Adventures Abroad: Lake Garda and Castles!

Hey All!

I know it's been awhile but we didn't really have a lot of adventures during the week, just some classes. Photography, Painting... you know really tough stuff! This weekend we went to Lake Garda and Castello di Bevilacqua!

Lake Garda was amazing!!! Soooo beautiful! I couldn't get over it! When we first got there, we took a 360° revolving cable car up a mountain.

This picture has been taken half way up the mountain already! You can see the other cable car! Very fun! It was amazing! There were cows everywhere! We hiked around the mountain and watched people parasail off of it! After the mountain we went to the town and looked around! They have amazing jewelry everywhere! And for once it was affordable! Afterwards we went out to eat and had an 11 course fish dinner! AHHHHH!!!!!

YUMM my dinner! Saying "Please don't eat me." I did anyway!

We also got the chance to swim in Lake Garda. If you ever get the change to swim at the base of the Alps! Take it :)

On Sunday we went to Castello Di Bevilacqua. It is a castle outside of Verona that has a very good history! The castle was built about 600 years ago and served as the military fort for the Venician Army. After fighting had settled down a little it became a family home of the Bevilacqua's. They lived there until 1899, when things became dramatic. They left the castle to the town on the understanding that it would become a hospital for the elderly. It took the town 32 years to fix the castle to meet standards. It only was a hospital for a few years until the Nazi's took over. They stayed there until the end of the war. After the war was over the city needed money and sold it to priests to become a school. It was a school for a little under a decade until there was an explosion from a gas leak that took out the entire second floor. The castle cost too much to fix up. So they sold it to a local vineyard owner who only used the basement as a cellar. The poor man though was a gambler and lost the castle to a man in a crazy game of poker. That man gave the castle to his daughter, who is the current owner. The owner and her husband spent 9 years rebuilding the castle. Now it is one of the most popular places to get married. They had 5 weddings there the day we were there.

This is one of the rooms in the castle, that they have as a reception hall. This is actually the room that Claudio and Rita had their reception in! Adorable!