We arrived in Bellinzona from
Zürich
at around 11:30 this morning to visit the UNESCO listed castles. Our first stop, a ten-minute or so walk from the main
train station, was the Castelgrande which
sits majestically above the town in the centre of
the valley. Dating from Roman times as part of a
fortress, the Castlegrande offers some of the best
views of town and the Alps in town. This side of
the Castlegrande is sheer cliff face - an impregnable
wall of rock - so we took the lift to to the top.
(Yes we did walk down the other side.) While the
lift was only completed in 1991, the sheer face of
the cliff leaves a full frontal assault of this side
to imagination.
Rising from the Bailey above the walls and the city
are the Black and White Towers. 
Walking
up the towers and along the battlements that join
them in the central castle, it's clear why the castle
complex was built in this location. Fortified since
Roman times, the Castlegrande sits in the centre
of the valley atop a large rock formed while the
glacier which once filled this valley retreated.
During the Medieval period, walls leading away from
the Castlegrande once ran down this rock into the
valley and linked with the walls of the higher Montebello
castle and through the Ticino river - controlling
access through a range of Alpine passes.
A museum in the former armoury of Castlegrande gives
some history of the Castle and displays of the archeological
finds that have been found during excavations on
the various castle sites.
Following the museum, we commenced our walk down
to town along the walls of the Castle and through
some oldey worldey streets - which was an enjoyable
way to get into town.
After lunch at a local trattoria, we headed up
to the Castel Sasso Corbaro - we took a 10-minute
cab ride up for 17CHF as we failed to find the number
4 bus. Castel Sasso is significantly smaller than
Castelgrande and Montebello and, we discovered, open
during the summer months only. And currently serves,
in part at least, as a residence for the locals.
We we walked down to the Montebello Castle which,
along with valley views, was visible below us for
most of the windy route. The valley view gives a
pretty good impression of the difficulties that might
have been encountered trying to get past a complete
set of walls.
En route down, one of the more "picture postcard" type
of scenes is this Church and vineyard set against
the backdrop of a snowcapped Alpine mountain.
The Montebello castle is also splendidly set and is surrounded by Vineyards. Ticino is noted in Switzerland for its Merlot production and I would get that these are, indeed, Merlot grapes being grown. Unlike the Castlegrande, which is protected by natural features, the Montebello Castle is surrounded by large, deep moats which provided its defensive features.
