Bellinzone, Switzerland

This Saturday, a small group group of us made a short 40 min. train ride to Bellinzone.  As we headed further north into the alps the mountain ranges started to get a little larger.  Bellinzone is more of a populated town than Riva and had a really cool in town market place.  This place had everything from fresh fruit and vegetables to leather stands that sold belts, jackets, and other things.  They also sold meats and cheeses everywhere you turned.  However, this was a fairly small market that only took up about a block or two of space.

The main reason for this trip was to see the castles.  The first castle that we saw was Castelgrande, as it was the bigger of the two that we saw.  It was located almost directly in the center of the town just up on a big hill.  The view of the town was great and the castle was amazing.  There was the town and grape vines surrounding the castle and everything you picture a castle to look like, it was.  They had the cobblestone walkways and the solid stone walls surrounding the entire place.

After the first castle, a group of about 8 of us made our own tour to the next castle after we got split up from the group.  The second castle, Chateau de montebello, was just as beautiful.  This castle was a little smaller, but was my favorite of the two.  It was unique in its design with the wooden draw bridge doors held together by weighted boulders, and there were actually buildings within the castle walls.  These buildings were completely stone, from the walls to the roof that was also made in stone.  This castle sat on the other side of the town, again overlooking, and clearly visible to the previous castle.

After the second castle we went back down the mountain into the town.  Between the two castles, there was a lot of hiking up to them.  Once back in the town we visited this amazing catholic church.  It was the most beautiful structure I have seen so far.  The art work in the paintings and the architecture in the marble was unbelievable.  I don't recall the name of the church but it was definitely worth seeing.

Bellinzone was a pretty sweet town, and I'm glad we got to view another part of Switzerland to see the similarities and differences between there and Riva.