Lake Idro
— a deep blue the famous lakes forgot.
Not only on a wall.
“West of Lake Garda by a half-hour drive, in a glacial valley between the Brescia pre-Alps and the Trentino edge. The Chiese river runs through it. Above the eastern shore, the Rocca d'Anfo cuts into the cliff, Venetian work that Napoleon enlarged into one of Europe's largest fortresses. The lake is deep and quiet. The ora del Caffaro wind comes down the valley most afternoons, enough for small sails. Chestnut woods on the slopes. A handful of villages spaced along the water. Quieter than Garda and Como, by a wide margin.
Lake Idro, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
The place, in three passes.
Lake Idro sits in the Valle Sabbia of Lombardy, between the Province of Brescia and the western edge of Trentino. The lake is about 11 km long and 2 km wide, with a maximum depth of around 122 m. Surface elevation runs at 368 m above sea level, which makes it one of the higher pre-Alpine lakes in Italy. The Chiese river enters from the north and exits at the southern end, where the village of Idro gives the lake its name. Brescia is about 40 km to the southwest; Lake Garda lies a half-hour drive to the east. The surrounding ridges of the Brescia pre-Alps, including Monte Stino above the western shore, hold chestnut forests above the water.
Above the eastern shore at Anfo, the Rocca d'Anfo is carved into the cliff face. The fortified complex was begun by the Venetian Republic in the mid-15th century and enlarged by Napoleon's engineers in the early 1800s. The structure climbs several hundred metres of cliff above the lake, from the lakeside Batteria Statuto to the high observatories. Italian sources describe it as one of the largest Napoleonic forts in Europe still standing in its original landscape. Garibaldi's volunteers held it in 1866 during the Third War of Italian Independence, and Italian forces used it through the First World War. The site was decommissioned in the 1970s and now opens to the public as a guided-tour visit managed by the Comune di Anfo.
The Chiese river enters Lake Idro at the northern end near Ponte Caffaro and exits at the southern end through a regulated outflow built in the early 20th century for hydroelectric and irrigation use. The lake reaches a maximum depth of about 122 m and holds roughly 685 million cubic metres of water. Water level varies seasonally because the lake operates as a working reservoir: drawdowns of several metres are normal in summer when downstream farms in the Brescia plain need water. The deep blue colour comes from the depth and the limestone-rich catchment that drains in from Monte Stino and the Trentino ridges. Brown trout, perch, and pike live in the lake, along with the locally distinctive carpione del lago.