Lago Iseo and Bergamo

Finally, time for a week of well-deserved holiday! After contemplating various options, we had finally opted for Rhodes. Not our typical holiday destination, the main reason for that choice was that our dear friend Maria is living there.

Getting cheap flights to Rhodos turned out to be a bit of a challenge, though, so we ended up booking a Ryanair flight from Bergamo (near Milan), from Tuesday to Tuesday. Due to this somewhat unusual arrangement, we decided to spend a couple of days around Bergamo, seeing as we are quite fond of Italy (as you have no doubt noticed, if you belong to the small group of people who read this blog regularly). After some contemplation, we booked two nights at Lago Iseo, and one night at Bergamo.

Lago Iseo is one of the smaller and less famous lakes located in Northern Italy (the more famous ones being Como, Maggiore and Garda), but it still measures a not-to-be-frowned-upon 25 kilometres in length. Our hotel was located in the rather charming town of Sarnico, a typically cute little Northern Italian town. We spent the evening walking around the place, finishing off our exploration with dinner in a restaurant overlooking the lake (having fish from the lake, naturally!). A good start to our vacation, I would say!

The next day, we decided to head out to Montisola, the biggest island on the lake (and indeed, the biggest lake on an island in south/central Europe, apparently!). We arrived on the southern shore of the island, at the small fishing village of Peschiera Maraglio. From there, we decided to hike up to a monastery occupying the highest point of the island. It was kind of hard work, with the scorching sun overlooking us. The church itself wasn’t that interesting, but the views over the island and the lake made our efforts well worth it!

From the monastery we continued our hike to the other side of the island, finishing in the main village, Carzano. It was a typically picturesque place one finds in Italy, with nice cobble-stoned streets and pastel-coloured houses. After a quick tour of the village, we decided to head for the beach that had been recommended to us at the tourist office, to have a swim. “Beach” is quite a generous term for the place we found – actually it was more of a lawn, where people were catching a few sunrays. The swimming possibilities were also somewhat limited; there was basically just a jetty for boats from where to take a dip. We had a quick one anyway…

We caught the boat back in the evening, once more taking in the beautiful lakeside views. We finished a very success day with a romantic dinner in a cosy restaurant off the main square of Sarnico.

The next day, it was time to hit the road for Bergamo, where we were spending one last night before catching our flight to Greece Tuesday morning. A quick 30 minutes’ drive later, we arrived at the town centre. After a quick visit to the tourist office in the modern part of time, we headed towards the old town, or Citta Alta (the “high city”, located on a kind of plateau (makes for quite a dramatic sight, actually). After a quick tour around the charming streets of Bergamo, it was time for a spot of lunch. After consulting our guidebook, we ended up in a very nice little eatery called “Circolino Cooperativa Citta Alta”, a kind of big canteen with a very nice garden, with outdoors seating. We really liked the concept – like a mixture between a canteen and a restaurant, with very reasonable prices for very decent food indeed (the clientele was a mixture of students, workers on their lunch breaks, and a few tourists).

Having filled our stomachs, we continued our exploration of Bergamo. It’s a very impressive, very well preserved medieval gem of a town – we really liked the place. The highlight, if one has to choose one, would probably be the 12th century Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore, housing the stunning Colleoni Chapel. But as often in Italy, the best way to appreciate what the town has to offer is to just have a walk around and enjoy the atmosphere.

Definitely a place we will have to visit again at some point! After our little tour of the Citta Alta, we made our way back down to the modern part of town (which is pretty nice as well, actually), and then drove back to our hotel (which was located at the outskirts of town). In the evening, we walked around the modern town for a bit more, before having a very nice little aperitif on a nice square. In fact, we had so much to eat during the aperitif that we decided not to have dinner at all – so after an ice cream for dessert, we made our way back to the hotel…

All in all, a very nice little mini-break to kick off our holidays!