Verona archivos - Page 4 of 6 - VOLARE MAGAZINE

It’s Sunday morning and a beautiful sunny day. I take my bike and head down along the Adige River. This is a little ritual shared by thousands of people from Verona. Every Sunday, in fact, the stretch along the river, or the Lungadige Attiraglio between the Ponte Catena (Chain Bridge) and the area of Parona, is closed to traffic. In this way, the road is full of people on foot, skates, rollerblades, skateboards and especially bicycles — rather than cars.

It’s a simple and spectacular route, running along the river in the direction opposite the river’s current. You can also go down to the riverbank where there is an unpaved path directly along the water. Pedalling on, the green hills of Valpolicella appear on the left while the mountains rise up in front.

Usually, I go up to the bridge at the Diga del Chievo (the Chievo Dam), which is in a district in the northwest part of the city. I pass through this area and come back to the city along a bicycle path that winds along the Camuzzoni Canal. It’s a total of about ten kilometres there and back, going in a circular route, which lets you see a different, more common and rural side of Verona.

It’s just one of many possible routes there for those who love cycling. Verona is a city of cyclists, where there are many devotees. At the same time, bikes are being used more and more as a way of transport around the city and as an alternative to automobiles. In recent years, many kilometres of bike paths have been created. Verona, in fact, now even hosts the largest bike event in Italy which takes place in September at the Veronafiere Congress Centre.

Another of my favourite cycling routes involves the river once again. But, it’s on the other side of the city in an area known as Parco dell’Adige Sud (South Adige Park) . The route starts by turning right just after crossing the San Francesco bridge. You then go across the maneggio del Boschetto (Boschetto Stables) and continue on a well-beaten unpaved track, winding your way through woods, meadows and agricultural fields.

From there, you cross the bridge of San Pancrazio. At this point, you can enter one of the most remote, unknown parts of Verona. This place is in a tight bend of the Adige, making it isolated. It’s not by coincidence that the Lazaretto or a hospital for infectious disease patients was built here in 1549 with the onset of the plague. All that survives today is the chapel designed by the neoclassical architect Sanmicheli.

Remaining closer to the city centre, you can experience a thrilling adventure going along a route that has been chosen twice, in 1999 and 2004, for the World Road Cycling Championships. Here you need a good bicycle with gears, a good supply of water and, even better, good physical condition since the climb is very steep in places.

This route crosses the Torricelle, or the hills behind the city, which are characterized by forests, military fortifications and glimpses of scenery. It runs along Via Nievo and then meets up with Via Castello San Felice where the road begins to climb. If you think the climb is too hard, you can always stop half-way up at the beautiful Colombare Park. It’s an ideal spot to to rest and recover.

Only the fittest will be able to make it completely up all the Torricelli’s seven turns leading to the the top. At the summit, you turn right on Via Caroto and ride toward the city. You’ll come to the Vernonetta neighbourhood. From there, you can easily get back to the historic city centre.

If you don’t have a bike at hand, you can hire one from the “bici condivise” (bike sharing) stations that have existed for some years in the city. With curiosity and instinct as your guide, you can push yourself to discover a new side of Verona. It’s different from the one immortalized in postcards, but still very beautiful.

Verona is surrounded by mountains. If you go along Corso Porta Nuova to Piazza Bra on a beautiful, clear, winter’s day, you can see the snowy peaks of the Carega Mountains sticking up in the distance. From the Lungadige Attiraglio (a road running parallel to the Adige River), you get a clear view to the West. Looking in that direction, you can see Monte Baldo which is over 2,000 m high.

Imagine yourself on the summit. From there, you would have an equally amazing view back towards the city. If you have the desire and inspiration to really climb the mountains around Verona and breath the clear invigorating air there, your effort will be repaid by the views you get over the plain below.

To actually get to the mountains around the city, you can start out from the Graziani mountain refuge. From there, you walk along a gently rising path for an hour. This will take you to the Chiesa sulla vetta dell’Altissimo refuge where you can admire the view down over all of Lake Garda. At the Bocca di Selva refuge, also located in the Lessini Mountains, some have even managed to photograph Mount Monviso which is 330 km away!

Going up into the mountains is a way of getting back in touch with nature, leaving behind the hustle and bustle of the city and breathing some fresh air. Doing it requires only a pair of good walking shoes and some will.

The mountains around Verona are welcoming even for those who tend to be a bit lazy. Most of the mountain refuges in the Lessini range are easily accessible by car, such as the Dosso Alto a Conca dei Parpari refuge. You are guaranteed to find young people there on Sundays eating traditional mountain fare and listening to good live music.

There is a cable car with spectacular views that allows you to easily reach the summit of Monte Baldo. You can take this from Malcesine, one of the prettiest villages among those overlooking Lake Garda. The cable car operates all year round. Making the trip up from the shore of Lake Garda to the mountain summit 2,000 m above is a breathtaking experience.

Obviously, you go to the mountains in the winter above all for the snow. This year, however, there has been little snowfall in the mountains around Verona. Traditional winter activities like cross-country skiing and snowshoeing have not been possible and have had to be postponed until next year.

Fortunately, Verona is also in an excellent position for reaching the ski resorts of Trentino-Alto Adige. These ski areas are among the best in Italy if not all of Europe.

Folgaria, certainly the best known of these resorts, is not more than an hour away by automobile. The slopes there are especially adapt for the non-expert skier and you would need more than a day to cover them all. It’s worth staying in Folgaria overnight in either one of the hotels right on the slopes or in the town which has many restaurants and locales.

My favorite destination for a day long ski trip, however, is the Polsa-San Valentino ski area. This is located on the Brentonico plateau of Monte Baldo in Trentino. It’s not a particularly luxurious place but it has a good variety of slopes of medium to low difficulty. It also has the advantage of having very low-priced ski passes and never being too crowded even on weekends.

The ski areas in the Dolomites are in a completely different category. They are a real paradise for skiers and snowboarders. From Verona, you can get to Obereggen in two hours. This ski resort is famous for its imposing slopes on Latemar Mountain. There is also the Carezza ski area which has sunny slopes on Catinaccio Mountain.

Heading north towards Alta Badia and Val Gardena, you enter the ‘Dolomiti Super Ski Area.’ This area has 1,200 km (!) of slopes and represents the largest ski complex in the world. I’m not a great skier, but for me skiing 3,300 meters down on the Marmolada Glacier or on the famous, long, ‘black slope’ of the Plan de Corones were among the most exciting experiences of my life.

In a dictionary of synonyms, the word “Verona” should be coupled with the word “wine”. We the people of Verona are introduced to it from a young age, and the fact that Verona is the leading Italian province in terms of wine production makes us particularly proud. Granted, there are so many producers and varieties that when ordering a bottle at a restaurant one can feel a little lost. So where do you start making sense of it all?

Probably from Valpolicella. It is our most popular wine – strictly red and the one we most identify with, though there are many other famous wines from Verona, such as Soave or Bardolino. Valpolicella is named after the hills northwest of the town, where its grapes are grown (though, over time, its production area has expanded). But it is not sufficient to say “Valpolicella”, because there are many variants of it.

Until a few decades ago, it was all easier. I clearly remember that my grandfather, a small Valpolicella wine producer like many others, at most made two kinds of wine: the “Classico” and the “Recioto”. The former was the everyday wine, light, which accompanied meals, but which could be drunk at any time of the day. The latter was the wine for special occasions: surely, my family opened a bottle of it in my honor when I was born. It is one of the very rare sweet red wines and is made with a special and complex grape drying technique.
These days, the situation is very different, more varied and complex: even I discover new types of Valpolicella every day. The king of Valpolicella wines, which in the last few years has enjoyed incredible international success, is undoubtedly Amarone. Made with the same technique as Recioto, it has a slightly bitter aftertaste (as its name suggests) and is a strong, structured, complex wine that rivals the best Chianti and Barolo bottles, in terms of price too. It is the wine I put on the table when I have friends for dinner and I want to impress them.

But there is more. In fact, with the evolution of production techniques, in the last few years new Valpolicella varieties have emerged. For example, there is Valpolicella “Superiore”, an evolution of “Classico”: many order it thinking that its quality is superior too, but actually the only difference is that it is aged in oak barrels. Another quite well known variety is “Ripasso”, a Valpolicella Classico that has been left to rest in the grape marc of Amarone.

Talking about wine has made me thirsty… If I have to buy a bottle to go out to dinner or a party, I often visit the Dal Zovo wine shop in Viale della Repubblica, a sort of secular temple for wine lovers, which offers a variety and quality probably unrivaled. If, instead, I want to try something new, I stop at SignorVino in Corso di Porta Nuova. This place has less well known wines which, perhaps precisely because of this, are all there to be discovered. Cheers!

Midway on our life’s journey, I found myself in dark woods, the right road lost.”. I was little more than a child when I learned the opening lines of the Divine Comedy, the most famous poem by Italy’s most famous poet of all time, Dante Alighieri. However, much more recently I discovered that Dante had many connections with my hometown of Verona. What better opportunity could there be to reminisce about him (or rediscover him), in the very places he frequented, than this year, the 750th anniversary of his birth?

Dante spent two periods of time in Verona. In particular, he found a home here from 1312 to 1319, after being exiled from his birthplace of Florence, where the Guelph faction, loyal to the Pope, had seized power. Verona, however, like Dante, was Ghibelline, and therefore loyal to the Emperor. Moreover, it was ruled by an enlightened sovereign, Cangrande Della Scala, a lover of arts and humanities and a pioneering Renaissance art patron.

Cangrande frequently hosted artists and writers in his palace (the “Palazzo degli Scaligeri”, now home to the Prefecture of Verona), which overlooks Piazza dei Signori. Today everyone in Verona knows this square as Piazza Dante because of the statue of the Great Poet in his typical contemplative pose.

When I stroll through the square I like to think that what I can see today is rather similar to what Dante’s eyes saw. Who knows how many times the Poet strolled through the two beautiful medieval courtyards connected to the square: the Mercato Vecchio (Old Market), where the ancient Court House stands, with its Scala della Ragione (Stairs of Reason), now housing the Modern Art Gallery of Verona; and the courtyard of Palazzo del Capitanio (commissioned by Cansignorio, a successor of Cangrande), home to the Scaligero Photography Center, and an underground exhibition space in the ruins of a Roman villa.

As his home city of Florence was burning, Dante found an oasis of peace in Verona that enabled him to complete his masterpiece. In fact, he wrote Paradise, the third canticle of the Divine Comedy, which he purposely dedicated to Cangrande, in the Capitular Library. In Dante’s days, this library, one of the most ancient in the world, was already 1000 years old. It stands beside the Duomo and its shelves preserve precious manuscripts on the history of the town and the Church. I visited it for the first time when I was still at school and was very impressed by the “Raterian Iconography”, the first illustrated map of Verona, which dates back to the 13th century and is now reproduced on many souvenirs.

In the Divine Comedy, more than one trace can be found of Dante’s lengthy stays in Verona. The Inferno mentions the Palio del Drappo Verde (Green Cloth Race), an ancient horse race through the streets of the city that is older than Siena’s Palio. After being abolished when the French ruled Verona, the Palio was reinstated in 2008, on the 600th anniversary of the first race: it is held every year between February and March.

In a triplet of his Purgatory, Dante refers to the Montecchi and Cappelletti families, whose rivalry amid Verona’s narrow alleys would later constitute the backdrop for William Shakespeare’s tragedy on the forbidden yet everlasting love between a certain Romeo Montecchi and his beloved Giulietta Capuleti. But that’s another story…

For about fifteen years, a small suburb of Verona has been famous throughout Italy and even the world — at least among football fans. This suburb is Chievo, which is located in northwest Verona and bordered by the railway line leading to Trento.

For many years, the only thing in Chievo worthy of note to a passing visitor might have been the picturesque bridge and dam on the Adige River, built between 1920 and 1923. Today, it is a pedestrian way from which one can admire the iron bulkheads of the dam, protecting the city from potential floods, and the branching off point of the Camuzzoni Canal.

Then, everything changed in 2000. That was the year in which the Chievo Verona Sports Association, known to all simply as Chievo, was promoted to the “Serie A” or first division of the Italian football league. This achievement was built upon two decades of continual and patient improvement in the minor leagues. Although no one could imagine at the time that this neighbourhood team just like any other would really do it.

Fans of Hellas Verona, the city’s main team and the only ‘provincial’ Italian football club to have won a championship in the modern era in 1985, taunted Chievo saying, “You’ll get to Serie A when donkeys fly.” When Chievo was promoted, all the Italian papers talked about a “fairy tale”. As a result, the nickname “Mussi Volanti” (Venetian for “Flying Donkeys”) caught on to describe the Chievo squad who pulled the feat off.

The “fairy tale” of Chievo has lasted since then. With the exception of one return back to Serie B which was overturned the following year with an immediate promotion, Chievo has become a stable Serie A presence. It often has to fight as an underdog, but there are years which offer much satisfaction such as beating powerhouse teams like Juventus or Inter Milan. One year Chievo even qualified for the Champions League, the top European football division.

But, if you come to Chievo expecting to breathe in an atmosphere of a neighbourhood gone mad for football, you’ll be disappointed. The truth is that the neighbourhood hasn’t changed much from the days when I was taken there as a child to see the dam and the ducks and swans inhabiting the placid waters upstream from it. Nor has it changed from when we would stroll through the beautiful park of Villa Pullè, with its the magnificent but decaying 18th century neoclassical residence, or explore the perfectly preserved Habsburg Fort in Chievo.

The centrepiece of the neighbourhood is still the small church square where the only apparent signs of Chievo’s football epic are a modest team merchandise shop and the flag hanging outside the bar on Via Berardi, which is the historic gathering place for fans. After all, it is this apparent normalcy that makes Chievo unique and it’s one of the reasons for the team’s success. The many players who have passed through emphasise that Chievo is a great place to play given the almost total lack of pressure there.

In reality, one thing in Chievo has changed. Just follow the signs for “Bottagisio” and you’ll find out what it is. What had been Chievo’s historic training field since 1957, when they still played in regional and provincial championships, is now a state-of-the-art, multidisciplinary sports centre. A series of synthetic playing fields serve as the training ground for all Chievo’s youth teams. On Saturdays and Sundays, many football fans take the beautiful bike path along the Camuzzoni Canal and stop to watch young, future talents play who may one day become real professional footballers. This is the place, after all, where Chievo’s fairy tale begins.

The Arena is the undisputed symbol of Verona, its most loved and recognizable monument. For the people of Verona it is part of their identity. Even the local daily is named after it. The Arena was built by the Romans in the first century AD and has survived to this day in excellent condition, to the extent that, for 100 years now, every summer it has hosted an opera festival and, more recently, rock, pop, jazz concerts, variety shows, and events. But these days people often forget what the Arena has been for Verona throughout its millennial history, and what it can represent for its future. Here are five things you (probably) don’t know about this world heritage jewel.

1. The Arena was built outside Verona. Today the Arena is usually considered the center of Verona, but the Romans built it just outside the city walls. A small stretch of Roman fortification – some 10-meters long – is still visible at the back of the amphitheater. Even then its role was mainly to provide entertainment (gladiator shows, naval battles, etc.).

2. Stones from the Arena were used to rebuild much of the town. Originally, the Arena was surrounded by an external ring decorated with statues, only a small part of which survives today (which everybody knows as “the wing”) after the earthquake that struck Verona in 1117. Instead of rebuilding the monument, the people of Verona decided to use the rubble and limestone to rebuild their houses, which had been destroyed by the earthquake.

3. The Arena was (also) used as a warehouse. The Gavi Arch, from the same period as the Arena, was a spectacular monument positioned on the main access road to the town (once part of the ancient Postumia Way), not very far from Porta Borsari. When Napoleon conquered Verona in 1805, he considered it a hindrance to his convoys and had it destroyed. The stones were kept under the Arena’s arches until 1932, when the arch was finally rebuilt by the side of Castelvecchio.

4. They want to cover the Arena. The first restoration of the Arena was ordered in the 1500s. These days, the monument’s upkeep costs millions of euros every year. In order to protect it from rainfall (and be able to use it for shows in winter) Verona’s city council intends to launch a competition for ideas about how to build a mobile roof for the Arena. The news has been very controversial in the city.

5. The other side of the Arena. The Arena is famous worldwide for its opera festival in summer. However, for the rest of the year, the Arena’s orchestra plays a leading role at the Philharmonic Theater, where operas, classical music concerts, and ballets are held.

If I had to name one truly unique experience to be had in my native town, one thing in particular would come to mind: attending an opera in the Verona Arena. And even if you don’t know anything about opera, if you can’t tell a baritone from a soprano or have never heard of Verdi, Puccini or Donizetti, there are still a thousand and one reasons not to miss the opportunity.

Opera is usually most at home in theatres. Yet, every summer for over a hundred years, the Roman Arena in Verona, with its two thousand years of history, has been the setting of one of the most renowned opera festivals in the world. In front of thousands of spectators (up to 13,000 when it’s sold-out) without a roof over their heads, the singers have to project their voices up to the last row without the aid of microphones.

This spectacular setting also has another big advantage: the stage is very large. As a result, it lends itself to grandiose scenery. Directors (such as Franco Zeffirelli, who for years has produced a signature version of Bizet’s Carmen) can play with full-scale reconstructions of palaces and pyramids (such as in Verdi’s Aida set in ancient Egypt) or using a large number of extras.

Productions at the Arena are a great collective effort involving thousands of people and not just on the artistic front. As soon as I was old enough, I worked for several years at the Arena Opera Festival like many other young people my age. I used to dress in a tuxedo every night and stood at Gate Number 1 letting the audience in and checking tickets.

There are dozens of security guards, nurses, people selling things and first responders (often someone may be taken ill with the heat). And then there’s the required crew like technicians and drivers. They’re the ones who have to disassemble the complex scenery every evening as soon as the show is over, preparing for the next night by the time the curtain goes up.

The backstage is a city within a city. A small army of tailors, makeup artists and costume designers work full out to ensure that the artists are always perfect for their scenes from an aesthetic point of view. Then, it’s up to the performers to give their best in terms of their interpretations on the stage. It’s one that’s been trod in recent decades by all the biggest opera stars from Maria Callas to Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and José Carreras.

Arena tickets are divided into basically into two categories: numbered and unnumbered ones. The former can be particularly expensive, but being closer to the stage allows you to see and hear better. Moreover, it allows you to arrive up to a few minutes before the start of the show.

Unnumbered tickets are available at particularly good prices, but you need to be prepared. You have to cue up as early as the afternoon if you want the best places. One needs to take into account that it can get particularly hot under the sun in July and August while waiting on the stone steps of the Arena (you can hire pillows inside to sit on). That said, despite being further away from the stage, you have a spectacular view of the amphitheatre from the steps and the acoustics are often great too.

It is not the sun or hot weather which is the main challenge with all the events at the Arena, but the rain. At the first drop, the orchestra stops playing and the musicians run indoors to put away their valuable instruments. After the cloudburst, the performance picks up where it left off, unless the disruption is not a fleeting one. In that case, the show is cancelled and the tickets refunded.

The rain in the Arena can be a rather frustrating experience, but you have to be resigned to it and a little patience. Sometimes you have to wait late into the night before hearing the famous chorus of Nabucco, “Va pensiero, sull’ali dorate …“. But, it will definitely be worth it.

Even if I were suddenly to lose all concept of time, I would immediately recognize the arrival of the Christmas season from one unmistakable detail. When strolling through Piazza Bra, I see the large comet anchored to the ground, with its tail forming a big arch that disappears into the Arena, and only one thought comes to mind: Christmas is coming.

The Bra Star is the undisputed symbol of Christmas in Verona, along with the traditionalnativity scenes exhibitioninside the Arena, which this year is held for the 32nd time. My parents used to take me there when I was a kid: fighting the cold of the Arena in winter, I stared at the windows, charmed by the brooks and waterfalls in those merry countryside scenes peopled by shepherds, craftsmen, and blacksmiths. Now, I go there as a father, seeing the same amazement in the eyes of children.

Regarding shopping, in the last few years the main attraction in Verona has been an import: the market stalls of the German city of Nuremberg, which for the occasion are placed in Piazza dei Signori, one of the most beautiful of Verona’s many squares. Christmas decorations, candies, roast sausages, all in a festive (and bustling) atmosphere. It is amazingly popular and loads of people come to Verona for Christmas just for this.

However I prefer other stalls that are connected to my childhood memories. The ones set up on December 13th for the feast ofSaint Lucia, who is to the children of Verona what Santa Claus is to the rest of the world. Many bemoan the fact that the goods for sale are not what they used to be, but children’s tastes have also changed. Be that as it may, now that I am somewhat older, I no longer go there to buy toys, but for food. In fact, only here in Verona do I treat myself to a doughnut!

This year at Christmas, strolling around Verona, you’ll come across two exhibitions that are definitely worth visiting. The first is dedicated to Post Impressionism in Europe, with works by Van Gogh, Seurat, and Mondrian, beautifully arranged and exhibited at the Palace of the Grand Guard, which is in Piazza Bra.

The second exhibition is being held at Forti Palace, where the Amo opera museum is also based: this is an exhibition dedicated entirely to Tamara de Lempicka, a Russian painter who became famous from the 1920s onward in Paris for her elegant, modern, and unconventional works (including several naked paintings of some of her female lovers).

Anyway, what I love most about Christmas in my town is not its markets, nor its exhibitions. It is the atmosphere of the center that becomes lively with people looking for gifts, friends crowding into cafés to exchange best wishes for Christmas, and families strolling through the city to enjoy the lights and decorations. Under the comet in Piazza Bra, the entire world seems a better place.

One of my favourite places in Verona is in a little street near the Duomo, called Via San Giacomo alla Pigna. From here, in one of the city’s best-preserved medieval quarters, you can gain access to a little church porch belonging to a former Romanesque church, which is now deconsecrated.

In my humble opinion, there is nowhere else that captures Verona’s past quite like it. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) it is a hidden gem because the metal door that enters onto the street is usually closed and you can only imagine what it conceals behind it, by peering through the grill.

This hidden treasure in the heart of Verona is, however, accessible to all during Tocatì, the street games festival that for some ten years has been livening up the beginning of autumn in the city.

There is no other event in Verona that really enables you to experience the city – and in particular its squares, including the hidden ones – in the same way that Tocatì does. It’s not by chance that it has been growing in popularity every year, with tens of thousands of visitors attending.

The philosophy of this festival, whose name is derived from a regional expression that means “It’s your turn”, is very simple yet highly original. We are now living in a time in which much of our lives have become “virtual”, including games, and in which children’s and teenagers best friends are increasingly a computer or mobile phone screen. Instead, Tocatì has focused on traditional games from the past, street games which are now forgotten or practically extinct, but are not without their own charm if you create the right challenge to make them appeal to today’s youngsters.

And the backdrop for that challenge is precisely the historic centre of Verona which, for one long weekend, becomes an “open city” for traditional games. Since this is an international festival, every year a different country or region of the world is invited to host their own traditional games in the city’s squares (the most recent being Mexico, Hungary, Catalonia and China).

Clearly I’m a fan of traditional Italian games and, in particular, those from Verona, the most famous of which is “s-cianco” (which is commonly called “lippa” in Italian). It is a very ancient game dating back more than 4,000 years. The general idea is: with a bat, the batter launches a little rounded wooden peg, placed on the ground, into the air and then attempts to hit it as far as they can with the bat. Once the peg has landed, or by catching it mid-air, the opposing team of fielders must attempt to throw the peg back, aiming to make it land within a well-defined area, so as to eliminate the batter from the game.

There are dozens of games like this on offer, which adults seem to enjoy as much as the children. The Associazione Giochi Antichi di Verona (Verona Association of Traditional Games), which is run entirely by volunteers, has catalogued these with an almost philological rigour because Tocatì is now the focal point of an in-depth research project that involves both universities and schools.

But Tocatì is not just about games, it also provides an opportunity to experience a city in a unique way, rather than just visiting its most famous tourist sites. And the little square in Via San Giacomo alla Pigna, where the Osteria del Gioco (Games Tavern) is set up during Tocatì, is not the only place you can discover.

Another corner of the city that is transformed during Tocatì is Lungadige San Giorgio. From this pedestrian walkway along the Adige river, between the Ponte Garibaldi and Ponte Pietra bridges, you can enjoy perhaps the city’s most beautiful view, against the backdrop of the San Pietro hills. It’s generally a tranquil place, favoured by local runners and dog walkers but during Tocatì you may stumble upon a large street food festival, where you can sample the regional dishes and snacks on offer.

And now, “it’s your turn” because in essence the philosophy of Tocatì is that “play forms the basis of knowledge, culture, sharing and discovery”. A lesson that will endure far beyond a four-day street festival!

In Florida there’s Disneyland. In Denmark there’s Legoland. In Italy there’s Gardaland. The most famous amusement park in Italy is located about twenty miles from Verona along Lake Garda. It’s a favourite tourist destination for millions of people and not just children. Over time, this area has well and truly become a centre of fun for all ages.

When I was a kid, I couldn’t wait for my parents to take me there. Now that I’m a father, I see that same excitement in my own daughter’s eyes. When I get to the entrance and see the reassuring shape of “Prezzemolo”, the good dragon who’s the park’s symbol and mascot, and then go through the castle door that acts as an entrance to this enchanted world, I am overwhelmed by fond childhood memories.

Although it seemed enormous to me in my day, so to speak, Gardaland was much smaller then than now. Then, the main attractions were a little train, which sped through a Wild West landscape while dodging falling boulders and Indian assaults, and a canoe that wound through a jungle setting.

When I accompanied my child to Gardaland recently and returned there, I looked in vain for these attractions. They are no more. The attractions today are much more spectacular, exciting and technological. There are roller coasters that go considerably high up only to dive down making loop the loops, curves and corkscrew turns. There are canoes that face rapids and waterfalls. There are rides that simulate the thrill of free falling.

The park’s (perfectly adapt) slogan was once: “a child’s dream is to go to Gardaland”. I remember now, as if it were yesterday, feverishly awaiting the opening of the Ramses attraction set in ancient Egypt. The park has been remade today to meet the demands of adults who want to experience the thrills of an extreme sport for a day.

That said, children are obviously still the centre of attention at Gardaland. But the attractions for children have also become much more elaborate. A whole area of the park is entirely dedicated to children and fitted out completely in a fantasy theme (presided over by Prezzemolo). It’s made even for those under a metre high who, according to the park rules, enter free still today. There’s trains, planes, water games and several rides. You’re really spoilt for choice.

In the course of time, other amusement parks have grown up near Gardaland. Among the most famous is Caneva Waterpark located a few kilometres north. It’s an amusement park with water slides and toboggans. Here too the trend is to build steeper and steeper slides so that you go down with increasing velocity, maximising the emotion.

Alongside the waterpark, Movieland has also opened and is a large cinema-themed amusement park. In addition to attractions such as the house of horrors or the U-571 submarine simulator built on a 1:1 scale, you can live out some typical scenes from action movies, like a car or motorcycle chase in the midst of shoot outs on the streets of San Francisco in the 1970s.

If I think back to my own list of childhood favourites, the only place able to rival Gardaland for me was the Pastrengo Natura Viva Park. It’s located on the road between Verona and Lake Garda in Pastrengo. In my time, it was simply a zoo safari where you could admire exotic animals such as lions, elephants and hippos roaming free in an environment very similar to their natural one. Today the Park has evolved and become one of the most important zoological parks for the protection of endangered species. Their most famous conservation projects involve the red panda, bald ibis, European bison and snow leopard. There’s great celebration in the park whenever they have young ones.