Click here to read Part 2 : Bam! It's Amsterdam
Bye bye Chocolato, Hi to Gelato
27 June 2022 continues.
After grabbing a few more chocolate croissants, chocochip cookies and hot chocolate, we exited Switzerland.
Snacking and driving, we reached Innsbruck in Austria. We intended to reach Innsbruck a bit earlier, but the chaos at the car rental company led to a delay and we reached only late in the evening. We went for a stroll nearby, had dinner and called it a day.
The plan for the next day was to do the Olpererhütte hike and click pics at the suspension bridge. It's a beautiful place of which we had seen photos and was in our 'must visit' list and we were really happy that were were so close. The sad part is that it still is in the list as close was not close enough.
The weather report for the following day was not so great, it was misty and with thunderstorms. We already had an experience with a thunderstorm hike and didn't want to repeat it. We had to quickly think of a Plan B. In comes Google maps. Our hotel for the next day was booked at Verona in Italy which was ~300km away, so we had to look for something on the way to Verona or in Verona itself.
Goole map showed all sorts of plan B. That is when it struck. I had found something that all 4 of us wouldn't be much excited about, but still would make our trip worthy for all the excitement the 5th one would have. The 'Peppa Pig land' in Gardaland resort in Verona!
28 June 2022
It was a 3-hour drive from Innsbruck to Verona. We started after breakfast and reached at around lunch time in Verona. After checking it to our hotel, we went to a shopping mall in Verona. The restaurants there were very tempting, and we finalized on one. No prizes for guessing what we ate for our first meal in Italy. Yes, wine and pizza it was. The taste and texture of the authentic pizza was amazing which we truly enjoyed.
Next destination was Peppa pig land for us. Soorej and Praveena definitely had nothing to do with Peppa pig and they decided to visit a lake nearby. For Peppa pig land, we found an economical option. Gardaland is a very big amusement park/resort which requires a whole day for exploration and Peppa pig land was just one small portion in it. There was this ticket plan in Gardaland that if we enter after 6 PM the tickets were of half price. We definitely didn't need the whole day as all we were interested only in Peppa pig land and not the rest.6 PM it is. Half price it is!
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| Peppa Pig Land |
Nachu was truly mesmerized by the sight of Peppa pig land. Her dream to go in a hot air balloon came true when she boarded the hot air balloon shaped giant wheel. Of course, she would later grow up and realize that it wasn't a real hot air balloon. But for the time being this was good enough.
There were several rides in the Peppa pig land and Nachu truly enjoyed each one of them. After that, we explored some other kids' rides making it a memorable night.
On to the next day.
29 June 2022
By now, it would have been evident that the Italy journey had a certain level of planning. A planning which we had to stick to, no matter what. Because the hotels were booked that way.
This day, for instance, the hotel was booked in Moneglia which was around 300 km away from Verona. So, whatever the plan for the day, we had to reach Moneglia by evening. How is that for a plan?
We roamed around in Verona in the morning visiting some churches and walking around the streets. We had on our list that we had to try Gelato from Italy because it was invented there. On the streets of Verona, we found many Gelato shops and understood that it was time to start our Gelato exploration. We had the first of the many Gelatos that we were going to have during the trip, had lunch in a busy street where we had some amazing Lasagna and then started our drive to the 'planned' accommodation.
It was a good drive, a bit longer that we expected, but we managed to reach the Moneglia beach before sun set.
It was a small beach and all shacks where closed. There were only a couple of eateries open, and we had some sea food pizza which were initially reluctant to have but turned out to be a good culinary experience.
30 June 2022
Our stay for the night was in Florence, 200 kms away!
But yeah, we had enough time to explore Cinque Terre, the primary reason we stayed at Moneglia.
Cinque Terre was a beauty. It is a group of 5 islands. The cliffs had buildings on terraces, narrow roads, steps to hike to the top, all of which overlook the clear sea. A photo frame in each angle. We didn't hike all the way to the top but did hike up to some height where we could get a good view. The lunch with that view too was special in itself and Italy again didn't disappoint us with its food.
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| Cinque Terre |
We left Cinque Terre in the evening to reach Florence late in the night. In Florence, we had chosen a camping site for stay, for economic reasons. Well, the camping site was an amazing one with all kinds of options for campers, like tents, rooms, RV parking space etc.
We crashed as soon as we reached there.
1 July 2022
Okay, so where do we go this day? Or rephrasing the question, where had we booked an accommodation for the night?
Easy answer. For a change it was the same place.
That's because this day had a very specific plan. Visit the leaning tower of Pisa.
After breakfast, we started our drive towards the Leaning tower of Pisa. We reached there at around noon and reached our destination. More than the building itself, it was the marketing that mesmerize
d me. How a fault was marketed so well that people all around the world including us drove all the way to see the 'architectural marvel'. We took the mandatory pic with Pisa, leaning over it, trying to hold it etc.
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| Who has a better balance? |
We had a sumptuous lunch from one of the eateries on the street. What mesmerised us more than the architectural marvel is the taste of the cheesecake, which none of us wanted to share but have the whole on our own. Especially when sharing a cheesecake with the 'cheesecake magician' Simi (you blink your eyes and its gone!). No wonder they say, 'Sharing is scaring!'.
We then drove back to our camp.
We then spent time with the amenities in the camp like the swimming pool and had dinner from the camp itself.
Day it is.
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