Castiglione del Lago

I will write the meat of this blog later. It's much too late here.  ;)  2am, eck!

This week I had decided not to go anywhere or do anything because I wanted to pace myself, monetarily. Many people wanted to go to Milano, some wanted to see Florence before we go as a big group, others just wanted to go into town. I decided I would stay at the Villa.

This was a terrible idea.

When we got home from the day trip in Casentino, I was so beat that I took a nap. We got home around 4pm, I tried to Skype with my Mom a little after Jessica, my roommie, and I bonded a little more, then because Skype wasn't really working in our room, I took a nap. Dinner was at 7:30pm, and I missed it. I slept right through dinner and woke up the next morning at 6:45am! I mean, I woke up at various times in the night, because that's just how my body works nowadays (fantastico, no?) but I didn't get out of bed until the morning. 

There wasn't really breakfast out, except the usual cereal, so I was glad I had bought yogurt ahead of time. Then I went back to my room after walking around the very serene and beautiful villa. Around 10:30am, I heard people say there was breakfast! So, I ate a little more. (Turns out, on the weekends, breakfast is later ... woot!)

Then I came back to my room, watched a movie on my laptop cause there was no internet, and slept. Many people were planning on going to the Hot Springs. I also wanted to go. I remember going to the natural hot springs in California or Oregon or somewhere with my family two or three times on Summer Vacations to visit my grandparents, and I remember how hot but how fun it was! But these weren't really in nature. They're natural hot springs, but they built a spa around the springs. So it's more like a spa and I decided not to go to the spa until maybe the last weekend, if at all. So, while people were leaving for the springs, I was sleeping. And I finally woke at 1:30pm, started heading downstairs for ... what else, more food ... when Julie asked if I wanted to go to the lake with her and Danielle.

I DID NOT HESITATE!

This was ridiculous! Sure, I have a limited budget, but if the only thing I'm going to do is sit in my room watching movies, or eating, or sleeping, I'm going to go stark raving MAD!

Hence, my next day trip with Danielle and Julie to:

~Castiglione del Lago~

(From left to right)

Julie and Danielle on the bus to the lake in Castiglione!

Can you believe it, it only took 3,80 euro to get to the lake and .55 to ride the bus the rest of the way.

There isn't even a shore, really. It's just sand and crab grass, then a little drop off of sand and some rocks and you are in the water!

The bottom of the lake was really slimy! And it was so muddy that we thought just maybe it would relieve our thousands of mosquito bites! So we slapped some on and probably looked completely ridiculous!

We even had some real Italian pizza! It was delicious!

This beer is huge! This is actual size; the size of your face! And it tasted quite good! I'm not a fan of beer, but this was good.

Green olives, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, and cheese!

Proscuitto, tomatoes and cheese with white sauce!

Artichoke hearts, mushrooms and cheese!

On the way up to the ... wait for it ... CASTLE! ... they have hundreds of olive trees!

They even had an out-door theatre in side the castle! WHAT??!!?!?!

However, this show was being set up only for that night, and we had already bought tickets for the train ride home, so we couldn't stay and watch it. But I'm trying to figure out a time we can come back and see a show!

 

From the top of Castiglione's little shopping area, with lovely wines, pasta, salami and grapa, you can see all the way down this street! Since the bus ride in was the last of the evening, we walked this street all the way down to get back to the train station.

Mommy! They had an old-time gramophone and I thought of you!

Waiting for the train to arrive, we stopped at the caffé across the street for some cappuccino. I'm glad I've never really had one in America, cause I would probably think the ones in the states are crap! This cappuccino was hand-made with love and care and TIME! She artistically put the cioccolate on the cappuccino and it tasted so delicious!

"Alisé" is the name of the caffé.

Needless to say, I am sooo coming back!

Next weekend maybe!