Italy: Day 3 Part 2

Gobs of people hanging out having fun on an Italian weekend.

After touring the museums we went to the Parco Sempione, a park just NW of the castle. There were tons of people out and about just relaxing and having fun (it was a Saturday, which is part of the weekend in Italy). We visited a free aquarium located in the park. It was small, but nice and new, with a cool walk through aquarium tunnel. There was a pretty tropical coral reef, but it was mostly focused on Mediterranean fishes. The aquarium also served as an art gallery, which is a pretty cool combo.

Fish pond outside the museum.

I love this photo.  I read about shooting waterfalls before we left, but didn't think I'd actually get to try out the technique until we got somewhere more forest less desert.

I loved this painting.  It was done by a street artist named Mambo, which doesn't yield the greatest hope for an independent website.  But regardless of having his own website, his art was awesome.

Steve found this outside the aquarium, and we couldn't believe that Italy had floating head problems too!

Reading and hoola-hooping makes this girl just about the most awesome park goer we saw in Italy.  Plus the creepy/angry guy on the left was worth a good laugh.

I loved how many people were outside hanging out in the park.  At any given time you could easily count 10 soccer balls up in the air at a time.  I do not however love big construction cranes that insist on sitting in front of my shot.

We had spotted a cool looking triumphal arch from the castle, so we headed over to see it. It was the Arco della Pace (Arch of Peace) which was built in the first half of the 19th century. We walked over to it, and got some great views across the park back towards the castle.

Ode to Napoleon.

That night we had to pack up and move to a different hotel due to our reservation being lost. The new hotel was a little bit more expensive (the hotel that messed up the reservation paid the difference) but way worse. The whole place smelled like old fish, and the room was really dark and gasp there was no internet!

We went to a brick oven pizza place for dinner, and the pizza was amazing. In Italy, restaurants often have a service charge called cuperto, which they add to the bill. The funny thing is that they translated it as "forks, knives, tablecloth, glasses". It kind of sucks, because that fee doesn't go to the server, and it really discouraged us from leaving a tip.

Follow our journey:

Travel Plans are Never Final

Different Ways to Travel

How We Get Ready To Travel

Italy Day 1

Italy Day 2

Shopping in Italy 

Keeping it Alive by Trying New Things

Italy Day 3: Part 1

Italy Day 3: Part 2

Pack and Move

Or check out our Italy tag!