Bellinzona

Today, I headed for the town of Bellinzona in the Italian portion of southern Switzrland. It was a long train ride, but it was worth it. The town's claim to fame is it's three castles.

I headed first to the castle furthest away. It's also on the side of a mountain so I had a pretty steep climb to get there. The castle is called Castello de Sasso Corbaro and I should have done more research because the museum portion was closed today. The grounds were beautiful though and the views were worth the climb.

The second castle, Castello di Montebello, is on the way back from Sasso Corbaro on the edge of town. It was pretty neat and what you'd expect of a mideval castle. Their museum was situated on split level floors on the way up the tower, which was nice because it broke up the climb. The museum had artifacts from the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the roman age, and the midevl age. The information suggested the artifacts were local but it was in Italian so I'm not really sure. The castle was set up for a wedding! How cool would that be? I bet it cost a not-so-small fortune!

After Montebello, I was starving so I grabbed a slice of pizza from the Migros and ate lunch in Piazza Simen in the shade of the last castle. This was my view at lunch.

After eating, I headed to the last castle, Castel Grande. Convienently enough, there was an elevator up to the castle across the plaza right next to the park where I ate lunch. Castel Grande is situated on a huge rock hill and I was not looking forward to climbing up to it. The castle complex is huge and the grounds are some of the most well-preserved and accessible I've seen. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Most of the interior of the main castle building has been converted into a fancy restaurant so I didn't get to see inside. I did get to go up one of the towers and walk along the city wall that used to connect all three castles. 

After visiting the last castle I grabbed some chocolate gelato and caught my train home. One of the reasons I went to Bellinzona today was the weather in central Switzerland. It has been getting nastier and nastier the closer we get to Zurich. The train I'm on is actually Italian which is weird and we're WAY behind schedule! Lame!