Close to the summit of Monte Mottarone, we sit in silence soaking up the 360-degree views. To the east, far below, sparkles Lake Maggiore. A handful of other lakes shimmer in the late-afternoon sunlight, while layer upon layer of rolling hills and the jagged snow-capped Alps melt into the horizon. We’re lucky: the bright, cloudless skies are a boon, and I’d be hard pushed to namecheck a more beautiful landscape.

There’s easy access to this north Italian panorama via the 20-minute cable car ride from the lakeside town of Stresa. My friend and I, however, are on a walking holiday between Lakes Maggiore and Orta, so arrive on foot after a four-hour hike from Alpino, the cable car’s half-way stop.

At almost 1,500 metres, Mottarone is a popular skiing spot in winter – the ski club here, one of the first in Italy, was founded in 1909 – and we pass under a toboggan and ski lift before Villa Pizzini, a restaurant with rooms near the mountaintop, comes into sight and our day’s hike is done.

Isola dei Pescatori. Photograph: Jane Dunford

“You’ve earned your dinner,” says owner Ivan Fiorilla as we check in. There’s a surprising south London twang to his accent – he lived in Peckham for years before returning to Italy to open this place with girlfriend Sabina (an architect turned self-taught chef) in 2015.

It took the couple a year-and-a -half to renovate the abandoned 19th-century hunting lodge. There are five comfy rooms and the forested setting overlooking Maggiore is spectacular, but it’s the cuisine – using produce from their own gardens and local farmers – that people come for. That night we devour velvety pumpkin and chestnut soup, beetroot pasta with goats’ cheese, and mushroom mille foglie with delicious Piedmont wine (the extensive list features 100 from this region alone). It’s an intimate space with just 28 covers, and with a four-course tasting menu for €40 (or €52 for six courses), it’s good value too.

From up here we can see Isola dei Pescatori, the island in Lake Maggiore where we’d stayed the previous night. One of the three Borromean islands, it’s a short boat ride from Stresa and at sunset its cobbled streets were almost deserted, the day-trippers gone.

The cable car between Stresa and Alpino. Photograph: Alamy

In the 18th century, the lakes were the first Italian stop on the Grand Tour – the romantic poets adored them – and a genteel atmosphere remains. It’s fun to jump on the little local ferries and island-hop: Isola Bella, a five-minute jaunt from Pescatori, has a grand baroque palace and Italianate gardens, but we fall in love with Isola Madre, with its enchanting sub-tropical gardens.

We’re sampling a new trip from On Foot Holidays, staying for four nights, but there are also five, six and seven-night options that include walks around the shore of Maggiore, and the smaller lake Mergozzo. The terrain isn’t too tough, with three to six hours hiking a day, and luggage is transferred, so we travel light.

Grand villas line the road from Alpino to Gignese (a sleepy town famous for its umbrella museum), but soon we leave civilisation behind, following a path that snakes through woodland, gradually climbing into the hills towards Mottarone. There’s no GPS signal but we have detailed notes and maps to help us find our way around meadows, farm buildings, and silver birch, beech and chestnut woods – glimpsing more lakes and mountains at each break in the trees.

Early evening high on Mount Mottarone. Photograph: Jane Dunford

In spring, flowers paint the pastures in many colours, in summer the trees shelter you from the excessive heat of the day, but we’re here in autumn and the leaves are crisp underfoot, the sky is blue and the temperature is still warm. We hardly pass a soul – just the odd forager filling baskets with the chestnuts and mushrooms that carpet the forest floor.

As we ascend, and the climb becomes more challenging, but the views are reward for achy legs. We stop for a rest and hear cowbells chiming loudly in the fields below. Each time we think it can’t possibly get more spectacular, we round a bend and are proven wrong.

Villa Pizzini is a hard place to leave but after a sound night’s sleep and a breakfast of homemade cake and strong coffee, we feel ready for the four-hour downhill stint to Lake Orta on the other side of Mottarone (longer itineraries include a night at the hill town of Armeno).

Ivan and Sabina, who run Villa Pizzini. Photograph: Jane Dunford

Again we cross meadows, walk deep into dark forests and cross streams where we fill our water bottles. We pass age-old hamlets, remote churches and village taverns, glimpsing slow-paced life far away from tourist haunts.

As we near Orta San Guilio, the lake’s main town, our route takes us to the Sacro Monte di Orta, a complex of 20 chapels, rich with frescoes and statues, set in woodland on the hillside, recounting episodes from the life of Saint Francis of Assisi. Just below lies limpid Lake Orta and we reach the town’s medieval square in time for an Aperol Spritz at our hotel on the water’s edge before dark, when the town hall and 14th-century church are lit up to magical effect.

Mystical Lake Orta offers another playground of its own, with boats to take visitors to ancient villages and monasteries, and more wonderful lakeside and hill walks.

A restaurant in Orta San Giulio. Photograph: Alamy

I could easily keep exploring, enjoying the immersion in nature, sense of achievement and focus on life’s simple pleasures that a walking holiday brings.

As an old forager we met in the woods one day said: “Walk in nature, eat pasta, drink wine, then sleep like a baby … What else is there?”

How to do it

The trip was provided by On Foot Holidays. Four, five, six and seven-night routes are available, from £600 to £820, including B&B, luggage transfers and maps. Stresa is about 90 minutes from Milan’s Malpensa airport by bus (one hour by car).

When to go

The trip is available from late March to October; April, June and September are the best months for avoiding summer heat and crowds.

Looking for walking holiday inspiration? Browse The Guardian’s selection of walking holidays on the Guardian Holidays website