Castles in Bellinzona

This is a picture of Brett trying to invade the smallest of the castles. (Castello di Sasso Corbaro). I don't think it went so well for him.
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We woke up early in the morning and got on a train to Bellinzona to explore the UNESCO world heritage site. A little background, there are three castles in Bellinzona were built by the Romans as part of the final defences before Italy. A great number of mountain passes and valleys join into the Ticino valley where Bellinzona sits. After the empire collapsed the duchy of Milan took up the defences greatly strengthening and improving them. At one point the walls stretched all the way across the valley floor.

A view of Castello di Montebello, the second largest of the three castles in Monterosso.
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We started with the smallest of the castles, Sasso Corbaro. This tower is about an hour hike up the side of the valley. It wasn't nearly as impressive as the other castles except for it's location.

It was here that I lost Brett and Jaret when they snuck up the tower while I was looking at something else. When I didn't find them I decided to press on. Down to Montebello Castle I wandered. This may be my favorite of the castles because it was small enough to be able to see it all but it was still large enough to be very impressed with.

Another view of Castello di Montebello.
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After about 30 mins of wandering around there Brett and Jaret show up and we were happily reunited for the rest of our journey. We explored the castle a while longer and then went down to town where we looked at the biggest church I've seen yet on this trip.

Then with our feet hurting and our stomachs rumbling we went in search of cheap food and promptly decided that it didn't exist. So we bought some pizza and beer and enjoyed.

Now rested and with food in our bellies we were excited to go see Castelgrande (yes it's Castel not Castle). The name doesn't begin to explain just how large this castle was. Everything about it was daunting. It's built on top of a rocky hill. The walls are enormous and they stretch on forever. Also there is a communications tunnel that runs through the inside of the walls, obviously to have runners convey battle news along the wall in relative safety. It is absolutely a sight to see and I wish I could have seen it when it was at its full glory back in the middle ages.

The drawbridge to get into Castello di Montebello.
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After we had our fill of Castles and town wandering we headed home. Back to the train staion and onto Zurich. We weren't clever enough to book our seats on the way back and had to sit between cars. It wasn't as bad as it sounds, actually quite an enjoyable trip.

Finally I got home and got some sleep.

Italy next weekend!