Finland + Italy 08/19 – Rainbow Magicland + Cinecittà World
Day 5
It wasn’t all that obvious when we arrived last night what our surroundings really looked like. So much like yesterday I opened my curtains and got a bit of a shock, we are quite literally on a volcano.
Clearly still not wanting to spend 90 Euros and 12 hours of our time to get to the top, Heartline had spent the night doing some research. He had discovered that there was a newly formed crater about a mile from our hotel, so that was how we’d start today.
I kept saying it at the time and I’ll say it again now, “we are literally walking on an active volacano, this is insane.” I’ve always been fascinated by the power of the Earth, so walking on and touching a freaking volcano was awesome.
Like I said yesterday on that mountain, I’m not normally moved by landscapes, but this makes 2 days in a row now that I’ve felt too much while staring off into stunning views. Italy has some damn fine views man.
Right, let’s move out before we spend all day here.
Before boarding our ferry back to the mainland we had intended to visit a tiny ghetto park in Messina. Thanks to Italian lunch time laziness though, we’d be presented with nothing but a locked gate for our troubles. It was almost 40 degrees out if you are wondering what troubles I am referring to.
The ferry process from this side was an absolute farce. It appeared everyone had decided to escape Sicily at the same time and sadly the waiting area was no where near large enough to hold the sheer amount of cars trying to board the ferry. This meant the queue started on a major crossroads, on top of tram tracks. So in short, most of this part of Messina was in gridlock and there was no option but to become one with the chaos or you’d never get anywhere. What followed was over an hour of Italian shouting, horns honking and people doing dangerous manoeuvres to cut infront of each other.
Once finally back on the mainland our plan was to ride some +1s located around Naples. This meant we got to see Vesuvius, our 2nd volcano credit of the day.
The first park we went to was an interesting one. A small collection of kiddie rides located on the side of a road, in a slum. I got out, told Heartline to lock the doors and moved in to investigate. There was no credit in site, despite coast2coaster claiming there was. Instead of a coaster, I was presented by 10 or so large angry men staring me down, I think we need to leave…
Next up we visited Liberty City Fun, a slightly less scary but still incredibly ghetto park. They had 2 coasters up for grabs but one was closed today, we aren’t having very good luck are we?
After this we visited a shopping mall that’s shaped like a volcano, can I count that as our 3rd volcano cred of the day? There we ate Rossopomodoro pizza for the first time. Pizza is my favourite food and this was the greatest pizza on Earth, no seriously, it’s that good.
Day 6
Rainbow Magicland
Would the first major park of the mainland be as good as Etnaland was? Nope, but it had it’s own charm.
Shock
First up was the park’s star attraction and a coaster I was really excited about, Shock. I don’t know, there is just something about the photo used on RCDB that really excited me. Don’t worry I’ve cloned that photo for you, though mine is much more sun bleached.
What a beautiful looking coaster, everything should be painted crimson red. How does it ride though? It’s very good, but as you can see it’s also very short.
The launch is intense, the slightly braked airtime hill provides decent air and then things get silly. Entry to the non-inverting loop provides crushing positives, then the top of the not loop violently ejects you in a brutal fashion. Following that is more crushing positives as you exit but this time they are sustained through a very low to the ground overbanked turn. Shock ends it’s rampage by once again violently ejecting you as you enter it’s midcourse brakes.
Sadly after the midcourse Shock loses much of it’s bite, as it crawls through a turnaround and into a weirdly shaped corkscrew and then it’s over.
Despite a lacklustre ending, I enjoyed Shock far more than I expected to if I’m honest. I was not and will not ever be ready for the brutal airtime and crushing positives this beast delivers.
After that very strong start, it was time to explore the rest of the park.
Dune
A Vekoma Junior, what a step down. You can see it photobombing my Shock photos, that’s all this thing deserves.
Next up we rode a dark ride themed to anime pixies, that may or may not have since been removed because I can’t find the name anywhere. It was alright.
Esplorabruco
The park’s newly repainted and rethemed Wacky Worm. It looked nice but you’ll have to take my word for that because I forgot to take a photo, I do apologise.
Cagliostro
Me and Heartline had been shouting the name of the park’s Maurer Spinner, with an Italian accent, since before this trip even started. So imagine our reaction when a local shouted it in our faces as went to enter the queue, life complete.
As for the coaster itself though, it sucked.
Huntik
I really liked the park’s interactive dark ride named Huntik. It had some good effects between screens and a real epic feel to it.
Olandese Volante
Vekoma Mine Train that was pretty brutal, but in a good way.
The final ride of the park was their Flying Island, a must ride if you want aerial photos of Shock.
Then it was time for Shock re-rides before we left and went for lunch at a mall near the park.
When planning the trip me and Heartline weren’t sure half a day would be long enough for Rainbow Magicland but after visiting I’d say that it was the perfect amount of time to enjoy the park.
We were ready to leave but the park wasn’t ready to say goodbye yet. On arrival to the exit barriers, with our prepaid parking ticket in hand, we discovered you had to exchange that for a barcoded ticket at guest services…
So we drove back in and I took our parking ticket to the woman at the desk of guest services. “Where are your entry tickets?” “In the car.” “You NEED them for me to validate this parking ticket.” Why? Back to the car I go, grab the tickets and walk back in. Now the only woman there is serving 2 strange men, who are flirting with her to try and get discounted tickets… We paid for this online to avoid this crap, what is actually going on! Finally it got sorted and we were able to leave though.
Cinecittà World
A quick lunch and 45 minute drive later and we arrived at our 2nd park of the day, Cinecittà World. I remember reading stories about all sorts of shady goings on at this park. Was it worth all the hassle? No not really.
We had 30% off vouchers, but they were only valid for 1 member of each group. So we split up and each walked to our own ticket window to beat the system, then somehow got in for even cheaper than we were expecting, that’ll do!
Aktium
First up was Aktium, the park’s possibly not Mack water coaster, that isn’t a coaster. Confused? So am I.
The only thing I remember about this thing was getting queue jumped infront of the staff in the station and them allowing it.
Altair
Colossus clone, now featuring lap bars.
Ever since Altair was installed fanboys have been screaming for Thorpe Park’s Colossus to get new trains with lap bars. After riding Altair allow me to counter that statement with nooooooooooooo….
Colossus isn’t a great coaster to start with, though I do have a soft spot for it thanks to growing up on it. Lap bar Colossus rides considerably worse than actual Colossus, it really is as simple as that.
Inferno
Now for the reason I was excited to visit Cinecittà World, their Intamin drop track coaster, Inferno.
Thankfully for the park’s sake Inferno is awesome. The section of coaster before the drop track is stupidly good fun and a lot more forceful than I was expecting. Then the drop track itself is crazy and got me nervous every time. Inferno’s final section isn’t as lacklustre as Polar X-plorer’s post drop track section but doesn’t kick as much ass as Th13teen’s. Fantastic overall though.
Inferno’s theming style really impressed me to. Hellspawn straight out of Dante’s Inferno projected onto large canvas screens all around you as you ride, it’s pretty awesome.
Jurassic War
Next up was Jurassic War, an immersive tunnel attraction themed to dinosaurs, I really enjoyed it. It went a lot harder than other immersive tunnels I’ve ridden, both in movements from the ride and in the content on the screens. This one got quite gory and intense.
We had planned to check out the park’s knock off Soarin’ next but it broke down for the day just after we finished the preshow, so close.
So instead we just rode Inferno until park close, which was a lot more fun.
You would certainly struggle to get a full day out of either Rainbow Magicland or Cinecittà World but it worked out nicely doing them together in a day.
Thanks for reading, click here for day 7 of my report, where we visit Cavallino Matto.