In the United States there are about 13,500 McDonald's restaurants.
In Germany, castles are many more.
It may seem incredible, but in Germany there are 20,000 to 25,000 castles, fortresses and historic buildings, scattered among mountains, forests, rivers and ancient villages.
Some are little more than medieval ruins.
Others seem to come out of a fairy tale, such as the famous Neuschwanstein castle, which inspired Disney's Addormented Bella Castle.
But there is one who keeps an even more surprising story.
It is hidden in the woods of the Moselle valley and is called Burg Eltz.
From afar it appears as a set of towers that emerge from the trees.
Nearly tells almost nine centuries of history.
The castle is first mentioned in a document of 1157.
Since then he has always remained in the hands of the same family.
Today it still belongs to the descendants of the house von und zu Eltz, who arrived at the thirty-fourth generation.
Meanwhile, empires have collapsed.
They ended up dynasty.
Europe has been crossed by wars, invasions and revolutions.
And yet Burg Eltz stayed there.
He's never been destroyed.
He was never conquered.
Most of its furnishings, armor, paintings and historic environments are still preserved.
For centuries the family has followed a precise rule: to guard the castle as a common heritage, handing it down from generation to generation through family agreements that ensure its conservation.
It is also thanks to this choice that visiting Burg Eltz today means entering a place that has crossed almost nine hundred years without losing its identity.
In a world where everything seems to change more and more quickly, there are still places that tell time with the language of stone.
And remember that some inheritances do not measure themselves in money.
They measure in centuries.