Grüetzi, Grüetzi! That's Amoré!: A 2015 Italy/Switzerland Trip Report - Complete!

[mare1203]

Grüetzi und Benveneto! My sister, Kathy (Kanadar) and I just returned from our latest adventure and I can't wait to share my trip report for the Alpine Magic Adventures by Disney trip with you, featuring destinations in Italy and Switzerland! This is my second trip report for an ABD. If you’re interested, pop on over to Andiamo Adventurers! to read about our fantastic time on one of Disney’s most popular ABD's: Viva Italia.
The Alpine Magic trip was, in a word, incredible. Probably one of, if not the best, trips I have ever been on. The views throughout our trip were stunning, at times almost unbelievable. I would highly recommend Alpine Magic to anyone as I truly think there is something for everyone here. I was super sad to leave this trip and haven’t quite gotten over it yet. I guess the only cure will be re-living it through this report.
Kathy will be getting married in October, so we decided to take one last family vacation, just the 3 of us, before the wedding. We looked at a number of the ABD trips before settling on Alpine Magic. The Central Europe trip was in serious contention, as well as the Alaska trip. I would love, love, love it if ABD decided to do a Patagonia trip, but so far they haven’t released any itineraries for Patagonia (perhaps one day ABD, hint hint...) Anyway, I’m getting off task. A couple we befriended on our last adventure had been on the Italy/Switzerland trip and said it was fantastic. Alpine Magic also happened to be in contention while I was deciding on our first trip. Thus, we made the decision and again booked through Kevin here at Dreams Unlimited. We were in Italy and Switzerland from June 27 - July 5, 2015.

First, as always, let’s have some introductions.


My name is Mary. I recently turned 30, and I live in Arizona. For my 30th birthday, I got to go to the Kentucky Derby (so. much. fun!), and thus the hat! I am a fan of Disney culture and tradition, but I am actually quite bad at Disney music and movie trivia. Before moving to Arizona I worked as a cast member in Disney’s Animal Kingdom where I was a paleontologist at the Dino Institute, so Disney is in my blood. Today I work in higher education. For this trip I was most looking forward to the beauty of the Swiss Alps, ziplining, and boating on Lake Como.




Up next we have my sister, Kathy, known on the boards as Kanadar. She is 27 and lives in central Illinois. In her non-Disney life, Kathy teaches English as a Second Language. As I mentioned, she is in the middle of planning her very own Disney Fairytale wedding and will be marrying her Prince Charming, Jeff, at the Boardwalk in October. Kathy is looking forward to seeing a new country, the Alps, and zip lining.


And finally we have our dad Bob, who also lives in central Illinois. He started us on the Disney vacation love in 1994 and his favorites are resorting at the Polynesian and visiting during the Epcot Food & Wine Festival. Last year, Bob also completed his first ½ marathon. Unsurprisingly, it was the Disney Wine & Dine ½, which we lovingly refer to as the Splash & Dash because it rained the entire time. But, it was fun! When he isn’t traveling, Bob owns a meat distribution company, so there will be no shortage of steak and other meat on his plate! Bob is looking forward to (hopefully!) seeing the Matterhorn and going ziplining.

If you’ve read my previous trip report, you’ll recall that our family enjoys indulging in food & wine, so that was something we were all very much looking forward to during the trip. (A trip to destinations known for pasta, cheese, chocolate, and wine? Why yes, please!).

So, willkomen and andiamo adventurer’s as we explore northern Italy and Switzerland, and maybe experience a few surprises along the way!

DISCLAIMERS: I am going to do a full trip report; there will be spoilers. You’ve been warned. Also, please do not assume that everything that happens in this trip will happen in yours. Each tour is different and unforeseen circumstances can alter planned (and even unplanned) experiences for any reason. Finally, I would like to include some of the pictures taken by our amazing ABD guides, so it might be a little slow until those arrive. Luckily, we had a day and a half to ourselves, leaving me plenty to report on before I get to the good stuff!​

 

[mare1203]

Okay Adventurer's, per usual here is my table of contents. I will link to the page(s) once I've completed the entry for easy viewing later on and edit along the way as I am sure some of these will end up as multiple posts.

Apparently, in the upgrade, the old way of linking the individual posts doesn't seem to be working right. I'll work on it, but until then I'll just keep this open.

 

[Cousin Orville]

Great! Looking forward to following along!

 

[carpenta]

Loved your Italy report and I am excited to read along. Thanks in advance for allowing us to "ride along" on your trip.

 

[sayhello]

Yay! Another report! Looking forward to this. I think this is an underrated trip!

Sayhello

 

[cmcgardner]

This trip is fabulous! It was our first ABD and I am not sure it will ever be topped. I fell in love with Switzerland and Northern Italy and hope to get back there someday.

 

[tgeorge]

I'm so excited you're back to do another report! I loved your Italy report and I have no doubt that this one will be fantastic as well! I'm also very excited to hear about this trip since this is very, very high on my list

 

[kanadar]

I'm here, I'm here!! Yay! You started! I'm so excited to re-live our trip, it was just so fantastic!

 

[mare1203]

Great! Looking forward to following along!

Hi!! Glad to have you reading along once again!

Loved your Italy report and I am excited to read along. Thanks in advance for allowing us to "ride along" on your trip.

Welcome aboard adventurer! Thanks for the compliment and I hope this one can live up to the last (I think it will)

Yay! Another report! Looking forward to this. I think this is an underrated trip!

Sayhello

Hey SayHello!! Of course! I love doing these; it keeps the fun and magic alive long after the trip has finished. I'm not sure why this one isn't more popular, because Switzerland was always super high on my bucket list. It's totally, totally worth it. Though I'll tell ya, after talking with some people on this trip, I'm super excited for the River Cruise, so here's me being jealous of you!

This trip is fabulous! It was our first ABD and I am not sure it will ever be topped. I fell in love with Switzerland and Northern Italy and hope to get back there someday.

After this trip, I'm inclined to agree with you about topping it. Not sure it can be done (though, if anyone can it's Disney)! Glad to have you following along, and hopefully you'll relive some similar memories along the way!

I'm so excited you're back to do another report! I loved your Italy report and I have no doubt that this one will be fantastic as well! I'm also very excited to hear about this trip since this is very, very high on my list

Welcome! Thank you for the compliment! I would highly recommend this itinerary; Disney takes you to some idyllic settings.

I'm here, I'm here!! Yay! You started! I'm so excited to re-live our trip, it was just so fantastic!

Hey Dopey!

 

[kmc33]

Loved your Viva Italia trip report!! Can't wait to read about your Italy/Switzerland adventures!

 

[disneyphx]

Looking forward to reading along - might need to do this to see the Matterhorn - and because I mistakenly told E we would be zip lining in Switzerland.......

 

[walnut611]

YAY! I'm in and following too

 

[christannj]

I thoroughly enjoyed your other reports so can't wait to read along with everyone else.

 

[mare1203]

Loved your Viva Italia trip report!! Can't wait to read about your Italy/Switzerland adventures!

Viva and Alpine are 2 very different trips and can't really be compared, but we LOVED this one. I'm hoping the trip report will do it justice.

Looking forward to reading along - might need to do this to see the Matterhorn - and because I mistakenly told E we would be zip lining in Switzerland.......

You should definitely do it to see the Matterhorn. We have about 700 pictures of that stupid, gorgeous mountain. And, the ropes course was way fun; E would enjoy it!

YAY! I'm in and following too

Welcome! Glad to have you reading along!

I thoroughly enjoyed your other reports so can't wait to read along with everyone else.

And thanks for reading! I've been going through my pictures and it's going to be pretty hard to cut it down!

 

[mare1203]

Aaadventurerrs!

I hope you all had a great weekend! Seeing as it's been a week since we returned, I think it is the perfect time to get this party started. Kathy and I have shared our pictures with one another. In all, we have close to 1,800! I can hear you all saying, 'and you're waiting for guide pics, too?!?' Yes. Yes, I am, haha!

In some cases we just wanted to make sure we were taking pictures that you all would enjoy (after completing one trip report, it was helpful to use that experience when it comes to taking photos). But in others it was pure 'oh man, I need a pic of that!' (Matterhorn, I'm looking at you...).

So, without further ado, let's go on an Adventure!

​

As you know, Bob and Kathy live in a different state than I. However, neither of us are close to a major international airport that would take us direct to our destination. Thus, since we were eyeing a layover somewhere anyway, we decided meet up and fly over to Italy together. On Alpine Magic you will fly into Milan's Malpensa airport.

​

My journey began at 9:00 a.m. Pacific time. Before boarding the flight, I stopped at Peet’s coffee for an iced coffee and an oatmeal. It was a good choice to get some good stuff in my tummy before the long flight east.


My flight was full, as usual, but it was a nice, new plane with wi-fi options and a bank of entertainment should you want to indulge. I made it to JFK without incident. I had a short layover of less than an hour before we were set to take-off. It was my first time ever to JFK, and seeing as I hadn’t eaten anything during my 5 hour flight, I was pretty disappointed to find that the terminal had no good places to pick up something quick to eat within a 5-minute walk from the gate. I did manage to find a Hudson books and bought some peanut butter crackers, so I had those to tide me over until dinner.

​

Bob and Kathy started their trek to Europe by flying from our hometown airport to Chicago’s O’Hare and then on to JFK. They actually had a decent amount of time for their layover, leaving them enough time to grab some food before the flight to New York. That, and the O’Hare terminal actually has options. They decided to stop at the Macaroni Grill for some American Italian and split a couple of entrees.​

First, they went with a classic: spaghetti and meatballs.


The other entree they chose was the lasagna.

I think it's kind of funny that they chose to eat Italian before going to Italy. They said it was good. ​

​

Finally, my flight arrived and we were reunited! It wasn't very long before we were finding our seats on the plane! Obligatory family pic on the plane to Milan! I had Mickey Rice Krispie Treat from our last trip about a week prior, so I brought it along as a snack,

My dad and I both have preferred status on American Airlines, so that is who we ended up flying for this trip. It was a different configuration from when we went to Rome. This time the flight was 2-3-2 rather than the 2-5-2. Unfortunately, we had been spoiled on that trip because each seat had a TV in the back and a library of movies and games to access. Not this flight. We were old school all the way. There wasn't even wi-fi on the plane! Seeing as my flight from Phoenix to JFK was new and had wi-fi this was disappointing and a step down. After waiting in line on the Tarmac for about 45 minutes we were on our way! Yay!

We took an overnight flight to Milan, so they served us dinner and a continental breakfast. Interestingly enough, all beverages were included outside of hard liquor. Apparently this is a new thing on a few of the major American carriers (finally catching up to the rest of the world, eh?). The choices for dinner were a veggie macaroni and cheese or a sweet and sour chicken. Both came with a dinner roll, some cheese and crackers, and a brownie dessert.​

​

Kathy and I both went with the pasta while Bob had the chicken. They were okay for airplane food, and since I had not really eaten since breakfast I ate it all. I believe this is the only meal we don’t have pictures for, sorry about that. But, you don’t really want to see airplane food, do you? I didn’t think so.

They played a couple of movies on the flight, but my headphone jack didn't work, so we just tried to sleep. We got some rest, but none of us ever actually slept. By the time the sun came up, we were a little loopy.




About an hour before we landed they served us a light breakfast of yogurt, dried fruit, granola, and a muffin top. I ate the fruit and part of the muffin top. At this point, all I wanted was a little protein, to no avail. It was an adequate continental breakfast.


Upon landing we made it through passport check, which was super fast and easy, and headed towards baggage claim. We arrived almost an hour early, so our pick-up hadn't quite arrived yet. However, this was not a problem since we had to wait for the bags to be delivered to the claim anyway.


By the time we hit the restroom and got back to the claim our pick-up had arrived!




He helped us retrieve our bags and took us to the driver. They loaded us into a van and we were on the way to Stresa! Kathy wasn't at all excited.


Morning selfie in the van to Stresa! It was a very nice van, with leather seats and plenty of room. It was similar to the van that picked us up in Rome.




Northern Italy is beautiful; very green and sort of foresty (is this even a word?!?). As we got closer to Stresa it became much more mountainous and we had quite a few switchbacks on the way down to Lago Maggiore. These are a few pics from the drive. At this point we were close to Lake Maggiore, which you can see. The hotel is down right in front of the lake, so we had to get down from here. We saw a ton of bikers on the way down. That would be quite the workout!




It was about a 45 minute drive to our home for the next few days,the Regina Palace Hotel, right in the middle of Stresa and overlooking Lake Maggiore. For some reason, the area where they dropped us off reminded me of the Grand Budapest Hotel from the Wes Anderson movie.

We checked in around 9:15 and a room was not ready, but they told us to check back around 11 and something should be available. That left us with a few hours to explore. And that's where I'll end it for now, adventurers! Until next time!
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[mare1203]

Hello again! Let's continue on with our arrival day!


After learning it would be a couple hours before we would have a room, we stored our luggage in a side room and headed out. We figured we could walk around town and take in the views. The lake is the main attraction, but they keep the area well manicured with lots of greenery, gardens, and park space. Stresa is a relatively small town and it would take some real skill to get lost here. There's actually quite a bit of good information to be found on the internet. Most of the hotels are located along the main drag hugging the lake.




We started by walking across the street and wandering down by Lake Maggiore. There is a paved path that goes for quite a ways. A lot of our fellow adventurers used this path in the mornings for running.


We found this mermaid water fountain down by the ferry ticket booths to the 3 islands.


Hey, Bob, I see you! If you look behind the statue, towards the Italian flags, that path took us to town. But, pretty much all roads led to town, so it wasn't hard to figure out. Town converges into a main square, but there are lots of shops and restaurants along the way.

Town is just a 5-minute walk from the hotel and where most of the restaurants and shopping can be found. I bet Stresa is packed in August when most of the Europeans are on holiday. It was busy, but not crowded, while we were in town. Interestingly, Sunday seemed like the busiest day while we were there, because that Saturday morning/afternoon were pretty quiet. It took us maybe 30 minutes to explore the main town, 45 minutes if you're really mosey-ing or you decide to shop. Shops were just starting to open when we were there, around 10:00 a.m.


They had these white, almost buddha-looking statues all over town. We meant to ask our guides or local guide about them, but always forgot. They were kinda fun for photo-ops though!


While in town we also found an ATM to take out some Euro. There is also an ATM just to the right outside the hotel, maybe a block down. Reminder that it's Euro in Italy, but switches to Swiss Frank in Switzerland, so don't take too much out. We found most places took cards, though.






After getting through town, we doubled back toward the water and took some pictures.


Hydrangea's are everywhere in Stresa.


There is definitely money staying in Stresa. We saw a line of these fancy cars leaving a hotel, along with the ladies in their very chic, European head scarfs. One day, I will look as fabulous as that while also making it look effortless...




Just after 11, we checked back with the front desk and happily, our room was ready! We were also ready to clean up a bit after traveling all day/night.


The only adjective to describe the room when we walked in was 'Wow!'. It was huge!


You could actually pull the drapes on the bed for a cozy nook if you liked (it was waaay too hot for that. Don't worry, the Regina is air conditioned.)


It included a seating area, the regular bed, and, since we are 3, a rolling cot. Even with the cot we had plenty of room here.






Here are some bathroom pics. The only complaint about the bathrooms were from tall men. I, being 5'2", had no problems with the height of the shower head...


There was even a chandelier. Oh we fancy, huh?




The view from our room


Turns out, our room was right smack dab in the middle of the resort. Looking at this picture, ours was the first set of 3 windows directly above the flags. We had the 3 balcony's with a breathtaking view of the lake and mountains. It really was like a palace!

Ta-Ta For Now! And Happy 60th Anniversary to Disneyland!!! Have a good weekend, adventurers!

​

 

[RSM]

Great pictures Mary. Brings back alot of fond memories. This was our first ABD 5 years ago, and continues to be our favorite. Is Marc still one of the guides on this adventure?

 

[tgeorge]

Looks amazing!! This trip is in my top three,however it may soon be number 2!

 

[kanadar]

Ah I loved that room! That view was amazing! I still wish we'd gotten a picture of the three of us on each balcony :/ oh well

 

[carman754]

Following along! Can't wait to relive the trip through your report.