We didn't think we'd be able to manage a trip this weekend since it was Parent's Weekend, but after a spur-of-the-moment chat with some other faculty members, we ended up in Bellinzona - the town of castles. It also happened to be Giornate di Cioccolato (Chocolate Days!) so that didn't hurt! The cioccolati was fantastic, of course, it's Switzerland! All the stands were in a palazzo, which is a kind of courtyard. The building itself was fascinating. It had canton flags, and noble-family crests in some of the upstairs rooms. One thing we really enjoyed was the hot chocolate, made with melted chocolate bars and cream - so thick and rich! And there were so many other stands for tasting - I think I mentioned before that samples here seem to be very generous. They even had a room set up where you could get chocolate body-painting, buy chocolate shampoo, or get a chocolate face-mask.
After we had our fill of chocolate, we visited two of the three castles. They are so well-preserved and they are now historical sites, so you can walk through and explore them. One even has a restaurant in it now, another has a picnic areas outside where you can sit and pretend you're living hundreds of years ago. From Castello di Sasso Corbaro, the most "recently" built castle, you can see the other two castles, since this one was built after a battle so that the inhabitants would have a better vantage point for protecting the area. You can see Castelgrande (the biggest, hence the name) from this shot - and if you look closely enough through the trees at the bottom of the shot, you can see the third castle, Castello di Montebello, which we also visited.
Here are some more shots from inside the Sasso Corbaro walls. The dogs had a fun, tiring day. They don't seem to understand the concept of looking at the camera, though!
This next shot is probably one of my favorites that I've taken here. The castle (again, Sasso Corbaro) behind the fall leaves is just so beautiful. It was the perfect autumn day and with the yellow leaves falling all around and the castle as a backdrop, it just was amazing.
From there we went on to Castello di Montebello (named for the "beautiful mountain" it sits on). The inside of this castle was just what you imagine a castle to be - almost a little town inside of the stone walls. There was a chapel and little buildings built into the castle walls, courtyards and stairways that led to what looked like dungeons and you could even see signs of "plumbing" - troughs dug into the ground. But the best part was that it had a moat!
Okay, so there was no water in it, but you at least got the effect! Logan of course was completely freaked out by the drawbridge because it wobbled as you walked across it. This was actually part of the outer wall - you could walk along the top of this wall and see the surrounding area. They've of course put up metal walkways for safety, like you see in this shot of David and Lucy.
So for not planning on doing anything this week, what a great day trip! And Bellinzona is only about 30-45 minutes from Lugano. David's on duty this coming weekend - we'll see what else we can find in the area...
After we had our fill of chocolate, we visited two of the three castles. They are so well-preserved and they are now historical sites, so you can walk through and explore them. One even has a restaurant in it now, another has a picnic areas outside where you can sit and pretend you're living hundreds of years ago. From Castello di Sasso Corbaro, the most "recently" built castle, you can see the other two castles, since this one was built after a battle so that the inhabitants would have a better vantage point for protecting the area. You can see Castelgrande (the biggest, hence the name) from this shot - and if you look closely enough through the trees at the bottom of the shot, you can see the third castle, Castello di Montebello, which we also visited.
This next shot is probably one of my favorites that I've taken here. The castle (again, Sasso Corbaro) behind the fall leaves is just so beautiful. It was the perfect autumn day and with the yellow leaves falling all around and the castle as a backdrop, it just was amazing.
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