My Experience at Miramare Castle
As part of an organised trip whilst on holiday in Italy, I got the opportunity to visit Miramare castle. The castle has a lot of history behind it as our tour guide explained in an attempt to educate us and distract us from the coach trip. Unfortunately, I didn’t end up that educated. No surprises there then. Whilst I can’t share with you historic facts, I can tell you my first hand experience of visiting the castle. If you want to know specific dates, check Wikipedia or a calendar!
On arrival the coach drops you off quite a way from the castle. For those of us gifted with legs that haven’t had new knees put in them, this isn’t a problem. For some of the ‘out of season holiday demographic’ this wasn’t ideal as the walk to the castle was slightly uphill. The good news was that the incline made way for brilliant views. You could see all the way out to sea and close to the edge of the walkway whilst looking down you saw all big rocks protruding from the water. On these rocks, sea birds were nesting. I believe they were cormorants. The birds that look like something out of Jurassic Park when they dry their wings!
After making our way to the castle, we were greeted by the most stunningly beautiful architecture. The castle and it’s grounds were a thing of real beauty. Grand staircases, leading down to beautiful views and greenery. The castle has it’s own private mini harbour with a sea wall. It really had everything a King / Queen could ever want!
A place like this has a very romantic feel to it. It put my romantic fantasies into overdrive, as to me it was just the perfect setting to be in love with somebody. The perfect beautiful setting for a romance. A true bond, time to spend together enjoying the beauty of the place whilst building your own meaningful history together. It’s a shame I didn’t have a partner in mind for this as it would have been a special moment spent together. I even started eyeing up some of the old dears. Not gonna happen!
If you ever want a romantic getaway, this is it! I’m not sure whether you can stay here, you probably can’t. But if you could, this would be it! I really have a thing for posh staircases. There’s something about them that just screams class. I wouldn’t care if it didn’t lead anywhere, they’re just things of utter beauty.
There are many different little walkways around the castle which can be used to access different views. You can walk all the way around the castle and out onto the mini harbour wall. My only complaint was the statue at the end of the harbour wall. In my opinion it wasn’t grand enough, it looked like a smooth sphinx of some sort. Not for me. They could put a statue of me at the end, then all the sailing ladies would come and dock in my harbour. Well there goes my ‘romantic’ fantasy!
We explored the grounds, filled with greenery and impressive statues. The grounds of the castle were huge and we probably only explored a very small amount. Endless paths to choose from. Every one leading to something pretty and beautiful. There were many steps and as I was with my Mum, I decided to go ahead to see if there was something special at the top of all these stairs. I ventured up on my own. I ended up going down numerous paths which all looked somewhat similar. I did my best to keep a mental note of what direction I went as everything looked the same!
I then came across something interesting. It looked like the opening to a cave. I took a closer look, I peered into the cave and I couldn’t see the end as there were twists and turns within it. I used the torch on my phone to see if the ground was safe to walk on. I couldn’t see any signs that said don’t enter, so I became rather brave and ventured in without any idea what was waiting for me at the other end.
The cave went round a few corners for a little while, I suppose it was more of a tunnel. I then saw the light and came out the other end to what can only be described as an anticlimactic sight. I was presented with yet more paths and directions to choose from. I then turned around and made my way back. That was my little bit of bravery for the day!
You could pay to go inside the castle, I believe it was 8 Euros. We didn’t end up going in as we only had a limited amount of time at the castle and we had spent our time looking at the exterior and the grounds. We only had a short amount of time left over after exploring the outside, we didn’t want to rush viewing the inside of the castle since it was bound to be a big job. They didn’t often build small castles now, did they?
If you ever get the chance to go, I’d fully recommend it! It was one of the highlights of a really lovely day out.
