Castello Odescalchi in Bracciano

Why is this beautiful castle in the town of Bracciano (a 40 minute train ride from Viterbo) famous to Americans? It's where Tom and Katie got married. Yes, THAT Tom and Katie. Suri's Mom and Dad. The 15th century castle is built high of a ridge that overlooks Lago Bracciano, the largest lake in central Italy.

Lago Bracciano, placid.

The light kept changing in the afternoon.

Evan P. of Massachusetts and Ben U. of Oklahoma doing the Italian thing. Going to the market, buying mozzarella, tomatoes, bread and jam and turning into a picnic.

Bracciano's claim to fame, the Castello Odescalchi

Here is the entrance to the Castello, the red ivy was stunning.

As we entered, we saw that there was a wedding to be held that night. The fact that ANYONE who has the cash can hold their wedding at this castello makes the TomKat wedding lose a little luster. It's not like they were THAT special to get a castello to hold just THEIR wedding.

This bed was where King Umberto I came to stay during the "malaria" epidemic in the 1500's. The rooms all along the first floor were set up with wedding banquet tables. All the student and I agreed that the lucite plastic chairs (sorry didn't get the picture) were tacky.

Isabella's Room. One of the royal women who lived here would bring her one night stands to this room and then send them out down a well, supposedly to their deaths. Nice!

So, the tour led upstairs (tour entirely in Italian by the way) to the weapons room and the science room, but what do we come across, the dresses of a famous Italian designer of the 1980's. Umm, what? Not what we came for.

I came to see cannons and gallows and cool stuff, not this. The students and I started just to make fun of it. I mean, LOOK at those things. Hilarious.

Good sports Nicole S. of Pennsylvania, Morgan B. of Connecticut and Jessica F. of California here on the top of the castle.

Sunset over Lago Bracciano

Cinque Terre

3-Day Weekend means getting on a train and going somewhere. This past weekend, I chose to visit the 5 towns on the Ligurian Sea called the Cinque Terre, translated as the "5 Lands". As you'll see from pictures, these towns were until the late 1800's only connected to the world by ship. Today, there is train service to all towns (takes only a few minutes between each one), but more impressively, the Italian government has turned the area into a National Park in which there are many hiking trails. One can hike the entire length of the park along the sea.

I started my hike by staying the night in Riomaggiore and hiking to Vernazza.

Sunrise over Riomaggiore

You see how Riomaggiore (and all the other Cinque Terre towns are built in the ravine valleys, which have been paved over.

The harbor at Riomaggiore

I didn't make reservations, I simply got into town, found one of the outfits advertising rooms. Riomaggiore has a well-organized set of middlemen that rent rooms throughout the community. Here's where I stayed.

Have you ever found your towels like this?

The paved, short walk between Riomaggiore and Manarola is known as the "Via dell Amore". Legend has it that when this path was built the number of couples that married between the two villages was large and they would meet each other on this path.

The Via dell Amore was closed often due to rockslides. However, we have rock climbers to thank for putting up netting and keeping it open.

It is all the rage in Italy right now to put a lock symbolizing your love for another.

The park is also a marine sanctuary and so the water is protected. Amazing how after all these centuries, the water is still so clear.

Looking down towards the harbor in Manarola. Notice the woman in the left hand corner hanging her laundry. These are still towns that are alive, but their economy is based primarily on tourism.

Manarola really has no harbor to speak of. To get boats in and out of the water, they use this I-Beam to haul boats in an out of the water.

I found it great that the cemetery is part of the 21st century with solar panels.

She lived to 101. I wonder how often she left Manarola.

Man on left has something to say.

Man on right has a response.

The hike from Manarola to Corniglia is a short one (I hiked back in reverse on the 2nd day) so I took a shuttle to the middle of the ridge to a town called Volastra and hiked from there down to the third town, Corniglia.

The trail wound through the terraced vineyards. The smells were amazing.

Well, they've mechanized moving grapes up the mountain.

Corniglia is the only one of the Cinque Terre towns without a harbor, therefore it sits high on the bluff with no water access.

The trail from Corniglia to Vernazza has lots of ups and downs. Here are some twisting stairs. I can't imagine how annoying it must be to hike during the high tourist season. I was here and I met about 30 people along the way and was kind of annoyed at even having to share the trail with them.

The red bulbous part of this "Fici d'India" is sweet and a delicacy. I had some gelato made out of it.

The town of Vernazza coming into town from the trail.

Vernazza has the closest to a natural harbor.

Who's that? Taken from the top of the tower in Vernazza.

Again, I dropped into town and found a sign advertising rooms. I managed to negotiate everything with the woman who runs it all in Italian. I am particularly proud of this because I left town to read in the Rick Steves' guide that he rates this 4-room house as the "best deal in town!".

The river up here at the top of Vernazza still runs free. I could hear the ducks and babbling stream from my open window all night.

I asked if they brought the boats in every night. The men told me only when the weather was going to turn bad.

It takes the men working together along with a simply pulley system to get the boats into the town square.

All the boats, on shore, safe from the winds and big waves.

The guys certainly know how to read the weather (or weather report) as the next day it was cloudy, windy and raining. The hiking was still beautiful though.