Photo TR: Italy

[milst1]

Due to work scheduling issues, Cheryl and I are not able to join either the TPR Europe trip or the TPR Italy trip. We know traveling with TPR is way more fun, and a lot less expensive, but sometimes you just don't have a choice. So we ended up doing our own private Italy tour during my Spring Break. We planned to fly to the South, drive north, and just try to score as many parks and credits as we could along the way. We even planned a couple of culture credits. So, without meaning to steal any of TPR's Italy trip thunder (heh, as though that's possible), here's a preview of some of what you'll see on the TPR Italy trip and the TPR Italy add-on trip. A lot of our itinerary overlapped, but there's also a bunch of stuff that is unique. Enjoy the report.

We rented a car at Brindisi airport. Did you know that your credit card car rental insurance is void in Italy? Yep. With the extra insurance cost, it's not a cheap rental, to say nothing of the price of fuel. I wish I could have let TPR do the driving.

First stop was a culture credit, this ginormous cave, Grotte di Castellano. We did a two hour walking tour through underground caves. Unfortunately they only let you photograph in this area, but it's pretty awesome. The whole stalactite-stalagmite thing. I hope I spelled those correctly.

Our first stop on Day 2 was Zoosafari e Fasanolandia. Well, just Fasanolandia. We didn't do the safari park. This park is on the TPR Italy add-on trip!

As you can see, Fasano is very close to the Adriatic Sea, right on the heel of the Italy boot.

The park had a nice set of miniatures from the Puglia region.

This guy was an anthropomorphized version of the famous beehive houses in nearby Alberobello.

Same theme used at park gate...

...and elsewhere in the park. There's a Fabbri spinning mouse.

Yay, dark ride! The park was completely dead at first, but slowly came to life.

No shortage of Wacky Worms in Italy.

Drop tower!

Ferris wheel!

Rapid River, with U.S. Civil War theming!

Sputnik is the drop tower. Might as well start learning a little Italian. Uscita is "Exit". Parcheggio is "Parking". A few words go a long way here. If you know some Spanish, you've got a leg up.

A Zyklon Galaxi. There are a lot of these still out there, but most are out of the way and we haven't run into too many. Fun.

Check this out: A Fabbri inverted coaster. Three seats across. According to rcdb, only one other is operating...in Kazakhstan.

We were prepared for the worst, and were pleasantly surprised.

It's clunky, but no inversions, so no headbanging.

The park is on a hill, from which you can see the Adriatic.

And there's this at the top of the hill!

The park was installing this escalator up to the Eurofighter. I look forward to TPR's continuing "Escalator Ride" reports.

Dig the color scheme and the layout.

This was a big credit for me:

Money shot. Actually, see our matching Phantasialand fleeces? Guests at three different parks approached us for information, thinking we were park employees!

T-Rex attacks the nearly finished Freedom Tower.

While we didn't do the safari, some zoo exhibits, like Mr. Gibbon here, are accessible via the amusement park.

A quick shout out to this really nice operator, Cosimo B. He figured out that we were enthusiasts from abroad, and he was super nice and helpful, in spite of the language barrier, like you should expect from an amusement park employee. He even bought us a cup of coffee! Say hi if you see him.

Thanks for checking out the first part of the report! Next up: Miragica!

Edited July 15, 2012 by milst1

[Midgetman82]

Wow! Seems like there are some really nice people that work there, along with the interesting rides. I long to have a random foreign ride operator bring me a cup of coffee! Very interesting report!

[milst1]

Thanks for checking it out, Marcus. And nice drumming on youtube!

[Midgetman82]

Ha ha! Thanks for viewing that. I guess you're the guy that just followed me on Twitter!

[simon8899]

Looks like a nice park to be. And obviously a Fabbri testbed with the inverted coaster, drop tower, rafting - the exact same rafting ride I know as a portable on carnivals.

 

The escalator is cool. Thinking of it and how supposedly lazy US citizens are I missed those at SFMM....

[milst1]

This was still Day 2 so we move on to our next park, Miragica, which is owned by the same people who opened the new Rainbow Magicland in the Roma area. The parent company is Alfa Park, but they're owned by an even larger company that does mall developments and theater chains. In fact, Miragica is basically on the edge of the parking lot of a gigantic mall complex.

 

I had some trouble with the online ticket purchase because the date of visit reverted back to the default when I incorrectly entered my credit card number, so our tickets had the wrong date, and I was getting no love online from Miragica's front office about getting a refund or exchange. I was sending all of my emails in Italian too, thanks to the fairly excellent Google Translate. An Italian friend of mine said that the meanings of my emails were clear. Finally, I went over someone's head and got some satisfaction. At least I think that's what happened.

We brought Elisabetta here a bottle of wine to show that there were no hard feelings!

Once again, we were lucky with the crowds, and we would be for the whole week. Take a look and you can see that they did put some a decent bit of €€€ into the theming. Those are Euros, for the the uninitiated.

The themed architecture at both Miragica and Rainbow Magicland were awesome.

"Buy your Speed Pass and Jump the Line!"

Intamin! Senzafiato is a fun and mild Intamin launch.

There's a small top hat and no inversions. Fun and re-rideable.

Technically the park is called "Miragica: Land of the Giants". I loved the bathtub theme of this water play area.

Here's his rubber ducky!

Frog hopper

Choo choo

Nice theming.

Spaccatempo is the other credit. Pretty nice theming for a Zamperla spinning mouse!

Lift hill for the pervs.

Drop tower "Per Bacco" theming reminds me of Furius Baco (awesome Intamin launch coaster in Spain), and for good reason: Both refer to Bacchus, the Roman god of wine.

We popped our heads into this show where they were chopping this guy in two.

Cheryl's looking at the big guy walking away.

Lunch time! Overall, Italian park food was pretty good.

Not too many parks offer a decent shrimp salad, am I right?

Don't forget to visit the gift shop when you leave!

A view of the themed elevator-lift raft ride on our way out.

Then we steeled our hearts and drove into the port city of Bari. Rcdb lists a credit inside a public park.

We found it, completely empty, but a guy was working on setting up some big inflatables, and eventually we found a sign that said they'd open in about 45 minutes.

It's amazing, what we'll go through to get a crappy credit.

The place is called Gomma Park. The owner (I presumed) even gave me a couple of Italian attractions industry magazines.

They had a decent collection of inflatables. Gomma means "rubber" in Italian.

I know these things are ubiquitous now, but they didn't have more than bouncy houses when I was small. I'd like to try one.

And finally, about a 2 1/2 hour drive across southern Italy to Napoli.

Thanks for checking out this report! Next segment: The parks of Napoli!

[SharkTums]

Awesome, thanks for the heads up on some of these out of the way Italy parks!

[beatle11]

Thanks for sharing Martin and congrats on 800!

[Philrad71]

Interesting report!

 

We also won't be able to do the TPR trip this year, but are going to Venice, Pisa, Sienna and will be spending a few days in the Tuscany region in September. Unfortunately, we had to cut theme parks out of the trip due to time constraints.

[technfxrick]

Looks like a great trip. Sometimes even though its an out of the way crappy credit, you get to see parts of the world you wouldnt get to see. Thats one of the reasons why i love this hobby

[Simipour'sTrainer]

 

I really like this picture. Looks very cool.

 

Good TR on some of the parks in Italy. They look like a lot of fun.

[Werner]

i could only wish a had the €€€ for all these trip you and cheryl have

 

Looks likes great fun these parks in Italy..!

[TPDave]

Nice! Thanks for sharing!

 

I love these random quirky parks, I'm a big advocate of the "screwed up european parks" trip

[Midgetman82]

Both Miragica and Rainbow Magicland look beautiful! And I don't know if I'll ever be that desperate for a coaster credit! Thanks for the report!

[milst1]

Always gratifying to make it to the front page. I wish this was my full time job, reporting for TPR. Thanks to Robb and Elissa and everyone who's checking out the report.

 

Day 3 saw us taking on the theme parks of Napoli, starting with a really cool FEC called Liberty City Fun.

 

After visiting the website for this place (http://www.libertycityfun.com/) I got so hooked on the website song (which repeats over and over) that I had to add the park to the itinerary. When we got there, I started running around taking pictures, which freaked out the management a bit, but once again, I managed to explain that I was an enthusiast, etc., etc. Being able to hum the website song did not seem to impress them, however. But thanks to Liberty City Fun for letting me snap away. Anyway, there was a lot to see.

Here we are!

The outer facade is fairly elaborate.

It's pretty big inside. I think the biggest indoor FEC we've ever seen was Kinderstad Heerlen in the Netherlands, but then again, I've never been inside a Chuck E. Cheese or a Pizza Planet.

I think this was both a little Indiana Jones ride and a Halloween train ride in this are. There's a climbing course above.

Lots of coin-op rides (you buy tokens) and play areas.

Games and inflatables, and dig the ceiling.

Walk out the back to the large outdoor area, which is like a Zamperla kiddie flat showroom.

Cheryl made a friend.

We personally don't count powered coasters, but here's one if you want it.

This is more like it, the well-themed Shark Trip.

Shark Trip!

Around the edge of the outdoor area are lots of coin-op rides and kiddie flats, such as kiddie bumper cars,

Kiddie swings,

Kiddie pirate ship!

Kiddie ferris wheel,

Frog hopper,

Even more crazy coin-op, like they went to every supermarket storefront in the world to build this enormous collection!

Nice looking slide.

Looking back inside.

Bumper boats. In the back you can see they had a "Fantasy Store" full of Disney and kids merchandise, plus themed party rooms for birthdays.

Hard to pick photos because there was so much.

F&B of course.

There was a pool advertised but we didn't happen to see it. The property continues across the street where you'll find more F&B and bowling alleys. All in all, it's a huge FEC packed with rides and things to do.

Our next park in Napoli was this one, Arcolandia Pacifico. This was near a giant church and there was a lot of Sunday morning traffic. In fact, we hit a lot of traffic all day in the Napoli area.

It's a really small park.

Wacky Worm Credit!

Dark ride!

Finally, after sitting in traffic on the tiny streets of Napoli for what seemed like hours, we made it to Girabilandia.

Seems like a nice place.

Unfortunately it was closed. But that's one of the big risks of this hobby. You fly or drive, and the credit is down.

The park's website is down, and I wasn't getting an answer from the phone number. It was a Sunday, and some Italian parks just open late, and we couldn't hang around. The park didn't have that permanently closed look, but we couldn't be sure.

We did find awesome food at a nearby mall.

Great Napoli food, right? Oh, irony, it's a New Jersey-based chain.

The Gelato Gods seem happy with the arrangement.

Our second to last park of the day was Edenlandia. As far as we could tell, Edenlandia is the oldest park and was the biggest park in Napoli. We saw a sign that said it opened in the 60's and this was the 50th anniversary. I think.

It's seen better days. According to rcdb, there was no credit here, but we wanted to check it out.

But what the heck is this??!!!??

A credit!!!! This really made our day, an unknown credit! I was bouncing around the park and couldn't wait to email Duane at rcdb. It's there now!

Cheryl is psyched we found the credit!

Nice train.

A round-up. This park had some rides owned by the park (you could buy a bracelet that worked for many rides) and other rides owned independently. You had to pay separately for those.

Ropes course.

Ropes course signage, for Larrygator.

Flume and other various flats.

Classic dark ride! Maniero: Casa degli Spiriti

This ride was a bizarre ride through the Old West. Just weird.

Last park of the day was Magic World, which Six Flags Enthuseast reviewed back in August of 2011.

I liked the foil lid on my Pepsi Light.

Ferris wheel!

Wacky Worm. We were told that we needed kids to ride, and we just lied and said the kids were ours, even though the parents were riding too! We ran away afterwards!

Stationary solo zorbing?

Mouse was down. We waited an hour before leaving, watching the guys walk the track, but we had to move on.

Nice flume theming.

I'm not the flats expert, but this looks like something.

Magic Mountain, a Zyklon Galaxi.

Swings and a badly painted skate.

Upcharge haunted walkthrough. We skipped, as we were faily exhausted.

Upcharge ropes course. Note the dummies.

We missed the dive show, which seemed a bit pathetic.

Crazy bouncy couch ride.

Can someone identify? I get exhausted researching flats. How long is this report segment?

Finally, time to drive to Roma!!! Next stop: Rainbow Magicland! Thanks for visiting!

Edited May 7, 2012 by milst1

[milst1]

Interesting report!

 

We also won't be able to do the TPR trip this year, but are going to Venice, Pisa, Sienna and will be spending a few days in the Tuscany region in September. Unfortunately, we had to cut theme parks out of the trip due to time constraints.

 

I get it. My dad despises our hobby, because we cut out culture due to time constraints.

[BrownStreak]

OMG! Its a Ricochet/Corn Popper with sideways facing seats! The basic model has always been one of my favorite 'classic flats.'

[deguy123]

^ Wow Ive never seen one like that!

 

Great pictures!!

[SharkTums]

So how many parks did you end up hitting in one day!?!?

[milst1]

^^^^

Ooops, I thought it was six but only five, and really only four because one was closed. I know, lame.

[simon8899]

Great TR of many small unknown parks. I mostly only visit parks that at least is featuring a coaster with inversions - at least a Vekoma Whirlwind.

 

Can someone identify?

 

Vekoma is doing a more modern version of this with inverted seating and no cage around you. But I'd think its older and was competing with rides like the Ranger or Traumboot - so early-mid 80s...

[alilstronger]

Awesome update!!! Thank you for sharing your pictures.

[DonatelloMigiatchi]

Anybody know what that dark ride is called?

[australianalex]

That's a Double Armed Ranger/Kamikaze. Those types of rides are made by tons of different companies, but since it's in Italy it's probably the Fabbri version.

[RoCo]

VERY COOL reports! The Edenlandia dark rides look amazing, especially that "old West" thing. And congrats on the credit discovery!