FYI -- Using The Bus System In Stresa

This is where the bus stops in Stresa. Wait by the pole with the sign. There is a schedule posted on the pole. The lake and the imbarcadero are to your right; the Chiesa di Sant'Ambrogio, the light blue, large church, is to your left.

Taking the buses in Stresa to get around shouldn’t scare you. It’s easy, inexpensive, and can get you to a lot of places that you can’t reach by train, or without a car. The concerns are usually which bus to take, how many buses will I need to get where I want to go, and what is the schedule?

Hopefully this post will help to alleviate some of those concerns.

The following link brings you to a very good, interactive map of the VCO local bus system. Perhaps open it in another window to follow these directions at the same time.

Open the link here.

You are now on the home page for the bus site, with a choice of summer schedule, from June 14 through September 8 (orario estivo), or the winter schedule for the rest of the year (orario invernale). Let’s use the summer schedule here as an example. The map looks like this, but is interactive on the site.

Let’s say you want to go to Orta, on Lago Orta, which is a popular and worthwhile day trip from Stresa. Click on the dot representing Stresa. This will bring up a list on the left of various routes available from Stresa. Clicking through on those routes will bring up a red line on the map, indicating the path of that route. Is there a direct route to Orta? There is (Stresa – Gignese – Armano – Orta.) Next, with that route showing, click on the small magnifying glass icon. This will open an Adobe document with the time schedule for that route.

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The main Stresa stop, (Stresa Imb. Nord,) is on the road near the imbarcadero, across from the Chiesa di Sant'Ambrogio. Let’s say you take the 10 am bus from Stresa; you will arrive at the Orta Promenade at 11. And the bottom schedule shows that there are buses at 3 pm and 6 pm to bring you back to Stresa.

By the way:

Fer = Weekdays and Saturdays

Ven = Fridays

Gior = Buses that run everyday

This Orta example fortunately has a direct bus from Stresa. What if your destination doesn’t? Check various routes with the thought of changing in one of the towns to get where you want to go. Carefully check the times of the buses, to be sure that you can make connections.

Costs are not listed here; but I find the bus system to be a very economical mode of transportation, plus, you get to see a bit of the hearts of towns along the way. Maybe even someplace you’d like to visit next.