I am up with the dawn no matter where in the world I find myself. My husband is up with the owls and does not like mornings. This makes for some interesting travel logistics. Multi-room lodging is usually best, so I can get up and move about without waking him. But after three hours, if he isn’t up, I am pacing. It will take at least an hour after that before we are out the door. On good days we go with the flow, on others one or both of us are out of sorts because I wanted an early start/he wanted a late one.

Today was no problem as we just headed to the small village of Angeri. Our destination was Rocca di Angeri, an ancient fortress of the Boromeo family. The castle sits prominently on a rock cliff face and looms over the town. It can be easily seen from across the lake.

Despite the prominent location on the lake, it is harder to find by land. We drove up the small one lane road with two way traffic entryway and parked. The ticket taker was super friendly and welcomed us inside. She came out of the booth to talk with us and make sure we understood how the multi site tickets worked.

The views as we walked up the entry road and onto the lower court were stunning. After oohing and ahhing over the view, we tried to find the entrance. The signage was misleading and we found ourselves in an empty stairwell that was blocked. The false start required us to turn around and find the actual entrance.

The castle also houses a doll museum which was the designated starting place. The strange and creepy dolls were hundreds of years old. Made of wax, wood, and every other conceivable material, they spanned the centuries.

Japanese dolls from the 1700’s. Nuns. Animals with children’s faces. And craziest of all, animatronic dolls. There were tightrope walkers, acrobats, musicians, and various other indescribable dolls in motion. But the most unexpected was simply labeled, old lady weeing. And yes, in fact she shifted on her stool, smiling, and peeing. Yikes! What manner of Italian weirdness have we gotten ourselves into? That was definitely unexpected. Not what I thought we were visiting when we set out to see a castle.

Things normalized as we traveled into the main areas of the castle. Frescos from the 1000’s lined the walls. Beautiful and fragile, the paintings evoked the splendor of an earlier time. Especially since this was just one of many castles owned by the Borromeo family. Their fortresses circled the lake at one time and also filled the islands.

The echoing tiles and muted colors mesmerized me as we wandered the rooms. And the views from the windows! Looking over clay rooftops, boats on Lake Maggiore, …. I could never tire of the view! I tried to imagine living in such luxury in the 1400’s.

We climbed step after step, each worn by a 1,000 years of climbers. Upward to the lookout tower and parapets. Up and up until we seemed to touch the sky. The Alps in the background and the beautiful lake in the foreground. No invaders for us to worry about, just sailboats and water taxis. The defensive tower is now a sightseeing viewpoint.

It was hard to remember I was in the 21st century while exploring empty rooms with murder holes and garderobe. Sometimes when confronted with history, I am overwhelmed. I wish I had all these experiences during the many years I taught. My descriptions and explanations to world history students would be so much more informed and colorful.

The castle tour completed, we wandered the medieval garden. Herbs to cure fever, upset tummy, rheumatism….your pharmacy was what you could grow. Artfully arranged to encourage contemplation and prayer, the gardens were peaceful and colorful. You almost feel like you could live there…if of course, you had someone to draw you water and cut your wood and carry it up all those stairs.

We tried to visit the market along the waterfront, but there were no parking spaces. The police had blocked off most of the spaces downtown. It seemed strange that you would have a lovely park full of shops and you wouldn’t allow anyone to park. We drove out of town looking for anywhere to wedge our small car. Nothing! So I routed the gps back to the main road. Note to self, goat paths count as viable options in Italy. One way, two way traffic…..meaning open for two cars but only big enough for one…. Makes for unplanned adventure. Major relief when we hit the main road.

By now we are hungry and our plans for a small lakeside cafe are dashed. Instead we find Roadhouse, an Italian Western Sizzler knock off. Meat, meat, and more meat. My husband is in heaven. I am not thrilled about the food, but loved the local atmosphere. This unplanned stop gives me an understanding of what an Italian must feel like in an Olive Garden. It was a caricature of American steakhouses.

They had burgers with a layer of mashed potatoes, double patty, and topped with onion rings. Fries were covered in nacho cheese and ham. My burrito had nicely flavored steak, beans, rice….but also Cole slaw, Italian cheese, and corn. Strange combinations, not quite right, not quite wrong. What was wrong….incredibly wrong….my place mat had an advertisement for an upcoming movie featuring a man holding a pigeon. The man was also covered in pigeon poop. Not what you want to look at when you are eating a burrito with unknown ingredients.

Since our afternoon plans were scrapped, we stayed at the strip mall and joined hundreds of other Italians in the shopping experience. We needed to purchase an electric adapter as the two we brought were not sufficient for our electronic needs (we had no English stations and had to use the computer or iPad for programming). Add in phones that needed charging and the two plugs we brought required a dance of coordination that fast became a headache.

The electronics store was set up like Best Buy, but we could not read the signs and had to walk aisle by aisle to look for plugs. We found phone cords and extension cords and three way adapters, but none with an American plug. Finally after showing a photo to an employee, we walked to the check out line where we found exactly what we were looking for.

After a chaotic drive in which hundreds of bicycles took up the right side of our lane and hundreds of motorcycles passed us on the left despite oncoming traffic (and sometimes motorcycles approaching from the other direction as well). Think Bicycle➡️ car➡️ motorcycle➡️ motorcycle ➡️ car➡️ bicycle. That is a lot of traffic for a narrow road with rock walls and sharp curves. Add to the chaos, the Italian need for speed and……whew!

Once home, I needed to chill out. Grabbing my trusty lawn chair, I headed for Herno beach. I had the entire beach to myself, unless you count the ducks, who wandered right up to my chair. I got an earful about not bringing a handout, but they eventually calmed down. Just listening to the lapping of the lake was relaxing…. Until across the river a motley crew began ringing bells, waving sage, chanting, and banging drums. Unplanned drum circle…. But I decided that was one adventure I would ignore. Instead I settled in with a good book. Besides, the ducks seemed to be enjoying story time.