to the Island in the middle of the lake,
visited the church and took the "walk of silence" around the small island.
Back to the town of San Guilio .
There is hill/park area that has about 12 small chapels and each has a small scene with statues of
a religious event. A nice day in the park.
There is also a beautiful view from the top of the lake and the island .
I lost count of how many photos I took in this at this town/island

Here is a pretty good travel link:

Lake Orta

I hope those suggestions help get your started. "Strampalata" is a great-sounding word.

@Frances - Thank you “Back to the original question.…”
Thanks for the great ideas and I will definitely check them out..