If you would like to see details about our journey, check out our itinerary and our bike route.
Lake Iseo is much smaller and quieter than Lake Garda, but it, too, has a busy, narrow highway shared by cars, campers, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrians. It also has tunnels, especially on the west side of the lake. On the east side, a few miles north of Pilzone, there is a dedicated bike/pedestrian path that runs about 8 miles up to the north end of the lake.
It was another gorgeous day, and we were feeling good, so we decided to try riding our bikes around the lake, and see how far we could get without it being too dangerous or scary. We started by heading north, toward the cycle path.
The first few miles were not comfortable. A very, very narrow highway, fast traffic leaving just inches of space, lots and lots and lots of bikes. By the time we hit the dedicated cycle path, we were over riding on the highway.
The cycle path was nice, pretty, right beside the lake, not too crowded. We continued on up to Pisogne, on the northeast corner of the lake, and stopped at a cafe for cappuccini and cornetti. Not wanting to spend any more time than we had to on the highway, and definitely not wanting to pedal through the highway tunnels on the west side of the lake, we turned around and cycled back toward Pilzone, planning to stop for lunch at a nice restaurant along the way.
That restaurant was closed, as were a couple of others that we had thought looked interesting. We had a little roadside conference in Pilzone, and decided to push on for a couple more miles and check out the old town area of Iseo. There, too, the first two restaurants we tried were closed. The third was so crowded there was a line, and nowhere to park the bikes safely. We finally found an open restaurant on a side street with empty tables and a wall to lean our bikes against. We tried two typical regional dishes, both pretty heavy on the butter and cream and not that great. But we were glad to have seen Iseo.
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| The dedicated bike/pedestrian path on the northeast shore of Lake Iseo was beautiful and fun to ride. |
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| On the west side of the lake, steep hills spill right into the water. There is no bike path over there. Bikes share the highway, with no shoulders and with long tunnels. |
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| Looking toward Pisogne, in the northeast corner of the lake. |
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| Ken on the path. |
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| The bike path had its own tunnels. They were short and easy to navigate. |
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| Leaving Pisogne, heading back down the east side of the lake. |
