We decided to go for a nice Sunday drive to Bracciano, located just 37 kms north of Rome, to visit the town’s castle. This comes just a few weeks after the Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes marriage there. We had lunch first of all on the lake front and then went inside the castle for the tour, 6 euros per person. No doubt the wedding has had some positive spin-off effects vis-à-vis tourism as most want to see “up close” where the Hollywood couple got married. There were about 30 of us for the tour.The castle was built around 1470 and was owned by the Orsini family. They went bankrupt one day and the castle was eventually bought in 1696 by a powerful banking family, the Odescalchi. Unlike the Orsinis though, the Odescalchi weren’t part of nobility, until one of the members became a pope (or something to that effect). The princess Odescalchi still lives there and no doubt commanded a hefty sum for the Cruise-Holmes marriage (some say up to $1.5 million!). The view of Lake Bracciano is also very nice. And no, the tour guide didn’t say anything about the wedding until I asked, “Where are Tom and Katie”?, at which point she naturally laughed as I wasn’t probably the only one to bring up the topic.
The two love-birds unquestionably had a great time in such a nice castle and no doubt Ms. Holmes/Cruise will remember her wedding for quite some time to come as castles like the ones in Bracciano (or for that matter, in the rest of Europe) you don’t readily find in places like Los Angeles or New York (all pics by M. Rimati)!
No comments:
Post a Comment