The Lake and Castle of Bracciano

We've just returned from an afternoon visiting Bracciano, a beautiful small town northwest of Rome. The hilly town of Bracciano sits on one side of Lake Bracciano, which is one of the largest lakes in Rome. I fell in love with this town as soon as I saw it. It was quiet, of course, as it is a lake-side community in the middle of the winter, but it was full of character and amazing old architecture. Not to mention the lake, which is absolutely beautiful and which I cannot wait to revisit in the summer. The town itself is charming - tiny, narrow, winding cobblestone streets, old fashioned street lamps, and homes almost made me feel like I was walking around on a movie set. This was only further prompted by the fact that, set right in the middle of the town, was a 14th century castle. Before I get started on the castle, though, here are some photos of the town and lake:

A glimpse of the castle at the end of the street

The seemed to be the average size of the walkways around the middle of the town...there are flats/apartments up and down these passageways.

   Steps leading up to some flats

In front of the lake at sunset

Luckily for us, the Odescalchi Castle was open for tours today. The castle allows visitors to tour one of its wings, but only as a guided tour. Even luckier for us, we were the only people signed up for our tour, so the guide gave our tour in English. We learned a good deal of background on the castle; It was built in 1470, and has had a long and colorful history of ownership in its many years. It is currently owned by the Italian princess Maria Pace Odescalchi, who resides there today with her family in its west wing. There were no photographs allowed inside of the castle, though I was dying to sneak some. It was a really strange feeling being inside of a building that had been standing for six centuries; I kept imagining the people who had walked through the same rooms hundreds of years ago, which was both really cool and slightly unsettling. At one point, we visited a room that had been the private quarters of the Pope in 1481, when he lived in the castle for some time to avoid the Plague spreading through Rome. We also got to see the castle's inventory of medieval weaponry - cannons, armour, swords, knives, bow and arrows, and a whole display of axes that had been used to carry out beheadings (creepy!). When we finished visiting the allowed rooms inside of the North wing, we were taken up to the roof of one of the towers to see the view as well as to visit some of the walkways and courtyards. Outside, I was allowed to take photographs. Here are a few:

The walkway to the side door we used to enter the castle

In the doorway

One of the courtyards inside the castle

An old staircase in one of the courtyards

A view of one of the towers from the top of the castle

A view of the lake from the top of the castle

An outdoor walkway

An outdoor view of the West wing - where the princess Maria Pace Odescalchi and her family reside

More to come soon!