About that “break” I mentioned at the end of my last post; we went on an Overseas Adventure Travel tour to Peru.  As soon as I complete my blogs about this tour, I will begin my posts on our amazing and fabulous adventure!

Meanwhile, back in Italy, while the rest of the group went on an optional tour, Bruce and I opted to spend the day exploring on our own.  We walked to the charming town of Iseo to catch the ferry to the island of Monte Isola, and we immediately knew we wanted to save some time to see more on the way back.

(For all photos, click on the image for a full screen view.)

Monte Isola, located in the middle of Lake Iseo, is 1.7 square miles in size and has a population of less than 2,000.  It is a beautiful island that peaks at just under 2000 feet, making it a challenge to traverse on foot.  We set out to hike one of the loops that took us through the cobbled-street town, and along the waterfront. 

We then turned inland to traverse the island’s steep interior. When I say steep, I mean steep!  On one of the roads, a sign warned a couple of cyclists about the steep grade as they walked their bikes up the incline, huffing and puffing.  I wondered if they muttered to each other, “Tell me something I don’t already know!”  Meanwhile, cyclists flew by in the other direction, as they raced downhill.  There was no walking path for pedestrians and no shoulder, so we carefully navigated as bikes and a few cars flew down as we walked up. 

Celebrating our achievement of making it to the top, we enjoyed the spectacular views of the lake down below and Iseo off in the distance.  It was definitely worth the hike up, even if it was challenging and clouds threatened to drench us along the way.  (Fortunately, we stayed dry!)

After we completed the loop back to town, we thoroughly enjoyed exploring the ancient, cobbled-street town with its steep and windy back streets. Ancient is a subjective description, but there is indication the town was a Roman settlement dating back to 905!  This town has history!

More recently, Monte Isola’s little commune became famous when artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude created an incredible temporary installation, The Floating Piers, in 2016. These are a few photos I shot of the photo exhibit that was on display along the waterfront:

The skies cleared for our ferry ride back to Iseo, so we enjoyed weaving our way in and out of the streets after we arrived, exploring around each corner. 

We decided to have pizza for dinner at a little place I found on Trip Advisor, Forno Di Porta del Camo.  Check out the link for my review, “Great Owner & Great Pizza.”  We will never forget the owner or his pizza.  We laughed about it the entire way back to our hotel!

Next up: SWITZERLAND & NORTHERN ITALY #16: TRAVELING TO TRENTO