Technically I think I am considered an adult. Mid-twenties with a well-paid job, co-owner of a house and legally married. 

Yep, definitely sounds like adulting to me. 

Except I’m not really an adult. No seriously…just tonight I ate so much cookie dough after work that I made myself sick and I wasn’t hungry for dinner. That’s like basic seven year old behavior!! The only difference is that instead of sneaking it past my parents, I had to sneak it past my husband (although really not the same because Andy is much less strict).  This is a serious conundrum: if I can’t even take care of myself, how can I be considered an adult?

As Andy and I began planning our honeymoon, it became very evident which one of us is the adult in the relationship. 

Me: “Andy, let’s Airbnb a room from this random guy! It’s super cheap and he has cats!!”

Andy: “Girl…It’s our honeymoon – we are not staying in a room in someone’s house.”

Me: “But they have cats!!!!! And it SO cheap!!!”

Andy: “No. Just no.”

As you probably guessed, we did not end up staying in the house with the kitties. Instead, we did something so opposite…we booked a room at a hotel. A nice hotel. A NICE HOTEL THAT COST A LOT OF MONEY!!! You can imagine the panic bubbling up inside my non-adult self…staying at nice hotels is a very adult thing to do. 

When we finally arrived at the hotel Monday morning, I decided that maybe this adult thing wasn’t too bad after all. The hotel was awesome!! It had two pools, tennis courts, a garden area, and was situated right alongside the lake with access to a private beach on the lake. Our room had a balcony with sweet views and on top of all of that…free breakfast!!! (Of course free food still ranks top notch on my priority list in life.)

After we explored the hotel a bit (because of course our room was ready even though it was only 10 AM in the morning), we decided to head into the center of the city.

Now, some of you may be wondering where Lago d’Iseo is exactly. You are not alone. For your reading pleasure I am including this handy dandy map.

First lets start in the bottom left corner with the overall map of Italy. As you can see, we were in the very top part of Italy. If you look at the close-up part of the map, the red circle is where Andy and I were staying (we were actually staying in the city of Iseo, which isn’t on the map, but about 10-15 minutes south of Sulzano). If you look reaaaalllly closely at the map you can see Monte Isola, which is an island in the middle of Lago d’Iseo.

Monte Isola is pretty much a green mountain in the middle of the lake. It is 5,000 square meters and the peak of the mountain is 600 meters tall. The island has around 1,800 residents and cars are prohibited on the island (with the exception of police, ambulance, etc.). The residents are allowed to hold motorcycle/vespa permits. The rest of us visitors get to walk, ride a bike or take the bus 🙂 You can only reach Monte Isole by ferry from a couple of the cities on the lake. Luckily, in the summertime Iseo is one of those cities!

Andy and I bought tickets and rode the ferry to the island (about 45 minutes on the boat). It was, quite possibly, the MOST gorgeous weather ever. In the low 80s it was sunny without being too hot. You couldn’t help but just to smile every time you looked around. Of course, it probably helped that the scenery was stunning. I don’t even like boats that much (weak stomachs run in my family…), but even I couldn’t find anything to complain about.

Once we arrive to Monte Isola, we immediately looked for a place to eat lunch (you’ll note that finding food is a reoccurring theme in our life). We found a hotel that was a little bit off the beaten path and took a seat at a table. The location of the restaurant was amazing. If I had to describe a the dream location for our first official meal of our honeymoon this would be it. Our table was off to the side and overlooked the lake.

For those of you who know Andy, you know he’s the opposite of a vegetarian. Vegetarians never eat meat and Andy ALWAYS eats meat. To him, a meal is not a meal if there is not protein (and by protein, I mean meat…beans, nuts, etc. do not count in his eyes). Another thing about Andy is that he actually eats for three people. I really can’t figure this out because he never gains weight. It’s like he never actually left his male teenage eat-everything-in-the-house stage. If you can’t see where this is going let me try and connect the dots: Italy is not the meat-loving, huge portion size country that America is. (Not to make any judgements, but I would like to point out at this time that Italy’s obesity rate is WELL below America’s. Take that information how you wish haha.) 

Poor Andy struggled with the food culture and our lunch in Monte Isola was no exception. We hadn’t even paid our check before Andy was complaining about how hungry he was (but don’t stress…he brought American protein bars so he just ate one of those haha). The lack of protein and small portion sizes was one of the main complaints Andy had on our trip.

After lunch (and the protein bar), Andy and I rented bikes and rode around the perimeter of the entire island.

Before we got to the island, we were told that it would take around 2.5 hours to walk around the whole island.  I am unsure who came up with those numbers but whoever they timed must have been an Olympic speed walker that didn’t take any breaks for water or food. To paint the picture for you, the path around the perimeter of the island was beautiful, but it was not flat. It wasn’t even somewhat flat, it was just straight hilly. Honestly, it was hard to bike the perimeter in that time, I can’t even imagine making that walk. 

Andy and I took many stops during our bike ride. I’m going to say that it’s because we wanted to document the gorgeous views, but realistically it was mostly because we wanted to drink water. #HydrationStation

So here’s where so real honesty comes out: I’m not really a bike rider. I don’t like how my butt gets sore from the seat. I’m not really a stable person so I tend to fall over a lot. I’m also not very good at standing up on my bike so I actually can’t ride up any hills. Basically I’m just just a mess. 

However, Andy wanted to go bike riding and I’m a good wife (sometimes) so I went along with his plans. The weird thing was, I actually had a ton of fun!! It’s amazing how much easier it is to ride a bike when you don’t have to worry about cars trying to run you over. Also, when you’re not riding for speed and you can just enjoy the scenery, things suddenly get a lot better. 🙂

After we had ridden most of the way around the island, we stopped at a bar along the water for gelato and a cappucino. How romantically Italian of us 🙂


After our pit stop, we returned our bikes and rode the ferry back to Iseo. When we got back to the hotel we decided to go check out the lake-side “beach” the hotel. It was ten times better than what we expected. The hotel provided us with beach towels and there were plenty of lounge chairs for us to spread out on. As we laid out in the sun and just soaked it up we realized this is the first time we had truly relaxed the entire trip. We decided that the next day (Tuesday) would be a day of true rest — aka chilling at the lake the whole time. What’s a honeymoon without some rest and relaxation right?

We had been at the lake for about an hour or two when we heard some music starting to be played by the pool. We were curious as to what was going on, but we were too lazy to investigate. Then we heard a woman’s voice shouting some type of commands over the loud speakers. Detective Andy decided he must know what was occuring (side note: I think this was also because we had been relaxing for an hour and that’s about the maximum amount of time Andy can sit still haha). We walked over to the pool and there was an exercise class going on! Seriously I was so impressed with how many people were in that pool — partially because people were working out on their vacation and partially because I didn’t realize that many people at the lake spoke Italian. On the bright side, Andy knows how to count down from 8 in Italian pretty well!  

That night for dinner we went to the dinner at the hotel. 

Travel tip: DO NOT EVER GO HERE IF YOU END UP IN ISEO. 

I was really so unimpressed. The food was super small portions, incredibly overpriced and while it was yummy, it wasn’t nearly as good as it should be for the price we paid. On top of that, our waiter was just super rude and sassy. This is by far the only true negative about the hotel (well that and the fact that their supposed pillows are actually just pieces of paper they are so thin #pillowprincess). 

The next day we woke up and got breakfast at the hotel. I was super hesitatant about eating there after our dinner experience the night before, but our room included breakfast so I felt we needed to take advantage of the free meal. Luckily, the breakfast was 100 times better than dinner! We had a full buffet of everything you could ever want or need – including individual packets of Nutella!!! I may have stolen multiple packets for snacks later in the day…don’t judge too much. 

After our breakfast we headed out to the lake and started our day of relaxing with a typical Andy & Julia activity: WEIGHT LIFTING!!! Okay but seriously, there was an actual gym on the lake!!! How cool is that!?!

Andy and I have really been trying over the last couple of months to routinely work out, so it was super nice to be able to have a place where we could get a lift in. Of course, Andy actually just likes lifting and I am mostly just petrified that if I stop working out for a long period of time then I won’t start up again. It’s a tough life being the wife of Mr. Exercise. 

Once we finished our workout we spent the rest of the day chilling. At the lake they had a sand soccer court and to no surprise Andy was eyeing it all day. When it finally opened up, we took over the court and start messing around with the ball. Two kids from the Netherlands joined us and we took turns playing goalie/taking shots on goal. Andy and I were super impressed with their English – it was another stark reminder of how lucky we are to grow up in a country that speaks English (and how we really should all actually learn a second language…).

After getting nice and sweaty, Andy and I went swimming in the lake. 

The lake was one of the cleanest lakes I have ever been to. You know how lakes are usually kind of grimy and you usually feel a little bit slimy when you get out. Yeah, this lake was not like that at all. The water felt so fresh. It was amazing.

In the middle of the lake they had a huge inflateable trampoline. Being the children that we are, Andy and I swam out there and spent some time jumping on it (after scaring away the 12 years old that were currently jumping on the trampoline). The rest of the day was just soaking up the sun, jumping in the lake and, of course, taking multiple pit stops at the cafe for food (did I mention that Andy eats a lot?)

That night, we walked into the center of Iseo and got pizza (we were not doing a repeat of the horrendous hotel dinner). We ate our pizza and drank our bottle of wine on the balcony on our room while we watched the sunset. 

DOES LIFE GET ANYMORE PERFECT THAN THIS?!?!

No, the answer is no. 

Lago d’Iseo and the city of Iseo were amazing. This was seriously one of the best places that we stopped on our trip. I loved how relaxing it was and how fantastic the weather was. There were about zero American tourists which was really nice. I would without a doubt come back to Iseo again. Thanks Iseo for teaching me the wonders of adulting.