Casale Monferrato

 (I'm a few days behind on posting so bear with me!)

It rained on our second day in Monferrato, so we picked up a couple of umbrellas and walked around town in the rain!

We started with breakfast at a local cafe - toast with ham and gorgonzola, and cappuccino.  It was a fortuitous choice of cafe, because it was outside under an awning, and as soon as we sat down it started raining very heavily!  We were in one of the few cafe's that didn't have to immediately pack up their patio.

After the rain settled down we went for a stroll, randomly walking up and down the narrow streets.

We were admiring the churches (and other random buildings, which were all incredible) when a local invited us to explore a local courtyard.

Turns out most buildings in Casale Monferrato are built around courtyards.  Some have nice gardens, some are just converted to parking.  Some are open and some are hidden behind large doors.

This street has a nice cafe (featured in the previous post).

This is the main courtyard of the town, and in the background the yellow building is where we are staying.

And this is our courtyard.  (If you walk straight through you will come to the first elevator we mistakenly took on our first day.  Our elevator is just inside the gate to the right.)

We visited the tourist info office (I think they were glad to see some actual tourists for a change!) and walked around the local fort (or castle, I'm not sure which) - it's been converted to offices, a cafe (also featured in the previous post) and I think some private residences as well.

Since it was raining we did indoor tours of the local church and museum.

And we had dinner at the Accademia Ristorante - it was on the second floor of an old building and was actually fairly difficult to find.  Up a stairway and through a large room ...

The door to the restaurant is at the back to the left, in the above photo.  NOT clearly marked at all.  There was a private party in an adjoining room that we almost ended up joining!

After Casale Monferrato we spent a couple of days in Milan, which will be the subject of my next post!