Marostica

While out and about today running errands (aka Christmas shopping), we took a slight detour to check out the castle in Marostica.  This cute little village is famous for putting on a live chess game in the town square every two years.  It also, like many Italian towns, has a castle sitting on the hill.  And since we're turning into suckers for a good castle, of course we had to explore.

As you can see, it's a bit of a climb to get to the castle.  It is possible to drive to the top, but really, what's the fun in that?  You can also faintly see the chess board in the square behind me.

The way up to the castle was a cobblestone path that wound through the olive trees.  Quite a climb, but so pretty it was definitely worth it.

Luckily there was a spot partway up to take a break and drink some water.

Once at the top, we discovered a nice restaurant within the castle walls.  Aside from that, there really was no castle.  We walked along the wall and checked out the views, which were pretty spectacular from that high up.

In other news, Donovan and I are headed to Istanbul in a few days.  We decided that instead of eating turkey for Thanksgiving, we would rather just celebrate in Turkey.