We spent most of our time in Bellinzona, Switzerland which is in Ticino at the southern end of the country.  My cousin Monica lives there and it is close to her mothers town of Biasca where my Grandfather grew up.  It was very close by to some other cool towns that we visited like Lugano and Locarno.  Monica happened to be on holiday when we were there but she was gracious enough to give us the keys to her home and her extra car to use.  It was such a blessing to have a home that we could use and since Bellenzona is a very small non-tourist location we really got to absorb the culture much better.  

 

Bellenzona is an awesome town that has 3 castles which are kept up very well and they were within a 3 minute walk from monica’s house.  Most of the town is like much of Europe, the streets are cobblestone and you can really feel the history in the buildings.

 

The castle above was the Castle Grande and we actually got to sit on a lawn at the very top of it on August 4th, which is the swiss independence day and watch fireworks from the Castle, it was so cool.

 

Here is a photo of Monica and her family, we really can’t thank them enough for all of the hospitality they provided us, they are so loving and caring you just want to always be around them.  Monica is in the pink shirt and her sister is in the black tank top.  Sodonia her mother is on the left hand side of the photo.