travels, holidays and more…

As the official site says, “Parco dei Cento Laghi is situated in a very interesting area which reminds of the spectacular Alpine views because of its evident glacial characterization.”

Indeed, as soon as I arrived there and parked my car in the spacious parking place in the “Rifugio Lagdei” (one of the many starting points for excursions), I was completely astonished. The park is located in the south of Parma, about 50-60km from it. The best way to reach it in my opinion is to take the highway of the “Cisa” (Highway A15 Parma-La Spezia) , but you can take a look for complete directions here.

this is the view you get on your arrival to Lagdei

a curious fountain made with a giant rock with a small lizard carved into the stone

On Lagdei there is a big wooden bridge that goes all around the perimeter of the starting point, which is really huge. Along the path there are various signs explaining the historical events that leads to the creation of this place. It is both relaxing and very interesting.

the wooden path

If you don’t mind a short walking, about 1h, you can climb up from Lagdei to the lake called “Lago Santo” (Holy Lake) which offers really a spectacular sight, just take a look at the picture below:

wonderful, isn’t it? another option, is to start from the point of Lagoni, and take a different path that leads you up to 1400m on sea level, until you reach another lake called “Lago Scuro” (Dark Lake). This one is longer, but offers more possibilities to explore several places in one trip.

this curious hole was in a big rock nearby the path

here it is, the Lago Scuro in all its splendour!

The latest 2 pictures below are taken from the starting point of Lagoni. The cool thing is that both Lagdei and Lagoni are easily reachable with car, even during winter, so you can start walking straight into the park.

a beautiful view of Lagoni

another picture of Lagoni

All in all, I really recommend to visit this natural park if you have the chance. It will be a travel to remember for sure! Ah, was about to forget: inside the park there are over 150km of cycling paths for mountain-bikes, all well-signaled. So if you like trekking, this is a very good place!

For those, like me, that likes traveling a lot, one of the most unpleasant experiences is finding parking space in airports, or at least an hotel room nearby. I really hate spending / wasting lot of minutes of time searching for a free spot. Until recently, when I found an interesting website, really useful for the people “always on the move” like me: indeed if you’re looking for Heathrow hotels or Gatwick airport hotels , I recommend you check out the website www.parking4less.co.uk . The website offers an easy navigation through drop-down menus and various search forms to let you find a parking place or make an hotel reservation exactly when you need it.

You could wonder how I found out about that website, since it’s from UK, while I currently am living in Italy? it’s because the website has also an interesting international section, indeed I found it through a google search, while looking for parking fees on my trip in the Red Sea a few years ago, when I took the airplane from Milan – airport of Malpensa.

Without doubts this is one of the times when I am very grateful that internet and online booking exist: saving yourself stress and time is really important to start a new trip with the right foot!

I always loved the magic atmosphere of the South America, with such wonderful landscapes that includes both great seashores and beautiful mountain zones. Oh and if you’re a man, don’t forget the cute latina women Isn’t even so far away from the United States, just a few hours of airplane.

The main problem though is the language: spanish isn’t really easy to learn, and you know – I am a bit lazy too, so I always delayed this trip

Luckily a friend suggested me a very interesting way to learn it by attending some Spanish courses in Buenos Aires , which was also one of the town I had in mind to visit! another good solution to learn is thanks to the possibility of internships Argentina .

I am really thinking to take advantage of those possibilities, maybe this summer when I’ll have finished my regular school, and I’ll have more free time to learn a new language, which is always a good thing to do, both for your curriculum and for pleasure.