Castles, Castles, Castles.

Yes, there were three of them.  

Yesterday evening I made the twenty minute train right to Bellinzona (capital of the Ticino region), where there are three castles that were built by the dukes of Milan back around the 1200-1400s.  One was a steep hike, but had a small restaurant in the inner court, another was perched on the side of a mountain and the third on a hill in the center of the town.  Bellinzona is less touristy, especially when the sites are a good amount of excersize to get to.  So, I was pretty much alone there and for a few brief moments felt like I might have been in Ireland or Scotland with the green grass and the brown stone.  One thing that reminded me I was definitely in Italian Switzerland was the fact that the castles were surrounded by domestic grapevines.  It seemed like every little house had it's own mini-vineyard.  

Here is the tourist website because I didn't have my camera (I had to rush out after work and forgot it, but I might go back):

http://www.bellinzonaturismo.ch/framework/DesktopDefault.aspx?lr=1    

Oh cool, $4.50!

The nice thing about having coins worth more than 25 cents is that when you find one on the ground, it's really rewarding.  Yesterday I found a 5 franc piece which is worth about 4 dollars and 50 cents.  

storms storms storms

The weather here changes quickly and the last few days there have been some crazy thunder and lightning storms.  Probably the most intense I've ever been in.  Almost every flash of lightning you notice has a bolt that looks like it made it to the ground.  I'm assuming its the cold air from the nothern mountains meeting the warm air coming from Italy and it all settles around the Lake.  It is also cool to watch the little mountain stream outside my house turn into a raging brown river like in news footage of flash floods.

I just had to take a break from writing this because my coworker and I had to run to the window and take out the fan because .45 or so inch hail was coming in.  

Firenze

I spent a week in Florence helping set up for the architecture exhibition.  Risd's space looked great.  The entire area was covered including the furniture, walls, floor and books with a black and white pattern that when photographed is a link to a website with student work.  There is also a large wall covered in postcards each with a picture and description of a student project where we hope people will comment/critique student work. Tonight I'm heading back to Florence for the weekend to see how everything turned out (I had to leave right before we finished) and to see some of the lectures (there are guest speakers throughout the week).  When I go, I'll take some photos to post later.

For now, here is a link with one photo from a write-up on dexinger.com  We're hoping for a few more write-ups and some blurbs in a magazine or two or three.

http://www.dexigner.com/architecture/news-g18281.html