Dear friend, happy Tuesday and welcome back for a new article. It’s incredible how fast time flies — we’re already in October, Halloween is just weeks away, and Christmas will be here before we know it.
With all that going on, I still haven’t told you about this summer’s holiday: short, but beautiful.
If you’re picturing some exotic destination, a tropical sea, a safari on the savannah, or adventures of that sort, you’re way off track. I leave that kind of experiences to Tamara, and I happily read about them in her My Travel Diary Chronicles, which I proudly host on my blog.
This year’s destination was something completely different and unusual: we spent a week inside a theme park — Gardaland.
For those of you outside Italy, that name probably means nothing. Let’s just say it’s conceptually a lot like Disneyland: rides, attractions, a sea of people, and endless fun.
I have to admit, even with crowds everywhere, the park is remarkably well organized and so vast you barely notice how busy it is. Sure, every attraction came with serious queues, but knowing that in advance, we got priority tickets so we wouldn’t have to wait around each time.
Even though the park is fairly close to where I live, I have no real memory of visiting before. My parents definitely took me there when I was very young — I had them dig up a few old photos as proof — but I can’t recall a single visit as a teenager. So, in practice, it felt like more than 40 years had passed since I was last there.
Walking through the entrance gate feels like stepping through a magic portal.
I found myself in an enchanted place, staring around with the same wonder as a 10-year-old. The sets and atmosphere of each area are out of this world: you drift from the magic of Fantasy Kingdom into the wild adventure of Jumanji, cross through the Dragon Empire, and end up in Atlantis and a very particular take on Treasure Island — complete with a pirate village and galleons so realistic they barely look built.
For a few days, being somewhere so completely outside reality and time felt like slipping into a parallel universe. Becoming a kid again, even briefly, helps you forget how ugly the world can look right now — we’re living through a complicated, dangerous, unstable moment in history.
Rediscovering wonder in front of something new, something you can actually stop and appreciate, clears your mind of problems, stress, and exhaustion.
Watching kids light up in a place that feels like a dream made real — seeing that spark in their eyes at the lights, the rides, the characters wandering the park — it lifts the soul and brings real peace.
It only lasted a few days, but it was an incredible experience.
We should all learn to be kids again more often.
Take care and talk soon!