Matt, Alison and I decided to get up early today to take full advantage of the day since we slept in a little late yesterday. We decided to leave Ben and not wake him because he had been working so hard planning our entire trip so we thought he could use the rest. While grabbing some quick breakfast at the hotel we overheard a couple talking about their visit to Lake Bracciano the day before. It sounded very interesting and fun! Since we had no set plan for the day we decided to give that a shot. After asking the couple some basic information about how to get there we headed out for the day, and what a beautiful day it was! We caught a cab from our hotel to the train station and hopped on the train that took us out to Lake Bracciano. The cab ride cost us 15 euros and round trip train tickets were 20 euros each. Throughout the 40 minute train ride I was looking through the window for about 39 minutes of it, the transfer from the man made beauty of the city to the natural beauty of the outskirts was amazing. A fellow passenger suggested that we ride bikes at the lake so we could see as much of it as possible. We found the local rental shop in Bracciano and rented three bikes for 30 euros. They also had maps at the rental shop that had showed guided tours of the lake which came in very handy. Before we headed out to the lake we stopped by store to buy some stuff so we could have a picnic by the lake for lunch which only cost us 25 euros. We made our way to the large natural park that surrounded the lake and it was beautiful!
After riding around for a little while and taking in the sights we saw some familiar faces from the train who were getting on a sail boat. We stopped and talked for a while and they asked us if we wanted to join, of course we did! Sailing on the lake was amazing! The water was so clear and the sights were breathtaking.
The long day of biking and sailing had to come to an end because the sun was going down. So we got off the boat, said goodbye to our new friends and biked back into town to return the bikes. Our sailing buddies suggested that we eat dinner at a restaurant called Vino e Camino. We decided to splurge a little bit and get a few bottles of expensive Italian wine. We got a bottle of Selvarossa Riserva, Primitivo di Manduria Alberello and Pinot Grigio Eventus. This was by far the best wine any of us had ever had. We ate dinner and drank our wine...maybe a little too much of it to be honest. Dinner ended up costing us 450 euros due to the expensive wine, good thing Alison won that horse race yesterday! Finding the train station was a bit difficult after all that wine but after a little while of taking the accidental scenic route we found the station and headed back into the city. The wine made the train ride back much more interesting, we were all extremely friendly and sociable with everyone on the train. Matt and I met a couple beautiful Italian girls on the train that luckily spoke english pretty well. When we arrived back in the city the girls suggested that Matt and I come back with them for the night and we were extremely excited. Unfortunately, Alison made us come back to our hotel with her because she did not want our group to get separated. She managed to shove both of us in a cab and that took us back to our hotel. Obviously this made us fairly upset but looking back I'm glad she did because who knows where we would have ended up. Time for a good nights sleep after an awesome day of bike riding and sailing at Lake Bracciano!
-Adam
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