14^th September 2025

 

           Dear All,

We are just back from an action packed and enjoyable 8 days in Northern Italy billed as “The Hidden Lakes”. A 7.05am flight from Heathrow is not an ideal start – we opted for a taxi which collected us at 2.30am. The plane landed in Milan and we were transported to Lovere for 3 nights stay on the shore of Lake Iseo. Lovere is an attractive small town which we had time to explore and also enjoyed a boat trip round the lake including a visit to Monte Isole the largest inland island in Europe. The island was preparing for a flower festival with a difference as all the flowers were made of paper.

 

 

Lovere from Lake Iseo

 

 

Paper Flowers

 

 

Isola di Loreto in Lake Iseo

 

On Monday we had a trip to Bergamo with a conducted tour of the old city including a ride on the funicular. On the way back we had a tour of a winery including a meal and wine tasting.

 

 

Bergamo Merchants house

 

 

Bell Tower

 

 

 

Winery

We left Lovere on Tuesday morning and headed for two smaller lakes Idro and Ledro. Idro was fringed by an interesting Nature Reserve. On the journey we stopped off at Riva del Guarda on the shore of Lake Guarda. This was very busy so we were glad that we were concentrating on the smaller lakes.

 

 

Lake Idro Nature Reserve

 

 

Lake Idro

 

 

Lake Ledro

 

We spent the next four nights at Levico Terme but with trips out did not have time to explore the town very much. Wednesday we had a conducted tour of Verona with an excellent guide. The morning was damp – the only rain we experienced during the week. Highlights included the Arena, restored bridges and inevitably Juliet’s balcony.

 

 

Ponte di Castelvechio

 

 

Arena

 

 

Juliet’s Balcony

 

Thursday we visited two more lakes Molveno and Serraia. Molveno was probably my favourite for the week as it was bright blue water and we were able to view it from a cable car which went up higher than Ben Nevis. Serraia was smaller and we were able to walk right round it.

 

 

Lake Molveno from the Cable Car

 

 

Lake Molveno

 

 

Lake Serraia

 

Our last trip was to Trento with much evidence of Dante who was famous hereabouts.

 

 

Dante & friend

 

 

Trento Cathedral

 

 

Floral Wall

 

The journey home was a little longer than expected as after a 2 hour coach trip to Milan the plane was delayed by poor weather so when we reached Heathrow we were stacked for a while. We then took the Elisabeth line to Liverpool Street and caught the slowest train to Cambridge North with 16 stops. Then the Guided bus took us to Swavesey by which time it was dark so Merv picked us up.

All in all an interesting holiday in a surprisingly neat and tidy part of Italy.

 

Best wishes

 

Mike & Kate