Life after Annandale High: Discovering Lake Iseo

On the first of May, we left Tirano and headed south towards Lombardy’s lake country once again. We planned to end the day at one of Italy’s lesser known lakes, Lake Iseo. May 1 is the May Day holiday, the Italian Labor Day, so there was plenty of traffic on the roads and in the towns where we stopped along the way.

It was a lovely day for drive although the many daring motorcycle drivers we encountered made for some tense moments on the switchbacks. At least large trucks are banned from roads on Sundays and public holidays. Shortly after we departed, we passed the alpine town of Aprica, a popular place for skiing in the winter and mountain biking in the summer. Many Italians have second homes in this area, where the hillsides are covered in thick pine forests. The town is located on the pass connecting two valleys, the Valtellina and the Val Camonica.

We took a coffee/restroom break in the town of Edolo in the upper Camonica valley. In the photo below, Gabriele, our tour leader, is enjoying his coffee. The premier Italian bicycle race, the Giro d’Italia, passes through Edolo every year. As a result, the town attracts a lot of bikers and cyclists.

Our route took us past Niardo, a town of about 2000 inhabitants set dramatically at the base of the mountains.

We were now approaching the Pianura Padana, a geographic feature that I’d never heard of. Gabriele explained that it’s a huge area of flat land that spreads out on both sides of the Po River. It runs about 652 kilometers (400 miles) from the western Alps to the Adriatic Sea and includes parts of Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, and Veneto in northern Italy. Huge is no exaggeration. The Pianura Padana covers 18,000 square miles (46,000 square kilometers), making it the largest unbroken plain in southern Europe.

The Pianura Padana is Italy’s economic heartland, the center of both agricultural and industrial activity. The cities of Milan and Turin are located here, a third of Italy’s population lives here, and the area generates half the country’s GDP. With the Po River providing the water for irrigation, this is where much of the country’s wine is produced. How did I not know about this?

Sure enough, the landscape soon flattened out. We drove through Sulzano, on the shores of Lake Iseo, but didn’t stop.

Just south of the lake, we looked out the windows of the bus at unending expanses of vineyards.

We were now in Franciacorta country and it was time to learn about the production of the sparkling white wine that the region is famous for. At the Bersi Serlini winery, which uses the classical Champenoise method, we toured the facilities and tasted three different Franciacorta wines. The winery has a long history. It was founded by Cluny monks in the late 11^th century and operated by the monastic order for 700 years. In 1886, the Bersi Serlini family acquired the property. The original medieval wine cellar is still in use. Today, the winery produces ten different varieties of sparkling wine from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes, with an annual output of 150,000 bottles. Unlike Prosecco, which ferments once, Franciacorta sparkling wines are fermented twice. The first fermentation takes place in stainless steel tanks and produces a still wine. The wine ferments for a second time in bottles and this is when the tiny bubbles are formed.

After our Franciacorta experience, we drove back north along Lake Iseo to Pisogne, the town that would be our base for the next 2 days. My room in the Capovilla Hotel was quite spacious and from the balcony, I had views of the lake and the lungolago.

Lake Iseo, like neighboring lakes Como and Garda, is located at the foot of the Alps just north of the Pianura Padana. Although it’s Italy’s 4^th largest lake, Iseo is considerably smaller than the more well-known lakes in Lombardy. Pisogne (population a little over 800), on the northeast shore of the lake, is a very attractive town, and not nearly as crowded with tourists as the towns we’d visited on Lake Como.

Gabriele led us on an orientation walk through Pisogne’s compact and charming historic center.

We followed the narrow Via Torrazzo (Tower Street) where several artists and artisans were displaying and selling their work. Gabriele pointed out the hanging sculptures of fish skeletons that adorned several of the buildings throughout the old part of town.

Tower Street brought us out to the sunny Piazza Mercato, or Market Square. Because of its location, Pisogne developed as a trade center for the entire valley as early as the Middle Ages. The market was held in the Piazza Mercato.

The Bishop’s Tower, overlooking the square, was built between the 13^th and 14^th centuries. It was surrounded by a large marshy area. In fact, until the beginning of the last century, the waters of the lake reached almost to the tower.

At the far end of the square is the parish church that dates back to the late 18^th century.

The following day started with a leisurely post-breakfast walk along the lungolago. I even sat on a bench for a while and read a few more pages of The Betrothed, the book I’d begun back in Genoa. My goal was to finish the 600-plus page novel before leaving Italy.

We took a late morning train from Pisogne to Sulzano, where we boarded a ferry for the 5-minute ride to Monte Isola, the island in the center of Lake Iseo. I wasn’t surprised that the train and the ferry were both packed with people on holiday since it was the middle of the long May Day weekend.

Monte Isola is Europe’s largest inhabited lake island. There are 12 tiny hamlets on the island and a hilltop medieval church, the 15^th century Sanctuary of the Madonna of Ceriola at the summit of the island. The economy is based on fishing and the construction of nets and wooden boats.

The first thing I did was grab a quick bite to eat near the ferry dock.

Once fortified, I set out with fellow traveler Marilynne to walk the Olive Trail on the south side of the island. I did my best to ignore the crowds along the way and to focus on the island’s natural beauty. To the right, we looked at the lush green hillsides covered with olive trees and to the left, we looked out at the clear calm waters of the lake.

It was a hot, sunny day, and after an hour of walking, we were relieved to find a table at a busy lakeside restaurant. Cool drinks, a crisp salad, and (for me) pesce misto restored our energy for a slow walk back to the ferry. (8219,20, 21)

All I wanted for dinner back in Pisogne was a piadina, the classic Italian grilled flatbread sandwich, that I found at a casual restaurant facing the Market Square.