Bellinzona is the capital of Ticino and the home to three stunning castles: Castelgrande, Montebello, and Sasso Corbaro (their official web-site has some 360 degree tours). We drove home on a cloudless fall day using the eastern route of driving tour 19 from the AA Best Drives in Switzerland book. Our day ended with blog entries and laundry - the natural end to each and every vacation we've taken. See the pictures of Bellinzona here.
After a few days of cloudy weather we were so lucky to get two days of blue skies and sun in Ticino. We started with the art trail in Lavertezzo - complete with a medieval bridge. It was stunning with the river, rocks, waterfalls, mountains and fall foliage. This area is also popular for divers due to the water-filled gorges caused by the Verzasca Dam (a James Bond film sight). Afterwards we had our sights aimed a little higher: Cardada. We were able to take a cable car and then a chairlift up to Cimetta to start our stunning hike where we could see the highest mountain in Switzerland, Mount Rosa. Somewhere along the way we took a wrong turn and got far enough along a steep, unauthorized trail that we had to continue down - the sights were stunning, but most of our concentration was focused on the matter at hand. Once safely back on the trail we enjoyed our traditional beer before heading back down. At the bottom we opted for a short driving tour which led us ultimately to Mogno, the sight of a Mario Botta designed church which was absolutely stunning. See the Lavertezzo, Cardada and Mogno pictures here.
We arrived at our picturesque bed and breakfast in the middle of Tuscany and enjoyed walking around nearby San Gimignano in the evening. This town is everything you imagine a smalled, walled Tuscan village to be. Its claim to fame are its 14 towers, but it used to have 70+ towers in days gone by. After enjoying a great night in our spacious room with the perfect view we ventured into town to take some pictures in the daylight before moving on to Verona. Verona was several hours away by car, but we were able to enjoy a couple of hours visiting the famed Romeo and Juliet city which we both found charming. The town square, roman amphitheatre and other medieval architecture made it well worth the visit. See the pictures of San Gimignano and Verona here.
Robert turned 40 while in Italy. We stopped at different times during his special day to take his picture with the cards he received. Thanks to everyone for sending them. Take a look here!
We decided to put Alberobello on the list of things to see from the picture in the guidebook. Its stunning houses with their conical stone roofs looked really intriguing and they did not disappoint. There are over 1400 stone roofs in the city and clustered together. They are a treat for the eyes. After a REALLY long drive, we arrived in Tivoli which is only 15 miles outside of Rome. There are several things to see here, but the most recommended sight is Villa Adriana. This complex was built by Hadrian in the early second century to represent the best that he had seen in his travels across the Roman empire. Stunning does not even come close to describing this place - we were both amazed at the size, scope and luxury that would even today be considered jaw dropping. After dark we picked our way through the traffic and darkness to arrive at the small village of Anticoli Corrado where our hotel was located. We weren't exactly sure where to find the hotel, but a local restaurant owner saw that we needed help and came to our rescue - in spades: he had a local move his car so we had a space to park, he closed his restaurant so he could show us to the hotel and then he carried one of our bags for us! The hotel owner didn't speak English so he contacted someone else from the village to come to the hotel to translate everything we needed to know...talk about hospitality! See the pictures of Alberobello, Villa Adriana and Anticoli Corrado here.
Our first adventure of the day was to visit Kotor, Montenegro. There were two main reasons to visit this town: 1) it is located on the southern-most fjord and 2) it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is a walled city that has a castle that sits 4.5km above the city. It was the perfect destination for a nice fall day. Next up was Dubrovnik which is said to be the best and most well preserved medieval city in the world. The entire city is surrounded by a wall that you can walk completely around. It gives you the ability to see the town as well as the Adriatic Sea and surrounding countryside with a birds-eye-view. We took a short guided city tour in the evening to learn more about its history before having a traditional Bosnian dinner. Afterwards, we embarked onto the ferry which took us and our car 9 hours overnight to Bari, Italy. See the pictures of Kotor and Dubrovnik here.
Today we visited Split. This walled city in Croatia has a lot to offer: history, the coastline and narrow passages. We took a self-guided tour though the city and enjoyed a nice breakfast overlooking the boardwalk. A few minutes up with road we took some time to visit Solin, an ancient roman city complete with a forum and two theatres. See the pictures of Split and Solin here.
Plitvice Lakes are a remarkable natural phenomenon. There are a series of 16 lakes that cascade one into another via stunning waterfalls with crystal clear blue green water. The park is remarkably accessible with walkways over the water and close to the falls and even include trams, ferries and boat rides to make the experience truly remarkable. If we had known that it took up to 6hrs to see everything we would have scheduled the time - it was really incredible! Since the navigation system in our car didn't include Croatia we had to make our way from town to town with maps (this is not as easy as it sounds). After several missed turns Nancy saw a sign referring to Nicola Tesla. We saw several more signs and discovered that our wrong turns has taken us to the birthplace of the famed inventor, Smiljan! We made a quick stop in Zadar - an ancient walled city located on the coast before heading to Trogir. We enjoyed a nice evening there and had a great time looking at all the sail boats in the harbor for a recent race. See pictures of Plitvice Lakes, Zadar and Trogir.
Our first vacation day took us through the Italian Dolomites. There are some spectacular drives through this area and we took the most famed of them all: Bozen to Cortina (where the 1956 winter Olympics were held). This was a beautiful drive that we could have dedicated a lot more time to as there are hundreds of hiking trails and lots more routes to explore. Check out driving pictures from Italy here.
This weekend we planned to visit some friends next to Mannheim on Sunday, but that gave us an opportunity to visit some additional places in Germany on Saturday. First we went to historic Trier which is said to be the oldest town in Germany. Lots of Roman ruins (imperial bath and porta nigra) and holy buildings (the Cathedral of Trier and the Basilica) made it a very rich visit because they are all UNESCO World Heritage sites. Afterwards we went further north to Wierschem to visit Eltz Castle. This castle has been in the family Eltz for 33 generations and still is today! The drive thru the countryside was terrific as all the fall colors are still hanging on the trees. On Sunday we visited our friends in Biblis and took in some nearby cities: Bensheim and Worms. Check out the pictures from Bensheim, Trier and Elzt Castle.
