susan
100+ Posts
I have visited the beautiful Lago d’Iseo (Lake Iseo), the town of Iseo, and have been driven through the beautiful countryside of Franciacorta with dear friends during many of my trips to Italy. In 2017, because of a gap in days between the dates of my stay in Modena and my planned weekend visit with my friends in Coccaglio, I finally booked a 2 night stay on my own in Iseo.
This is going to be a combination trip report, covering my stay in Iseo in 2017, a bike ride around Monte Isola in 2008, and a visit to an abbey and a monastery in Franciacorta in 2005. Many of the restaurants where we have enjoyed delicious meals together over the years are now closed, so I won’t include any of that info in this trip report.
2017 - 2 nights in Iseo
Thursday, June 8th ~ train travel & arrival in Iseo
I am starting this post off with my 3rd train ride of the day (Brescia to Iseo). Here is the link to my full post which includes my full 3 train travel day as well as more photos of Thursday in Iseo.
When we arrived at the Brescia train station, I was delighted to find an elevator on my binario (train platform). The final train I would be taking was another regional train. I went in search for the new green stamp machines that are now used at train stations to validate my ticket. I could not find any I but did find two older looking yellow ones. I was a little confused at first seeing that they said Trenord on them, but then realized that I was taking a Trenord train. I later found out that all regional trains that travel through this station are now Trenord trains. The Trenord railway company is now the company that operates all regional passenger trains in the Lombardia region.
My tiny 2-car train departed at the Ovest area of this train station. It was already sitting there when I arrived.
The train was pretty crowded with students. I was lucky to find a seat. As it left Brescia, it traveled through the beautiful Franciacorta area. I took a photo through the dirty train window of the vineyards.
This train provided no info/announcements for any of the stops and many of the train stations were so small that it was impossible to know what train station the train was stopping at when looking out the window unless you happened to be seated next to the window right where the tiny sign on the station was located.
Prior knowledge of the area/train stops and a list of stops was pretty important in order to not miss your station. Even with the use of the Rail Planner Eurail/Interrail app, I still asked after every stop to make sure I did not miss my stop! The train was running later and later after each stop so I could not depend on the time that my train was supposed to arrive in Iseo.
As the train became more and more behind as it stopped at each station, I eventually went to sit in the area between the two cars. One guy got off at the wrong stop. He got on my train and talked to one of the train guys about his situation. He was told that he could either stay on the train until the last stop (about 30 minutes after my stop) when the train would return back to Brescia, to reach his stop OR he could get off the train and then wait for the train to finish its route and return back towards Brescia, get back on the train, and then get off at his stop. Either way, it was going to take about an hour to reach his stop! This entire exchange made me even more nervous about missing my stop.
I had not regrets sitting in the area between the 2 cars, and asked people the name of each stop as they got on the train and even poked my head out to be sure so I would not miss my train stop in Iseo.
The Iseo train station turned out to be one of the bigger train stations on the route. Even so, there was no underpass. Instead everyone walked across the tracks after departing the train to reach the station.
The train station did not even have a ticket machine. You had to go to the bar to purchase a train ticket. There also were not any taxis waiting at this train station. None of the cars in the photo below are taxis.
I usually plan out my walking routes from the train station to my accommodation in advance, but planned to take a taxi instead this time. I never imagined that there would not be any taxis at the station.
I started down the main street from the station, using google maps on my phone to find my way. I did not get very far before a very nice woman with a little dog stopped her car and started talking to me. She insisted on giving me a ride. I really was fine with my bag on wheels/piggy back system with my 2nd bag attached to my main bag, but she kept insisting.
She was driving a little car and had a medium size dog with her. She crammed my bags into her car and off we went as she input the address of my accommodation into her GPS. We drove right by the pretty bushes with water fountains soon after we left the train station. I recognized this landmark and knew it was not far from the lake. If only she dropped me off there (as it turns out it was about a 2 minute walk from where I would be staying).
From my previous visits to Iseo with friends, I could tell that she was driving away from the lake but she was from the area and so I figured she must have known where she was going. We drove all around the area and eventually she stopped the car and told me this was as close as she could get because cars were not allowed any further. She really was very nice to give me a ride.
I turned on google maps again and started to follow the little arrow. I could not have taken more than 10 steps when I met an older woman who wanted to help. She sent me up this big hill by the castle telling me this was the best way to go (it was not).
As I continued on my way, following that little arrow on my phone, I ran into another man who wanted to help. He took out his phone and did a search and then gave me more directions, sending me another way. Everyone was so kind and seemed to be very concerned that I had so many bags (even though I did not and they were very manageable). I also was not in a rush except for the fact that I really needed to use the bathroom! I continued to follow the directions the man gave me and ended up running right back into him! Iseo really is a maze of streets. My apartment/hotel ended up being right near where we ran back into each other a second time.
I gave the owner my passport and was given a tour of my suite. I was staying at this place called Apartment/Hotel Borgolago Suites. It was pretty much an apartment with a dishwasher, stove, dishes, pots, pans, etc., as well as a combined washer/dryer, but there was also someone in the lobby most times of the day to provide assistance and someone came to clean the suite every morning. It was huge and very comfortable.
The owner started to provide me with instructions on how to work everything. At one point, I interrupted her and told her that I really needed to use the bathroom. She went back down to the lobby to finish processing my paperwork and then returned with my passport. After that, we finished the tour. The most important part was the combined washer/dryer instructions (more about this later in my next post).
This is going to be a combination trip report, covering my stay in Iseo in 2017, a bike ride around Monte Isola in 2008, and a visit to an abbey and a monastery in Franciacorta in 2005. Many of the restaurants where we have enjoyed delicious meals together over the years are now closed, so I won’t include any of that info in this trip report.
2017 - 2 nights in Iseo
Thursday, June 8th ~ train travel & arrival in Iseo
I am starting this post off with my 3rd train ride of the day (Brescia to Iseo). Here is the link to my full post which includes my full 3 train travel day as well as more photos of Thursday in Iseo.
When we arrived at the Brescia train station, I was delighted to find an elevator on my binario (train platform). The final train I would be taking was another regional train. I went in search for the new green stamp machines that are now used at train stations to validate my ticket. I could not find any I but did find two older looking yellow ones. I was a little confused at first seeing that they said Trenord on them, but then realized that I was taking a Trenord train. I later found out that all regional trains that travel through this station are now Trenord trains. The Trenord railway company is now the company that operates all regional passenger trains in the Lombardia region.
My tiny 2-car train departed at the Ovest area of this train station. It was already sitting there when I arrived.
The train was pretty crowded with students. I was lucky to find a seat. As it left Brescia, it traveled through the beautiful Franciacorta area. I took a photo through the dirty train window of the vineyards.
This train provided no info/announcements for any of the stops and many of the train stations were so small that it was impossible to know what train station the train was stopping at when looking out the window unless you happened to be seated next to the window right where the tiny sign on the station was located.
Prior knowledge of the area/train stops and a list of stops was pretty important in order to not miss your station. Even with the use of the Rail Planner Eurail/Interrail app, I still asked after every stop to make sure I did not miss my stop! The train was running later and later after each stop so I could not depend on the time that my train was supposed to arrive in Iseo.
As the train became more and more behind as it stopped at each station, I eventually went to sit in the area between the two cars. One guy got off at the wrong stop. He got on my train and talked to one of the train guys about his situation. He was told that he could either stay on the train until the last stop (about 30 minutes after my stop) when the train would return back to Brescia, to reach his stop OR he could get off the train and then wait for the train to finish its route and return back towards Brescia, get back on the train, and then get off at his stop. Either way, it was going to take about an hour to reach his stop! This entire exchange made me even more nervous about missing my stop.
I had not regrets sitting in the area between the 2 cars, and asked people the name of each stop as they got on the train and even poked my head out to be sure so I would not miss my train stop in Iseo.
The Iseo train station turned out to be one of the bigger train stations on the route. Even so, there was no underpass. Instead everyone walked across the tracks after departing the train to reach the station.
The train station did not even have a ticket machine. You had to go to the bar to purchase a train ticket. There also were not any taxis waiting at this train station. None of the cars in the photo below are taxis.
I usually plan out my walking routes from the train station to my accommodation in advance, but planned to take a taxi instead this time. I never imagined that there would not be any taxis at the station.
I started down the main street from the station, using google maps on my phone to find my way. I did not get very far before a very nice woman with a little dog stopped her car and started talking to me. She insisted on giving me a ride. I really was fine with my bag on wheels/piggy back system with my 2nd bag attached to my main bag, but she kept insisting.
She was driving a little car and had a medium size dog with her. She crammed my bags into her car and off we went as she input the address of my accommodation into her GPS. We drove right by the pretty bushes with water fountains soon after we left the train station. I recognized this landmark and knew it was not far from the lake. If only she dropped me off there (as it turns out it was about a 2 minute walk from where I would be staying).
From my previous visits to Iseo with friends, I could tell that she was driving away from the lake but she was from the area and so I figured she must have known where she was going. We drove all around the area and eventually she stopped the car and told me this was as close as she could get because cars were not allowed any further. She really was very nice to give me a ride.
I turned on google maps again and started to follow the little arrow. I could not have taken more than 10 steps when I met an older woman who wanted to help. She sent me up this big hill by the castle telling me this was the best way to go (it was not).
As I continued on my way, following that little arrow on my phone, I ran into another man who wanted to help. He took out his phone and did a search and then gave me more directions, sending me another way. Everyone was so kind and seemed to be very concerned that I had so many bags (even though I did not and they were very manageable). I also was not in a rush except for the fact that I really needed to use the bathroom! I continued to follow the directions the man gave me and ended up running right back into him! Iseo really is a maze of streets. My apartment/hotel ended up being right near where we ran back into each other a second time.
I gave the owner my passport and was given a tour of my suite. I was staying at this place called Apartment/Hotel Borgolago Suites. It was pretty much an apartment with a dishwasher, stove, dishes, pots, pans, etc., as well as a combined washer/dryer, but there was also someone in the lobby most times of the day to provide assistance and someone came to clean the suite every morning. It was huge and very comfortable.
The owner started to provide me with instructions on how to work everything. At one point, I interrupted her and told her that I really needed to use the bathroom. She went back down to the lobby to finish processing my paperwork and then returned with my passport. After that, we finished the tour. The most important part was the combined washer/dryer instructions (more about this later in my next post).
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