Lake Iseo

Cradled in a deep glacial valley north-west of Brescia, Lake Iseo doesn't feature in most tour operators' Italian Lakes brochures. That's one reason to go there; another is the 
scenery. With its twists and turns, and the steep, thickly wooded slopes that rise up, especially in thewest, from the water, Iseo is a place of continually shifting perspectives. A promontory jutting out from the eastern shore turns out to be an island; what looks like the head of the lake opens up to reveal another sheet of water. Morning mists can further confuse the eye, and the midday sun can dazzle it into submission.The lake is poised between two freaks of nature. A few miles to the east are the pyramids of Zone,not a New Age cure but spindly pinnacles of soft rock, most of which have large boulders perched on top. Left by a passing glacier, the boulders acted as umbrellas to the softer rocks beneath, protecting them from pluvial erosion.Then, if you take the road that heads west from Lovere, a prim medieval town on the northern reaches of the lake, you will find, near the village of Solto Collina, the Valle del Freddo, a rock strewn valley where, even in summer, icy draughts emanate from the depths like a huge natural air conditioning system. Though only 400 meters above sea level, the valley has Alpine vegetation normally found at 2,000 metres.Tourists are welcome on Iseo, but they do not run the whole show as in some parts of the larger lakes. Partly this is because Iseo is not a big enough solar radiator to create its own Mediterranean microclimate. Autumn comes earlier here than on Como, Maggiore or Garda; olives take the place of lemons, while horse chestnuts stand in admirably for palm trees. This is a place where people live and work, and sometimes the work is of the kind more associated with the industrial belt between Milan and Brescia to the south,as at Tavernola Bergamasca, on the western shore, where a huge quarry and cement works eats into the hillside.Lake Iseo has a certain unrestrained elegance, too, but without the frilly excesses of Stresa or Sirmione. This is most evident in Iseo itself the lake's main town, with its handsome waterside promenade and its wide squares lined by low arcades; as in Siena, civilization seems to emanate from the very ground plan. Phalanxes of chairs and tables occupy strategic points on the main square, Piazza Garibaldi, where locals and the odd tourist drink 'aperitivi' before heading off for dinner at Il Volto (via Mirolte), a friendly wine bar which offers some of the most creative cooking for miles, based on fresh local ingredients including game and,as ever,lake fish.From Sulzano and Sale Marasino on the lake's eastern shore, boats ply back and forth to Monte Isola, which proclaims itself 'Europe's largest lake island'. With its uneven, dromedary outline it is certainly one of the steepest,as anyone who climbs through the olive and walnut trees to the l3th century church of Madonna della Ceriola will discover, trees to the lake below.