Roman Roaming: Highlights from Italy

[BenC]

Ciao! You may well consider that writing up a two-week, 3,500km summer road trip around the coasters of Italy in 2015, covering 16 parks, 6 fairs and thousands of photos, would be quite the drawn out process - and you'd be right. So please forgive me for a) opting to only showcase the highlights here, and b) posting this so late!

Italy is a fantastic place to be a tourist - from the 2,000 year old ruins of Pompeii, to the narrow backwaters of pretty Venice, to the imposing Dolomites and other mountainous regions across the country - there's no shortage of things to see and do. Add to the list the ancient sites in Rome, Pisa's Leaning Tower, and the stunning islands in the South to enjoy, and I can think of few other European countries with so much variety to offer a traveller. It's also a country that's rapidly growing its coaster count, with an array of high-budget new Theme Parks opening their doors in the very recent past (Miragica; 2009, Etnaland; 2010, Rainbow Magicland; 2011, and Cinecittà World; 2014, to name a few).

I've chosen a select few of the Parks I visited over the Italy tour to highlight here:

• Cinecittà World, Rome
• Gardaland, Lake Garda
• Cavallino Matto, Livorno
• Mirabilandia, Ravenna
• Ai Pioppi, Treviso
• Etnaland, Sicily

Bellissimo. So, in no particular order, on with the Trip Reports!

Cinecittà World

Cinecittà World, the newest Park in Italy having opened only in July 2014, is situated a 45 minute drive south of Rome. There is a once-daily shuttle bus that runs from Rome to the Park (departing 09:30, returning 18:15) for the sum of £10, but alas no clear other public transport options - so if you've not got a vehicle, it's the shuttle bus or bust! This is a shame, given that the Park opens until 23:00 in the Summer as standard...

The €250m Park is something of a Universal Studios of Italy - Cinecittà is the largest film studio in Europe, and counts Martin Scorsese among its regulars. For the studio, which has fallen from over 350 productions a year in their heyday, to just 50 in the last six years, Cinecittà World represents an entry into an adjacent market to grow again and bring freshness to the brand.

And it's an absolutely gorgeous Park. Brand spanking new, and gobsmackingly pretty. Below is the entrance, where naturally there is a red carpet for guests to walk down. Every day, the Park stages a 15 minute "welcome" show upon opening, where a large cast of singers and dancers perform whilst slowly retreating backwards down "Cinecittà Street" (1920s New York), which connects the entrance to the main Park plaza. Visitors walk down Cinecittà Street with the cast, and upon reaching the central plaza, the show finishes with a flourish and the rides all officially open. Nice touch!

Wisened readers will probably have already guessed why I've included Cinecittà in this report - it is of course home to a near-clone of our very own beloved(?) 10-looper Colossus. Inexplicably named Altair CCW-0204 (no, I didn't really get the theme...), the ride is identical to Thorpe's own but for a few differences: a re-profiled first drop, a faster cable lift hill, and lapbar trains.

And in the clear blue skies of the hot Italian summer, it looked great

The cobra roll and final inline twist that we are all so used to seeing in Staines. Note that Intamin have gone for their newer "box" supports, rather than the cylindrical columns of Colossus.

And these are the lapbar trains, affording the rider a huge deal more upper-body freedom, if not that much more lower-body freedom (there was still not exactly an abundance of space for legs and feet to be positioned...).

So how did the train compare? The short answer is that the new trains are a vast, vast improvement on Colossus' own, and Thorpe should invest in a new set immediately. They improve the ride experience dramatically, especially during the final 5 inlines, where the train almost throws riders out of their seats with only a single bar holding them in - superb.

The more nuanced answer is that the ride still isn't perfect. Whilst the new trains are a vast improvement, they are still rattly - Altair does not provide the glass-smooth experience that you might expect from e.g. a Mack Mega Coaster. And true to form, the seats towards the back were rougher than those at the front (the same, constantly vibrating roughness that Colossus exhibits - just less so).

Intamin's version of the lap bar also proves sub-optimal; the lap bar on these trains are exactly that: just a solid, straight bar. They don't mould around your thighs (Mack), or pin your hips (S&S), or hug your stomach (Maurer). They are just a solid, straight bar - and as such were a little uncomfortable, especially through the inlines: your thighs just slam into them (and full body weight rest on them) on every inversion.

It's by no means a deal breaker, and Altair remains a substantially improved experience over Colossus, but there's still work to do for Intamin to perfect the 10-looper model. That said, it's hard not to like the ride, with its futuristic theming, faster lift hill, and steeper, more thrilling first drop. I still enjoy Colossus, and Altair betters it.

A quick shoutout to the other headline rides at Cinecittà - Darkmare is a rightly well-received Intamin Family Drop Coaster, that has a much better "coaster" section than Thirteen at Alton, and a much worse "drop" sequence than Thirteen at Alton. Housed entirely inside (the building is ginormous), the first 2/3rds of the ride features some thrilling (and super smooth) transitions through drops and swoops around Darkmare's impressive "Hell" theming.

The final 1/3 of the ride - the drop sequence - has none of the drama of Alton's effort: the train approaches a giant screen showing a winged Roman "Satan" figure surrounded by flames and oozing blood. With no warning, the train performs the 5m drop (unlike Thirteen: no bouncing, no bangs), and winds back to the station.

Nonetheless, a good attraction - and infinitely re-ridable.

More impressive theming is showcased on Mack's longest Supersplash ride: Aktium. Inspired by Ben Hur, the ride has two drops and a splash zone for watchers, which proved popular in the midday heat.

And with Cinecittà clearly having done a 3-attraction deal with Intamin, the final headline ride is the most impressively themed (bar Disney's Tower of Terror) Drop Tower that I've seen. The actual elephant itself ("Erawan") is a third of the height of the 180ft tower, which features Sit Down, Tilt Sit Down, and Tilt Stand Up Floorless sides. I tried them all, and as with Apocalpyse at Drayton Manor, the Tilt Stand Up ride was by far the most thrilling.

Guests enter the ride under the trunk...

...and exit through the feet. Unbelievably detailed theming work on show here, backed up by a trademark punchy Intamin drop. I loved it!

Cinecittà World deserves success - the place looks shiny and spotless, and there is immersive theming everywhere you look. The Park also offers a kiddie area, 4 backlot sets for guests to wander around, and a blockbuster show, Enigma, which is staged twice a day.

However, on the day I visited (a hot Saturday in August), the Park would barely have been breaking even: visitor numbers were low to the point where some Altair trains were not being fully filled before being dispatched. I saw no advertising for Cinecittà in and around Rome (in stark contrast to the ubiquitous adverts for Rainbow Magicland - a Park further away!). Some of the Park's supporting attractions aren't great (the 4D Immersive Tunnel is really tedious). And Cinecittà still needs investment to bolster its ride count: there's just not enough there yet to warrant a full day out, especially when crowds are as low as they were.

The Park also has has its fair share of issues behind the scenes, as towards the end of last year (November 2015, after I'd visited), the Court of Rome announced the foreclosure of the Park, because of missed payments to around a dozen contractors. The Park managed to renegotiate, and it is once again open for 2016 - pleasingly with a plan to renovate their 4D Immersive Tunnel...!

Cinecittà is only a baby, so (some of) these complaints are perhaps excusable. Fingers crossed the Park can stay open, grow and continue to invest in high quality, highly themed experiences. As it's so cheap (adult tickets start from €23 / £16.75; compare to Alton's £50+), don't miss it if you're visiting Rome!

 

[BenC]

Gardaland

No doubt you are familiar with Gardaland - one of the larger Parks in Merlin's Resorts portfolio, and set against the stunning backdrop of Italy's Lake Garda.

As it's well covered elsewhere, I will spare you a full Trip Report of the place, but needless to say I was impressed. The Park has an extensive ride lineup, all of which are well themed, and the Park itself is pretty vast - it can easily lay claim to being a "Resort" as you'd want at least 2 days to properly do it all in the Summer. Pleasingly, the Park also had a daily opening ceremony featuring Park mascots and confetti cannons, and their suite of bespoke Park-wide music was playing everywhere, which was available to buy on CD for €8 - bargain!

The Park has somewhat "grown up" a bit in the last 5 years, with the arrival of two new B&Ms - the second of which debuted last year. Oblivion: The Black Hole wins no awards for creativity (I mean, come on Merlin...), but does deserve recognition for ride experience.

I'm an unashamed fan of Krake over at sister Heide Park, so was intrigued as to how Garda's Oblivion would compare. Thankfully it too is a great ride, with bags of floaty airtime (especially in the back row), a great drop, and an interesting (if short) layout in the second half. The airtime hill after the Immelman is some of the best track that B&M have produced in recent years; forceful ejector airtime, great stuff.

And the ride experience is complemented by the almost universally excellent theming. Case in point is the "black hole" that the train dives into, which appears to suck all manner of objects into it, including a TV outside broadcast van. The queueline is also an interesting one, snaking indoors around high-res floor-to-ceiling screens filled with bespoke-filmed Oblivion content, and other theming set pieces (see the white tent above). The station is filled with an array of mock-security cameras all pointing at the trains (a cynical person would say Merlin over-bought on cameras for the Smiler... ).

Gardaland's Dive Machine also benefits from a fantastic location, right on the edge of Lake Garda itself. Ascending the lift hill with that view over to your right adds an element that Alton and Heide can't begin to compete with.

So which is the preferred Merlin Diver? It's genuinely hard to say, so I'm going to do a lot of fence sitting. Alton's Oblivion is the groundbreaking original, and with the best theme. The trains are bigger, heavier, and the track actually dives into a hole, with very little curvature / bottoming out noticeable as a spectator - hugely worrying for the first time rider! Both the Heide and Garda Dive Machines appear less intimidating, in part due to the fact that they are smaller, and you can see the track bottoming out at the bottom of the dive. But I absolutely love Krake's dive into the creature's mouth and subsequent splashdown for visual impact, and Garda's Oblivion has the better, longer layout of all three rides.

Let's just say that they're all enjoyable, hugely re-ridable coasters, and leave it at that. Not going to trouble my Top 10, but I'd ride any of them any day

Onto the second of the Park's B&Ms: Raptor, opened in 2011, was the original B&M prototype Wing Rider coaster, beating Thorpe's The Swarm by a year. It's another great-looking ride, and I especially enjoyed the "guns" pointing at the train in the station - very atmospheric. The trains look great, and if you think they look remarkably similar to Swarm's, you'd be right: Merlin took a near-replica of the Raptor train design and heavily borrowed from it for Swarm's alien race train shells (saving both $$ and time).

The ride is really quite different to Swarm's. The Swarm is dominated by that Dive Loop first drop, inversions and helices. Raptor feels far less twisty in comparison - the first drop is a traditional straight one, and there's far more linear track generally, meaning the ride is far more about swooping around the near-miss scenery and generating pops of airtime than Swarm's is. Raptor is also helped by the lush landscaping present at Gardaland - it's built on a hill - so the ride feels faster and more exciting due to the close proximity of the foliage and trees.

I've yet to ride a Wing Rider that's particularly forceful or intense, but Raptor for me shows off the hardware at its best. Don't get me wrong, being at my local Park, I love the Swarm - particularly the theming effort and ride storyline. But as a roller coaster, Raptor gives the superior ride. There's more airtime, more near-misses, and it's really bedded in well in its location at Gardaland. For me, there's no fence sitting here:

Raptor > The Swarm > Flug der Dämonen (poor pacing, and those vibrations...). Sorry Heide .

Gardaland easily rivals Alton as Merlin's best Theme Park property, but it's a shame its ride lineup is so inconsistent. As good as Raptor and Oblivion are, they can't excuse the existence of the extended SLC Blue Tornado (one of the most painful SLCs I've ridden; Vekoma should hang their head in shame), or the prototype Screaming Squirrel, Sequoia Adventure (ride it once and no more: why, S&S, why?!). And when the world's longest Wacky Worm, Ortobruco Tour (well over 2 minutes of ride time!), emerges as one of the better coasters in the Park, you know there's some room for improvement...

Nonetheless, Gardaland overall's a great Park, and deservedly in the Top 10 in Europe. Visit for Oblivion and Raptor, and their superbly themed Intamin Water Coaster, Fuga da Atlantide. If the ride lineup continues to expand along the same trajectory of the last few years (although this year's addition - Kung Fu Panda Master - is hardly inspiring), Gardaland has a bright future ahead...

 

[BenC]

Cavallino Matto

Cavallino Matto is a regional Park in Tuscany, and a very pretty one at that. The name "Cavallino Matto" literally means "The Crazy Little Horse" in Italian, which goes some way to explaining the Park's strange mascot. With a small selection of flat rides, travelling coasters and a dodgy 4D cinema, it has been relatively unheard of on these shores - until last year, when the Park stepped up and installed their first large-scale 'coaster, Freestyle.

Freestyle is a relocated Togo Stand Up coaster from Canada's Wonderland, where it operated for nearly 30 years as SkyRider. Now moved across the Atlantic and given a striking paint job, the ride finds itself with a new lease of life as the star attraction in this smaller Park. And there's no doubt that it looks fantastic.

It also means that a certain Park in Tamworth can no longer claim to have "Europe's only Stand Up roller coaster". Sorry, Drayton .

Unfortunately it rides terribly, like most Stand Ups, and all Togo rides (Togo are now not in business, having been bankrupted by a Knott's Berry Farm lawsuit in 2001 over manufacturing defects in their new Windjammer Surf Racers coaster). The ride is fine if the train is going straight, with no horizontal or vertical directional changes... but alas this is the exception rather than the norm, and rib-bruising, head-banging, and manhood-punishing all takes place along the course of the track.

Against intuition, the worst parts of the ride are actually the small bunny hops towards the end of the layout; although small, these are taken so quickly that there's a pronounced whiplash effect on those riding. Check out the facial expressions of the riders below and see for yourself...

Screams of pain, or delight?

That said, you can't deny it looks good, and it's certain to do wonders for this fledgling regional Park. I'd ride it any day over Gardaland's Blue Tornado. And one would imagine that after 30 years of operation, Canada's Wonderland sold it off fairly cheaply, so I'd say it was a sound investment for Cavallino.

It also gave rise to one of my favourite photos from the trip - Freestyle poking out from above the mass of Tuscany Pine trees that fill the Park's landscape, with the deep blue Mediterranean in the distance. Lovely .

 

[BenC]

Mirabilandia

Mirabilandia is Italy's #2 Theme Park, yet can hardly be called "conveniently located"; its closest major city is Ravenna (nope, me neither), and the closest airports are Bologna (90 mins drive), Florence (150 mins drive), and Venice (150 mins drive). You can see the Park skyline for miles in advance of actually getting there, due to the vast area of flat fields and low vegetation that surround it. And yet that doesn't prevent Mirabilandia from being rammed most days of the weekend / holidays, largely by Italians.

For this reason, Mirabilandia was the only Park in which I chose to invest in a Flash Pass, which afforded unlimited riding on all rides all day. It operated via a wristband system, and dedicated ride entrances - flash the wristband, and you're let straight on. Very similar to Alton's Platinum product (£95), but with less need to re-mortgage your house, at just €39 (approx. £28).

Few of the locals had opted for the Flash Pass, so it turned out to be a highly worthwhile purchase - namely for the numerous laps I managed on Katun, unarguably one of the best B&M inverts in the world.

No doubt many of you on here will have ridden Katun, but for those that haven't, there is a very good reason that it has placed in and around the top 10 in Mitch Hawker's annual Best Steel Coaster Poll for the last 10 years. Only Alton's own Nemesis can boast a similar record as an Invert.

And why? Katun's sense of speed is hard to beat. The steep first drop is a genuinely thrilling, high-octane rush of a start (which consistently gave me an shot of adrenaline that few rides do), and from there the ride never lets up, with a layout including a very floaty zero-G, and a very speedily-taken cobra roll. The final helix, again taken at some speed, with riders' feet nearly brushing the dense vegetation that has grown up around it, is another highlight, and an excellent end to the ride.

It's very hard to make the call as to which is the better inverted coaster vs. Nemesis, but Katun wins points for a simply stunning first drop, and for the sheer relentless-ness of the ride. Nemesis benefits from its greater number of near-misses, given its location in the pit, arguably a better theme, and an excellent final corkscrew inversion that - as an ending - just edges out Katun's. It's interesting to note that both Nemesis and Katun are "old school" B&Ms, having been built in 1994 and 2000 respectively, and there's a pretty solid argument that the Swiss manufacturer have edged away from these more intense inverted layouts in recent years (although Asterix's excellent OzIris can perhaps make a counter argument here).

At the end of the day, one ride Katun alone is worth the flight out to Mirabilandia. Book it now.

Mirabilandia also offers an attractive set of supporting rides, including the visually impressive Intamin Water Coaster, DiVertical. Opened in 2012 (and initially mired with technical problems), DiVertical remains the tallest Water Coaster in the world, with its 197ft elevator lift structure towering over the skyline.

Boats meander along a concrete trough towards the bottom of the lift, where they are loaded individually onto a platform - connected to one side of the dual-pronged structure - that raises the boat up to the top. The bulbous middle of the elevator lift is to allow for another platform with an empty boat - connected to the other side - to descend alongside the ascending platform containing riders. It's a very speedy process, and hats must be tipped to Intamin for making it so efficient.

The drop itself is a fun one - not overly steep, but longer to compensate, and the minimal lap-bar restraints ensure riders feel vulnerable during the descent.

The initial splashdown is mild, with the track barely skimming the water - the proper dose of H[sub]2[/sub]O is to come. The boat careers over a well-profiled airtime hill, a couple of turns, and downward helix, before making a proper splash back down into the trough. As you can see, riders should not expect to come away dry from the experience - but in the scorching Italian summer, I didn't see one person who cared.

I was expecting to enjoy DiVertical, but I really enjoyed DiVertical - Intamin may well have a ride that betters Mack's well-received Water Coaster. Intamin's track is smoother ( ), and there is real tension built by the lift structure. Colour me surprised, but I wouldn't mind seeing more of these pop up in the warmer Parks of the world.

Continuing the Intamin theme, Mirabilandia also hosts one of the better layouts of the Intamin Accelerator in iSpeed. Opened in 2009, iSpeed accelerates from 0 - 60mph in 2.2 seconds (not dissimilar to Rita), up a 180ft top hat (not dissimilar to Stealth). What follows therafter though is dissimilar to both UK Accelerators - a further 2,500ft of twisty, airtime-filled track, including a corkscrew and inline twist.

The layout is great fun, fairly intense, and taken at some speed - indeed, the ride actually hits its top speed (74mph) well after the LSM launch. What prevented it becoming a brilliant ride for me was alas the restraints - the same as those featured on Stealth and Rita.

As you will know, these restraints have a thin over the shoulder design, with weighty bars that sit over riders' thighs. And actually this design is pretty bearable (but wouldn't go as far to say comfy) on the UK Accelerators. But on iSpeed, where there are numerous quick direction changes, and multiple pops of ejector airtime, the restraints just became painful, making re-riding a not-too-attractive prospect.

I managed 5 goes (with the Flash Pass), and found towards the end that the best way to ride was to use my hands to push up against the shoulder bracing on the OSTRs, to stabilise me and alleviate the pressure from the lap bar on my thighs. In this position, the air time didn't crush my legs against the solid, straight bar as much, and the direction changes didn't slice my neck with the shoulder bracing as much. But I shouldn't have to do this to enjoy the ride - rides should be comfortable and afford the rider as much freedom as possible.

In sum: great layout, hampered by poor trains, 7/10. If Mack could build iSpeed but with their Mega Coaster trains, that would be amazing, thankyouverymuch.

Mirabilandia is also host to Niagara, a very wet 100ft Shoot the Chutes flume, Reset, an excellent post-apocalyptic New York-themed laser shooter Dark Ride, and Eurowheel, Europe's largest ferris wheel, which stands tallest in the Park's skyline at 300ft.

It's also well known for its expensive-looking stunt show, which gets refreshed yearly. After many seasons running with a "Police Academy" theme, last year Mirabilandia debuted a new Grosso Guaio a Stunt City Show ("Big Trouble in Stunt City"), in collaboration with Hot Wheels - which meant the Park could generate extra cash through placing Hot Wheels kits for sale in every retail outlet on Park.

The arena set looked great, and after a pretty slow start (15 mins of talking, "comedy", more talking, and some audience participation), the eventual stunts were pretty impressive. It was the usual fare: car chases, motorbike jumps, dumper trucks doing wheelies; but the stand out moment came in the finale, where "Europe's first" real-life loop-the-loop stunt was unveiled. The green Hot Wheels-branded car attacks it with some speed and the chassis actually connects with a trough in the loop to keep it on course through the manoeuvre, but it's nonetheless an impressive visual spectacle, especially in combination with the trigger-happy pyrotechnics used throughout the show!

Great fun, and a nice way to end the day at one of the more impressive Italian Parks.

 

[BenC]

Ai Pioppi

From the sublime to the ridiculous... this next Park couldn't be more different to Mirabilandia if it tried.

Presenting Ai Pioppi. Ai Pioppi ("the poplars") is an "osteria" - literally translated as a "bar" or "tavern". It's actually more of a restaurant, and is nestled in the woodland 30 minutes drive north of Treviso (an hour north of Venice).

All very good, but why did a family-run restaurant feature in my roam around Italy?

Because, of course, this particular restaurant has roller coasters...

The restaurant itself is pretty rustic - the menu most comprising steak, fish, and polenta slices all being cooked on large hot plates together. Chips were also available. The outdoor seating area has been built to cater for crowds, with large numbers of benches and tables scattered around the expansive undercover area next to the kitchen.

Pricing was highly reasonable, and the food was tasty enough. There was even a nicer indoor section for the more formal meal out.

But you didn't come here for a food review...

Ai Pioppi is a restaurant with a difference, as the back of it features an entirely hand-built playground filled with rides ranging from swings, slides, seesaws, gyroscopes, flat rides and even roller coasters!

Some history: on June 15th 1969, a man named Bruno bought himself a few jugs of wine, some sausages and a few other items, and set up a tiny food stand underneath a tree in northern Italy to see if anyone would show up. By the end of the day - to his surprise - he had sold almost everything and the family restaurant, Ai Pioppi, was born.

The next month he had an encounter with a blacksmith who didn’t have time to make a few hooks for some chains. Bruno decided instead he would learn to weld to make the hooks, and enjoyed it so much he began to dream up small rides he could build to entice new customers to Ai Pioppi.

40 years later, and Bruno is still building rides by hand. And admission for these rides remains free for all patrons of his restaurant.

This is the workshop from which Bruno dreams up, and subsequently builds, new rides.

And this is the man himself - in his element as architect and manufacturer of his restaurant's attractions... and seemingly laughing in the face of retirement!

So what's on offer? There's too much to show, so here I'll offer some highlights, starting with this "ferris wheel with a difference".

Like many of the rides at Ai Pioppi, this attraction uses people-power to operate. Riders (max of 2) climb up the ladder to get to the central platform, where there are walkways to each opposite end. The way to make the wheel turn is for the riders to distribute their weight by walking (either forwards or backwards - different direction by each) in the smaller wheels situated at each end. With each rider moving around their respective mini-wheels, the central wheel turns, and it's entirely possible to complete a full 360 turn (and for riders to remain fairly upright) if both participants get the hang of it.

Fascinating to watch, and fairly daunting to ride - there are no restraints to speak of, only a handlebar to hold, so it's quite easy to see this going wrong with a mis-step or two...

Onto another hand-built kinetic wonder. In this ride, guests sit in cages and pedal what most closely resembles a bicycle, in order to drive their carriage around the large loop. There are heavy counterweights at the other ends of the pendulums, which enables a decent momentum to be built up - hard work to start with, but it's not too difficult to get into a rhythm and build up enough power to get close to inverting.

The best I managed was to get my cage to the 1-o-clock position on the "clock"; not quite enough to get to "12-o-clock" and beyond to make the full inversion. There were three reasons for this:

1) Momentum runs out very quickly when your cage (the heavier part) reaches any height, meaning a huge effort is required on the pedals to continue to push it over the top;

2) The "restraints" consisted of two curved shoulder bars, not unlike the ones featured on Thorpe's Slammer, but with zero padding, so they hurt really quite a lot when your entire body weight starts to rest on them, and;

3) By the time I'd pedalled all the way to "1-o-clock", I was fairly terrified of the entire contraption.

Moving on, to the 4 roller coasters that exist at Ai Pioppi.

Two were unfortunately not operating during my visit; the oldest, Bob, had a large twig over the tracks and the gate to access it was padlocked. Unfortunately, my Italian wasn't good enough to ask Bruno what was wrong. The second, Catapulta, has been "Under Construction" for 5+ years now, although given that it looked like it was attempting a petrifying Stealth-like launch using a counterweight system, this wasn't a huge issue for me...

The Carrello della Gobba ("Cart with a Hump") was open, and is a fairly sizable butterfly / shuttle ride with a c.30 degree incline, a bunny hop after the initial drop, and a steep (nearly vertical) ramp at the other end. Being similarly "people-powered", riders have to push the single-person cart to the top of the incline (on the left) until it locks into place at the top, get into the thing, lower and lock the "restraint", and release the brake on the floor of the cart to start the descent...

Given my previous experience with the flat rides, and the appearance of the cart (below), I was needless to say rather apprehensive about releasing the brake (had Bruno ever heard of ADIPS?!). However, my fears were (mostly) unfounded, as Carrello della Gobba gave a pleasantly smooth ride, marred only by the extreme ejector airtime over the bunny hop, which would have certainly thrown me (to some considerable height) out of the cart, had the painful metal thigh-restraint not prevented me from doing so. Ow.

The ride also takes a fair time to finish, because there is nothing to stop the cart once its been released at the top; it just continues to shuttle forwards, and backwards, and forwards, until friction alone brings it to a slow enough speed to get out of it unharmed.

Most riders came off with grins on their faces, and bruises on their thighs!

But the emotions stirred by Carrello della Gobba were nothing in comparison to Ai Pioppi's headline attraction, the Pendolo ("Pendulum").

Pendolo, like Carrello, is a butterfly / shuttle ride, but on a much grander scale, and without the bunny hop. Built 15 years after the original Bob coaster, Pendolo towers well above every other construction in the woodland, including the trees.

When we approached the ride, it was considered a write-off; the cart was covered up, and the railings sported signs saying "Closed" and "Under Maintenance". Given the sheer size of the thing, and the disconcerting yellow sign that advertised "maximum speeds of 100 km/hour", I would be lying if I said that a tiny part of me wasn't a tiny part relieved that I wouldn't be riding today...

But as we were eating our steak and polenta for lunch, Bruno had other ideas... and set to work fixing up the Pendolo to get it into operation!

When the first test car ascended the incline - shunning people-power this time, being driven by a pulley system with motor - we all held our breath as to whether the car would complete the run successfully, given the rampant foliage growing up through the track...

...but complete successfully it did, making a huge clattering racket as it thundered through the bottom of the half-pipe and up the towering steep ramp the other side. Much like Carrello, there was no braking mechanism, so the ride took around 3 minutes of coasting up and down each side of the track to slow down enough to (manually) pull the car to a halt for the oncoming riders.

And then it was my turn. Getting into the 3-across car, featuring seats still covered in leaves and head rests that had clearly been "borrowed" from a Fiat 500, I had rarely been more nervous for a ride. Not even the Vietnamese coaster with the non-locking OTSRs last year had me as worried as this one did, and I'm unashamed to say that at the point the car was released at the top of the slow incline, I shrieked like a little girl.

Whether we hit 100 km/hour or not, I will never know, but it could well have been; thankfully the near-vertical ramp that greeted us at the other side was quick to take the speed out of the car, and back down we went. The adrenaline rush was massive; 80% due to pure fear, 20% due to the thrill of the (impressively smooth) ride.

I have no doubt that the first time I rode Colossus, way back when, I experienced a similar level of nerves and excitement (10 loops! OMG!). But having grown older and more well-travelled, it's become harder and harder to re-create that pure adrenaline rush. Ferarri World's Formula Rossa did it for me in 2014, but then it had to launch me to 149mph across the Arabian desert to do so.

All the more kudos then, to Bruno, for giving me such intense "fear and thrills" feelings all over again on his Pendolo . Bravo!

In sum, Ai Pioppi is an absolutely bonkers place; as likely to make you soil your underwear in fear as it is to make you drop your jaw in wonder. It's probably a place that I'll never frequent again. But boy, am I glad to have been. Bruno - thank you for the memories, and don't ever stop inventing.

For more, there's a mini-documentary about Ai Pioppi available on Vimeo that's well worth 11 minutes of your time, here.

 

[BenC]

Etnaland

And finally, a note on Etnaland. Etnaland is not an easy place to get to; situated on the isle of Sicily, around 30 minutes’ drive from the town of Catania on the east coast. Even a weekend trip over is not the easiest; only Ryanair fly direct from the UK (Stansted), only once a day during peak season, and even then it's a 3 hour+ drive to the Park from Sicily's Palermo airport...

This is a shame, because Etnaland is a gem of a Park. It features both a Water Park and a Theme Park, and in the summer season opens the former 9am - 6pm, and the latter 7:30pm - 1am. The only overlapping attractions to the Parks are the Jungle Splash (Shoot the Chutes with a vertical lift, below), and the Crocodile Rapids (Hafema Rapids) rides - and in the daytime, both rides add huge volumes of water to the experience (e.g. Crocodile Rapids has a massive waterfall directly over the rapids trough; in the evening, this is switched off... in the daytime, it is not...).

Ride either of these "Theme Park" rides in the daytime without wearing "Water Park" attire (e.g. swimming costume) at your peril...!

As for the Theme Park, it boasts a (surprisingly) excellent S&S Mine Train, Eldorado, which offers a wonderfully drawn-out first drop, detailed mountain rock work, and impressive forces on the downward helices. More mine trains from S&S, please! Other supporting rides include the novel The School dark ride, featuring desks and multi-choice questions rather than the usual laser guns, Quasar, a Zamperla Disk'O coaster, and the imaginatively-titled Etnaland Tower, a standard 200ft S&S Double Shot (elevated above others by offering excellent views of a certain nearby mountain...).

The real reason to make the effort to get to Etnaland, however, is The Storm, one of the first Mack MegaCoasters built after the debut of Blue Fire in Europa Park in 2009. I love the comfort of the Mack MegaCoaster trains (Helix is Top 5 material for me), and was intrigued as to how this one would ride.

Happily, I can report that The Storm is an excellent ride; smooth, with a few pops of airtime, and an absolute killer Mack-trademark inline twist at the end of the course (akin to Blue Fire), but with the added bonus of a loud thunder crack being played by a nearby speaker when the train travels through it. It's infinitely re-ridable and has a great "rock and roll" theme, with heavy metal being blasted out through the queue line every time a train ascends the lift hill! Catch a POV of it here.

So how does it compare? It's certainly a brilliant ride... but lacks the insane airtime of Alpina Blitz, the length and terrain of Helix, and the theming and near misses of Blue Fire... so unfortunately doesn't compare quite as well to these similar Mack rides. It also could have done with being a little more forceful. But given the overall quality of the Mack product, there is absolutely nothing for Etnaland to be ashamed of - The Storm easily outstrips a large majority of the other coasters I've ridden. Top notch work from Mack, again.

And at 1am, with its LED lighting package shining bold in the moonlight, it looks bloody good too.

~

So we've come to the end - in sum, I'd thoroughly recommend checking Italy out - both as a "normal" tourist and a "coaster" tourist; the country is packed with variety, and this trip report has barely scratched the surface of what's on offer.

A final point: whilst many of the Parks showcased here are relatively easy to get to for your average coaster enthusiast, touring the whole country and hitting everything in 2 weeks is rather more tricky - which is why I was with a large group from the European Coaster Club. If you've not heard of the ECC, membership is £25.50 a year, and that buys you 6 issues of the excellent First Drop magazine, a bunch of discounts for Parks across Europe, and of course access to trips such as the one I've described here .

Thanks for reading!

 

[Plastic Person]

Really enjoyed reading these! Italy looks to have some great rides and coasters, it's just a shame that none of the parks seem all that consistent in terms of lineup and quality.

 

[BenC]

Really enjoyed reading these! Italy looks to have some great rides and coasters, it's just a shame that none of the parks seem all that consistent in terms of lineup and quality.

Thanks! You're not wrong on consistency, and there are a few parks we covered during the trip (not written about here) that were especially disappointing - Rainbow Magicland and Miragica both have the potential to be superb parks, but both looked really quite run down and uncared-for.

I would guess there was a decent pot of cash to build these parks with in the first instance - when they opened they looked spectacular - but then no regular funding for maintenance and upkeep over the years...

 

[Rob]

Brilliant trip reports there, really enjoyed reading them. The photo you have of the Togo stand-up Freestyle above the trees is particularly stunning.

Thanks for sharing your trip with us, makes me want to get to Mirabilandia even more!

 

[BenC]

Thanks Rob, glad you enjoyed reading it!

Mirabilandia is a stand-out park for Italy, alongside Gardaland. Katun is superlative, and iSpeed, DiVertical and the Stunt Show are all really great fun .