Tom`s travels: Iseo (26/12/2019)

After spending Christmas in Alessandria with all the relatives we drove towards Vicenza stopping at the airport of Bergamo on the way to pick up Ania who was spending a bit of time with me here in Italy. On the way back home from the airport, we decided to spend a little time visiting the town of Iseo and its lake. This small town is located on the southern bank of Lake Iseo, between the cities of Bergamo and Brescia. Among the main lakes of Northern Italy, this is one of the smallest but nonetheless beautiful and surrounded by historic towns. At its center stands the impressive Monte Isola, a large and tall island topped by some small towns. This island is Italy's largest lake island and it is the highest island of a lake in all of Europe. So after reaching the town of Iseo, we parked the car in one of the available parking areas and continued on foot through the historic center. We first decided to find a place for lunch and ended up heading to a restaurant called Trattoria da Rocco where we had some typical regional foods. After lunch, we then decided to explore the little town and headed first to its main square, Piazza Garibaldi. At the center of the square stands the statue of the Italian General Giuseppe Garibaldi, and interestingly the statue is the first statue ever cast of him, the first now of many which dot nearly every city in Italy. Around the square are the typical colored porticoed houses which characterize the urban aspect of most of the towns around the lakes in this part of Italy. From the main square, we then headed further and reached the Pieve di Sant'Andrea, the town's main church. This area is particularly interesting as there are three churches located one in front of the other creating this kind of religious core of the town. We first entered the Pieve, begun during the 5th century, which now featured a beautiful Romanesque exterior, dating to the 11th-century reconstruction. The bell-tower is not commonly built on the side of the church or away from it, but rather juts out from the center of the church right above the main portal. The interior was refurbished during the 19th century in the neoclassical style and maintained very few traces of its ancient past. Across the church on the other side of the street is the small church of San Giovanni Battista which featured a small simple interior with some interesting paintings and altars. Next to it is the Romanesque church of San Silvestro, now deconsecrated, which still features a Danse Macabre fresco, found in 1985. This so-called Dance of Death is a depiction consisting of the dead or a personification of death summoning representatives of all social classes to dance along to the grave. It was produced as memento mori, to remind people of the fragility of their lives and how vain were the glories of earthly life and the universality of death no matter one's richness or nobility. After visiting those three churches we then headed further through the town and reached the Castello Oldofredi, but at the southern edge of town on higher ground. Dating to the 12th century it still features the typical squared structure and made with local stone. As we walked through the main gate we entered the small courtyard which was presently being restructured: the building in fact nowadays hosts the town's public library. Right in front of the castle we then quickly had a look at the church of the Madonna Della Neve with a Baroque interior and a small trace of a medieval fresco depicting the Madonna. From the highest spot in town, we then headed back down through the winding streets until we finally reached the lakeside. As it was afternoon the sun was starting to set and there were still some clouds covering the sky so we weren't able to see it under the sunlight, but the view of the surrounding mountains and the far-away edges of the lake looked incredible from that point. After admiring the view for a while, the sun was nearly behind the horizon and the temperature cold enough to prompt us to head back to the car and drive in the direction of Vicenza.