A small town with a great big castle (Bracciano)

Member Name: vhart

Product:	Bracciano
Date:	19/11/00 (119 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: pretty little town, great castle, great lake

Disadvantages: not on the tourist path, a bit out of the way.

It is with something of a heavy heart that I write this ‘review’ because Bracciano is the part of Italy that remains closest to my heart, and if I honestly thought that this writing would lead to a mad influx of tourists, then I wouldn’t write, but I doubt I can have that much influence alone!

Why is it so special? Well, that’s a hard thing for me to quantify. I have no doubt there are a million spots in Italy more beautiful (Florence, for one.. or the Northern Lakes), there are many many more historically interesting places, but maybe I like it so much because it isn’t an ‘obvious’ place to go. Mostly, people say ‘where?’ when I explain I have been there. It doesn’t cater really for tourists; it has a great castle with an interesting past. It has the largest lake in Lazio (the region around Rome). Many Romans head to Bracciano for their summer holidays or for weekends away.

All the guidebooks I have read deem it about two sentences, but it is worth a detour if you are enroute between Rome and Florence for the following reasons.

The castle orsini-odescalchi is amazing. It is a castle in the true medieval sense, complete with suits of armour, tapestry wall hangings, an oven that is the size of a large room, and used to spit whole cows. Almost a whole city existed within the walls of the castle, including the stables and the farm to feed and sustain armies.

There are regular guided tours. You have to go on a guided tour because the descendants of the family still live in the castle, in fact, they were in their garden when we visited and wandered over for a chat to us!

I didn’t pay for the tour because it was a special promotion when I was there and all the entry was free, but I think it is not very expensive. They have English and Italian tours in the summer and just Italian in the winter.

There is also a cathedral where, apparently, some reall
y famous italian rock star (!!!) got married. It is beautiful, but in an unassuming way.

The second Sunday of every month there is an ‘antiques and artisan’ fair in the piazza in front of the Castle. It is an interesting market, all sorts of things from antique farming implements (!) to a man I found who sells his painting of Suffolk and Cornwall. I noticed some paintings, and said to my somewhat sceptical Italian companion ‘That’s England. I know it is’ and I was soooo proud of myself when I found the painting of the cricket match as if to prove it. On talking with the painter, it turns out his sister married an Englishman and he goes over there to paint sometimes. He told me I was the first person he had come across, on his stall, who had correctly identified the cricket match (apparently, he said, other people tended to think it was just people dressed in white hanging around in a field!).

But I digress… back to Bracciano.. There is a bus from Rome and it takes about an hour. It is a great little town, a gem with a great castle. If you are in Rome and feel like a ‘genuine’ and completely un-touristy view of Italian small town life, you could do a lot worse. They are great people, the lake is beautiful and the food exceptionally cheap!

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