It is more than a year ago, when I made the road trip with my two friends. Funny enough, it does not seem that long ago. So now to the point: Missed catch up.
As I mentioned in the post the idea of the blog, in 2017 I made the first road trip from Zurich to Ischia (Italy) and back again. Something special on the road trip was that neither my friend Michel nor I could drive a car and that our friend Fredi had to drive the full 2000 kilometers alone. Fredi, if you read this, I want to thank you once again for taking the responsibility and making this wonderful trip possible. Also, I want to thank Michel’s grandparents again, who lent us their car for almost 3 weeks. Enough being grateful and back to the journey.
The first stage was from Zurich to Como, where my parents own a flat in the center. In addition, Como is not far from Zurich. Here we spent 2 days. However, we already had a huge problem on the first day and already had to fear that our trip would fail. Because we brought our car into the garage, but the garage door did not open up afterwards and our car was locked up in the garage. Only hours later we were able to solve this through several phone calls with my parents and we were able to enjoy the rest of the day. The next day we took the train to Milan, because we wanted to see the Cathedral of Milan.
The second stage went from Como to Modena, a small town in the province of Emilia-Romagna, famous for its food. Not far away is the village of Maranello, home of the brand Ferrari. Since this is my favorite car brand, we had to visit the Ferrari Museum, of course. The museum was not as big as I remembered, but that was because it was under construction and the museum was split in two buildings. Nevertheless, I can recommend the museum to any car fan, even if the admission price in my opinion is a little bit high. I can only say something to Modena: “What are you waiting for, go there as soon as possible, because it’s definitely worth it, the city is beautiful and the food is just awesome!”
The third stage was from Modena to Rimini. I remember that there was a sweltering heat and that’s why I wanted to spend the day on the beach. However, Fredi wanted to visit the nearby town of San Marino, which was only a few minutes drive from us. We ate first in a restaurant on the beach and discussed what we should do. Fredi managed to convince me to go see San Marino, as we had time to laze on the beach the next day anyway on our next leg. San Marino was breathtaking. It is located on a mountain and it has a magical view. The city itself is also beautiful, but totally overcrowded with tourists. I personally liked the flair of the narrow streets, even if we often had to squeeze through other people. Ps: San Marino is not for unsportsmanlike as it goes up and down pretty much.
I can’t tell you very much about Rimini. We thought it was okay, but nothing special. My highlight of Rimini was the restaurant in which we went in the evening. At first I wanted to go to a expensive restaurant, but the prices were just a joke! We walked along the beach promenade until a waiter approached us and convinced us to go to his restaurant. We did it and immediately asked for the menu, but to our astonishment there was no menu at all. The waiter told us he would bring us food and we could decide for ourselves what we would eat and how much we would like to pay. We were very skeptical and thought about leaving, but then the waiter came back with a plate of antipasti that looked just so delicious. Then there was a delicious risotto and more appetizers and finally a dessert. We decided to pay 30 euros each, although we initially agreed that we would not give more than 20 euros. The restaurant was really great, had a great concept and the food, only when I think about it, my mouth is already watering. On request I will give you the name of the restaurant in Rimini.
The next stage was Pescara. Pescara was nothing special. We just spent the whole day at the beach and in the evening we went out for eating a pizza and also the pizza was nothing special. I even had a better pizza in Zurich. If I had to plan the trip again, I would skip Pescara and go to another place. And there’s a special story about the hotel in Pescara, but I won’t tell it closer.
The fifth stage was Veroli, a small village in the Lazio region. Actually not as well known but I really wanted to go there because my mother’s cousin lives there, whom I’ve known since childhood and had not seen in a long time. She is an artist and has made a monument in Veroli with her husband, which you absolutely must visit. Even my friends were impressed by their monument, although like me, they are not interested in art. Back to Veroli. Although small, Veroli impressed me with his flair and the best thing was that there were almost no tourists. Only now I got the “Italian feeling” back that I had missed so far on the trip. The quiet mood and the “Dolce far niente” was only possible to feel in Veroli so far.
The next day we drove towards Ischia, an island off the coast of Naples, and at the same time the last stage before we drove back. Since the stay in Ischia lasted a week and the way back also took a few days, I will split the trip in three parts. Part two of “Roadtrip through bella Italia -Ischia” and part three of “Roadtrip through bella Italia-Return journey” will follow. So stay tuned!
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