A few weekends ago, I felt like I stepped into a time machine and that I was a child again. My family and I visited Aquasplash Water Park, a themed park in Lignano Sabbiadoro in Northern Italy, that I used to visit when I was still a kid.
The seaside resort of Lignano Sabbiadoro is situated in northern Italy, between Trieste and Venice, and it’s well known for its long and sandy beaches. Hemingway described it as the Florida of Northern Italy. I guess he was referring to the 8-kilometre-long beach, the line of seaside hotels and long beach promenade.
Ligniano is tightly connected to summer tourism, and it's lively between May and September, while in the cooler months of the year it's almost empty. When our son was still younger, we often visited the Zoo Punta Verde. A very nice area that I highly recommend, and just writing these lines, I’ve decided that we have to return and visit the ZOO in Autumn 🙃
But on the hot June weekend, we needed a refreshment, and I remembered the water park that we used to visit when I was young.
Aquasplash Water Park opened its doors back in 1985, and at that time it was Italy’s first water park. Today, you have many newer, bigger, and probably also more attractive parks located around Northern Italy. But I felt a little bit nostalgic, and honestly, this park is quite close to my home – less than an hour's drive, that is why I’ve insisted on visiting it.
Almost 30 years ago, when I visited the park with my parents (and also later when I was in high school), the parking space in front of the park was full of cars. I still remember the stress of my parents trying to find a parking slot. So, while we were driving there, we were just chatting with my wife about how it might be a little bit crowded, especially since it was a weekend. But when we arrived, I was surprised since the parking place was quite empty, so I had to check twice if I was in the right location. Also, there was no queue at the entrance, and I was even more surprised.
When I entered the water park, I realised that almost nothing had changed in the last 30 years. The main attractions were still there, and yes, they added a few new ones, but the overall feeling was that we had stepped back in time.
And it was perfect: no crowds, a lot of nice spots in the shadow, and no long queues for the slides. My wife announced that she would be only a spectator, while with our son we had to try all the slides (well, we’ve tried the majority of them 😊, since I felt too old for some of them and he was too scared 😊).
We started with a slide on the Anaconda, a huge slide with two winding tubes that has been the icon of Aquasplash for years.
Then we jumped on the black hole slide: two 1.5-metre-diameter dark tubes equipped with lights and sounds. That one was kind of a surprise for my son, since at the beginning there was quite a vertical drop that we hadn’t expected 😲 Wooohuuuu! At the centre of the park, there is a slide called Kamikaze with two thrilling lanes and the Ondulado with a fast 22-metre-high drop (we skipped this one).
Our son liked a lot the wet bubble, the huge inflatable bubble from which you can slip and slide.
He also loved the polygon on the water, that was very funny and made him laugh a lot.
Something new (for me - that was not there 30 years ago 😊) was the Banzai - a double slide, which launch you into a deep pool.
A new attraction of the park is also the Jungle Bowl, which was also, in my opinion, the best slide. We went down the slide in a small inflatable boat, then came into a kind of huge funnel, where we spin around in circles until we lost speed and fell back into the slide tube and then into the pool.
Our son made some new friends, and they were "competing" in the five parallel slides of the foon slide.
If you prefer a more "stationary" attraction (like my wife), there is a pool with artificial waves. The 200-cubic-metre pool creates artificial waves at designated hours. Honestly, that is the only "calm" or "static" attraction in the park, so if you are not a fan of slides, the park can be a little bit of a disappointment for you.
As the water made us a bit tired, we had a few snacks in a nearby bar to recharge our batteries and then we continued our water adventure again.
In the afternoon, there is a party going on with music and animation, and the pool gets quite crowded.
The park is open during the summer months, every day from 10:00 to 18:00. Since it is a small park, I thought we would spend there only a few hours, but the time simply flew away, and we were there almost until closure. As we arrived home late in the evening, we went for dinner at our local pub, which serves delicious pizzas alongside excellent craft beers. A really great end to a great day!
For me, it was an unforgettable revival of childhood memories, and I appreciate the fun time that I had with my son on the slides. I guess that it is not as popular as it was in the past, but I liked that it was not crowded and still held the "charm of the good old days".
Well, if I was feeling a child again, today my back reminded me that I’m not so young anymore😊 but it was worth having a splash back in my childhood.
Thanks for reading,
feel free to leave a comment, I will be glad to reply to.
Best regards,
