PILZONE, Italy — It was a long-held dream, but finally, this week, the conceptual artist Christo walked on water.

On Thursday, he tried out his latest project, “The Floating Piers,” a walkway stretching three kilometers, or nearly two miles, that connects two small islands in Lake Iseo, in Italy’s Lombardy region, to each other and to the mainland.

Christo stepped out on the floating walkway of puckered yellow-orange nylon fabric, designed to change color according to the time of the day and the weather. On Thursday, it was pockmarked with bright orange blotches left by footsteps treading on the rain-drenched fabric.