My husband desperately wants to spend a week in the Italian Lake District as part of our upcoming European adventure. Our budget for accommodations is an average of $750 a week for our family of three, and I'd like as often as possible to have a separate bedroom or sleeping area for our daughter. We are staying in some expensive areas, so I am trying to be alert to opportunities to have an interesting place that is economical. We're tentatively planning to spend our week in the Lake District in early July, and it looks like an apartment on Lake Como could be extremely expensive.

I found this place on Lake Iseo in the village of Zorzino. I like the looks of the Cielo apartment, which is on the top floor of this castle and seems quite unique. I've also found a website with some gorgeous photos of the lake, including a photo of the castle.

Does anyone have any thoughts about Lake Iseo? Would it make a reasonable base for experiencing the lake district and for potentially making day trips to Como and Garda? And any thoughts about this apartment? Even at peak season in July (which will be expensive anywhere), it seems seem to come close to our target budget.

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Originally posted by kaydee:
Does anyone have any thoughts about Lake Iseo? Would it make a reasonable base for experiencing the lake district and for potentially making day trips to Como and Garda?

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Lago d'Iseo has a great pèotential that is not yet fully developed, which makes it quieter and less expensive (= eztremely interesting ^_^). It is close to some spa towns and quiet and wild(ish) mountains with some skiing resorts that are open in summer too. If you have a daughter, she will enjoy a trip to see the prehistoric engravings at Capo di Ponte: I went there at 7 or 8 and still remember that trip as one of the most interesting we made with the school ^_^. Also, the lake's island, Montisola, can be an interstinf trip.
On the other hand, the other lakes are not easy to reach. Though they are close on the map, the whole area is made of mountins separated with these parallel long and deep valleys, and the roads can only go up and down the valleys, so that to reach a place that is in the next valley you must travel for several dozens kilometers down your valley and than back up the next valley.
Therefore, Lago d'Iseo is nice and fascinating, but if you go there I would suggest to concentrate on the Valtellina area, maybe with one daytrip to Lago di Como.

Iseo is great. Much less touristy. The Southern portion is the wine region called Franciacorte where Bellavista and Ca'del Bosco are located. There are lots of great restaurants over over the place. There is a main train station is Brescia if you want to take day trips to Venice or Verona. It is a pretty drive to parts of Garda or Bergamo Alta and as Alice suggested Valtellina. There will be mosquitos so be prepared. I don't know anything about swimming in the Lake. I was there in the spring. And there is one of those"costo sized" grocery stores located near the southeastern part of Iseo. Even though most everyone complains about them it would no doubt be convenient for you and it is an eye popping experience for Americans. My husband had to literally drag me out of there.

There is a small write-up on this lake/area in the March '04 edition of National Geographic Traveler. You might want to take a look at that. (All good stuff!)

Hi-
Our friends from Bergamo took us to Lago d'Iseo for a day trip and we found it very beautiful, and much less crowded and touristy than Garda. Our friends indicated that there were a lot of German tourists in the summer, but very few Americans. The island is apparently a center for hand knotted netting, and now that fishing is no longer the industry it once was, the islanders supply most of the soccer nets one sees in Europe!