Italy!

Adventure alert! After finding out that there was a medieval festival going on in Northern Italy, we decided to  venture off on the three hour car trip to check out the Oswald von Wolkenstein Ride. The ride is in a region of the Dolomites of Italy called South Tyrol and includes four tournaments throughout the weekend: a ring piercing contest, a labyrinth, a gallop and gate race. 36 teams take part and the event ends at Presule Castle with traditional music, games and food.

The ride there was absolutely gorgeous with amazing mountain views, grapes growing and tons of castles. We headed up a crazy, crazy mountain with incredibly narrow winding roads towards Presule Castle only to find out we couldn't park there. Nobody (literally nobody) spoke English so we followed the crowds to a nearby town and parked and took a shuttle bus to the event. We thought we were going to the castle but ended up at an earlier spot and got to see some of the events up close and enjoy a yummy lasagne lunch with a beautiful view. Then it was back on the shuttle buses (3 more!) until we reached Presule Castle and the site of the medieval festival.

En route! Entering Italy!

It was 85 degrees and HOT so we tried to keep the kids drinking but learned that all bottled water that was sold was carbonated...oops! We also tried some very strange snacks, including a friend dough like pastry that tasted like black licorice. Yuck! The kids loved watching the horses though and discovered some very strange old-fashioned rides, including a manually operated ferris wheel! There were also medieval games, including a version of roulette where a white mouse is released who chooses the number based on his path. Very strange!

Mouse Roulette?

The mouse man

Don't eat my croc!

Manually operated ferris wheel! Those sandbags help distribute the weight!

The ferris wheel guys' shoes

Translation please?

Presule Castle

The Castle from the shuttle bus ( : How did those lucky people get to park there?

Driving back down. Imagine living in that house on the right...

It was an amazing day with some of the prettiest views I've ever seen, while at the same time being so different from anything I had ever experienced. I found this video on youtube...check out the amazing views and attempt to decipher the language if you can. ( :