Honeymoon on Route 66

New York here we come

We leave very early from Fiumicino airport, on the plane headed to New York (the Big Apple); finally our dream comes true....We arrive at JFK airport at 6:30 PM local time, in Rome it's already 12:30 AM; after 9 hours of agonizing travel, we still don't feel the jet lag; it must be the enthusiasm we have. As soon as we're outside the airport we take a taxi that takes us directly to our wonderful hotel right in the center of New York, the Park Central, 200m from Central Park, right in the Manhattan area. We already love everything so much; the areas are just like in the movies, lots of people running around in elegant clothes, with briefcases and coffee in hand. Our hotel is stunning. We immediately drop our bags and go out to discover the long-desired Big Apple. We don't stray too far from the area because it's already late and the tiredness is starting to set in.

We eat at a restaurant that makes the best and biggest sandwiches in the city, and we order exactly 2 of them with chicken salad, cheese, tomato salad and bacon, a nice big plate of giant onion rings and two large beers, for the not-so-modest sum of 70 dollars. Oh yes, for two sandwiches a bit excessive I'd say; knowing beforehand that they were truly enormous, we would have ordered just one. But we were so hungry and from what it seems I think this city is pretty expensive. We go to the hotel ready for the night; it takes me a while to fall asleep but in the end I manage.

New York New York

This morning we wake up rather early, it's 4:00 AM; we still have to get used to the time change. We wait until 6 to get up and get ready; our visit today includes as a first stop the famous Statue of Liberty. As soon as we're ready we go to have breakfast right at the Starbucks below our hotel: Marco with his favorite long American coffee, me with a good cappuccino, and of course the famous giant cookies couldn't be missing! First experience with the American subway, easy to use; I notice that everyone falls asleep on the subway and it makes me laugh, but at their stop they get up and get off as if nothing happened, amazing! We arrive at the park near the harbor where the ferries for the statue tour depart; there are many squirrels walking near the pedestrians, running on the benches; for us it's a spectacle to see this.

We go through the metal detectors and get on the ferry; the view is spectacular but the wind is strong and holding the camera becomes annoying. We arrive on the little island and start taking endless photos of the statue; we don't go up because the line is at least 2 hours, we settle for its imposing size from below and head to catch the ferry to Ellis Island, visit the immigration museum and return to the mainland. We walk all of Brooklyn Street up to Wall Street; beautiful, just like in the movies, steam comes out of the manholes, the camera goes crazy; we do nothing but take photos, we pass in front of Trinity Church, see Federal Hall and City Hall, stop in front of Ground Zero, and it makes me so sad to think about what happened on September 11, 2001. Among all the skyscrapers here it's really a hole, with the construction site open for building something else.

We see people still walking around with masks on; we stop to have lunch at the Burger King right in front, built in an old subway station. We set off again toward the long streets full of shops, heading to the Brooklyn Bridge, which connects the island of Manhattan to the Brooklyn neighborhood; we walk across it from one end to the other for a good 1,825 m; it's stunning and we too can say we've been there. It starts to rain and we get drenched. The view of the East River is stunning, with all the city's skyscrapers; we struggle a lot to walk in the rain and the opposite side seems deserted; we walk a lot to find the nearest subway stop. We get off at Penn Station and visit the Empire State Building; in a few seconds we go up by elevator to the 86th floor of the skyscraper, and continue up to the 102nd

Last day in New York

Our day begins at 8:00 and after the usual breakfast with coffee, cappuccino and chuck cukie (cookie), we head again towards 8th street from B&H, Marco wants to buy himself something else before regretting it. We take the subway to Canal street, today I understood why everyone falls asleep on the subway, I fell for it too, the swaying of the carriage really makes your eyes close and lulls you, and it's impossible not to give in with tiredness, Marco teases me! I reply that I'm in America and I have to blend in with everything and everyone! We visit the whole Chinatown and Little Italy area, we stop for lunch in a restaurant with Italian dishes, and take the metro again to Time Square. From here we enjoy the whole spectacle of the thousands of bright and super-technological signs of the street.

We walk back along all the streets admiring the shops and reach Central Park, walking the entire length of the park we arrive at the legendary and most famous Apple Store, just the entrance is spectacular, a glass cube in the middle of 5th street, we spend an hour in here just to see the novelties that don't exist yet in Italy. Before doing some crazy shopping, we manage by walking the whole of 5th street with its super luxury shops. Now tired and in the rain that caught us by surprise, we stop to eat some very good steak beef in a small restaurant near our hotel; then straight to packing our suitcases, tomorrow we fly to Chicago where our long journey on route 66 to Los Angeles will begin.

Chicago here we come

Wake up at 6:00, breakfast at Starbucks and taxi to the airport. We take the flight at 11:00 and at 12:30 we land at Chicago's La Guardia airport (Chicago is 1 hour behind NY). We're in Illinois, we wait for the Hertz bus that comes to pick us up to go and collect our car rented from Rome. I was anxious, finding ourselves so far from home speaking very little English, finding ourselves collecting a car at the rental... instead nothing could be easier, Americans seem very helpful in helping us understand. We collect our magnificent SUV, a beautiful Ford Escape, big and comfortable and above all we try out the automatic transmission. We set off straight away towards downtown Chicago, the motorways are beautiful and easy to figure out, everything organised, we take the 190 motorway and exit on the 50B.

Without problems but with quite a bit of traffic, it takes little time to understand how the traffic lights work (when it's red at an intersection you can still turn right), we got our first American honkings, but at least we understood what's different from Italy. We arrive at our hotel, the Essex Inn, thanks to the GPS built into the car. We park the car in the hotel garage at 25 dollars a day, but we can't do without it, here you can't park on the street. We quickly drop off our suitcases, and go to discover Chicago, we immediately notice that the temperature is very different from Italy, it's at least 40° and there's a deadly hot air.

We walk along the long central street, Michigan ave, we try to enter a souvenir shop, but the temperature difference with the outside is really too much, we immediately feel unwell, there must be at least a 20° difference, we're immediately stunned by such heat. We go to visit Millennium Park with its mega-galactic Cloud Gate structure, very beautiful and fascinating, we take a thousand photos and go down along the bank of the Michigan, a nice walk, we head towards Ontario road and arrive at the Hard Rock Café to buy the usual ritual t-shirt, and since we're there we also stop for dinner, eating excellent hamburgers, here the meat is stupendous, the flavour is really good. Once we've finished eating we head towards the hotel, but we're too far and tired to walk, so once again we quickly hail a taxi that takes us back to the hotel for 5 dollars. Tomorrow a long road awaits us.

Finally on Route 66 the mother roads

We set off early from Chicago heading for Springfield IL, today we begin our long journey on the old road 66, the mother of all roads, we're super excited! The dream of every traveller! We stop just outside the city for a mega breakfast with the best donuts from Dunkin Donuts, something fabulous and just like in the movies, in the car with the box on the dashboard and a cup of coffee beside us. Beautiful! We set off again, first stop Juliet, a visit to the historic route 66 museum, very nice and in 1960s style, it really feels like being transported back in time, inside the old drive-ins. Along the road we stop in Wilmington to snap photos like crazy, especially under the sculpture of the Gemini Giant, we stop to eat there in the famous and oldest drive-in, the Launching Pad, eating excellent Big Burgers.

We set off again towards Gardner and Dwight where the most famous and historic gas station of route 66 is found, the Ambler's Texaco, the two owners welcome us kindly and have us sign the historic guestbook of travellers. We get back in the car, also stopping at Odell at the Standard Sinclair, another historic petrol pump. I'd read about how many things you can see on route 66 but I didn't know how much beauty was being spoken of. It really feels like being transported into a 1960s film, it's an emotion that can't be described and absolutely must be experienced at least once in a lifetime. We arrive in Pontiac and visit another historic museum on route 66 built in an old fire station, there are objects and photos from the whole history of this road and of those who travelled it.

It started raining hard, so we get back in the car and arrive in Atlanta, again in Illinois, and have our photo taken under the Bunyon Giant statue (the scarf man), a big character with a mega hot dog. We continue on to Lincoln, birthplace of the former president of the United States, and continue to Springfield where we go to visit the president's tomb in the cemetery, majestic and very beautiful. The houses are the ones always dreamed of when watching American films, with people sitting under the porch rocking in a rocking chair, children on trampolines and kids playing basketball in the garden of their homes. All fabulous! We arrive at our hotel, the Days Inn, which looks like a motel, with all the room doors opening onto the street. We manage dinner eating excellent grilled pork ribs with real American barbecue sauce. Then to sleep, it's been many kilometres.

St. Louis in Missouri

We set off in the direction of S. Louis in Missouri, we follow route 66 for a long stretch left intact as from 1926 to 1930, it's very hot, the car tells us 93° F. The guide the agency gave us advises us to take the motorway directly to S. Louis, in this area there's nothing important to visit and the journey is long. We arrive directly at our hotel Holiday Inn, it's 12:30, it's very hot, we're tired from the journey, we rest for about an hour and then set off to visit the city. First stop the famous Gateway Arch, located in the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial on the bank of the Mississippi, it's 192 metres high, to reach it we walk the entire park, where the squirrels are at home, running and jumping in the trees without worrying about the many people who, like us, stay there photographing them. The heat is even stronger, we decide to go back to get the car and enjoy S.

Louis in the cool with the air conditioning on maximum. We take a nice tour of the city and notice that we're practically the only white foreigners driving a car. We feel a bit out of place, it feels like being in a film with gangs of various kinds, at the traffic light a sedan pulls up next to us with strange music very loud, we turn around and there's a black kid of about 16 with a black hairnet on his hair and a basketball jersey two sizes too big, a big gold chain around his neck and big bracelets, just like the American baby gangsters. We pretend nothing's happening and try not to stare, but they look us up and down, fortunately the traffic light turns green... bye bye! We stop to see the big shopping centre built in the old Union Station, we get a big milkshake, we get back in the car and decide to go and visit a nearby town, St. George.

We pass through big wheat fields but the cars coming towards us all flash their lights at us, I tell Marco that maybe they're warning us of a roadblock and instead... suddenly we see them all speeding past on the opposite side from ours, they all do U-turns and run and run, we suddenly see a big flash cutting across the fields, we realise that maybe it's best to follow everyone else, we quickly do a U-turn and suddenly we're assailed by heavy rain, you can't see the road, it's turned to night, we see from afar a vortex speeding among the fields... holy cow!!!!!! a Hurricane? We don't know but we're safe and sound and we've never driven so fast. We stop for dinner to eat at the Hard Rock Café and buy the ritual t-shirt, then straight to sleep.

Springfield Missouri

We set off towards Springfield Missouri, still on Route 66 alternating it with the highway; sometimes the route is interrupted or too impassable to travel, little by little the landscapes change, you see new colours and new atmospheres, here everything is in cowboy style, we meet the first sheriff with a cowboy hat who gets out of the car with his hands on his belt….spectacular. The shops are all closed, and some little towns seem like ghosts. Along the road we photograph the old relics of Route 66, old signs of motels and petrol stations. We stop for lunch at the famous Missouri Hick Bar-B-Q, along the road, we eat some delicious mega hamburgers with meat in barbecue sauce.

Excellent! We find an antique shop where they sell everything, I buy some typical souvenirs, setting off again on the road we notice a cowboy boot shop, we stop and obviously I buy them! Beautiful! Marco buys himself his first hat, very nice, I buy the boots and a wallet made of real Indian leather! We arrive at our hotel in the evening, just time to drop off the suitcases and we go out to discover the city, we stop to do some shopping in a mega sports shop, the Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World, Beautiful, there is even a real crocodile in a little pond inside the shop. The rest of the city doesn't impress us much, we eat quickly at Pizza Hut and go off to sleep; today we are staying at the Lamplighter Inn North.

Oklahoma City

Today we set off towards Oklahoma City, along the road there are many things to see and photograph, you are catapulted back to the 1930s, little by little the landscape becomes more and more arid, for much of the journey it rains but at least it's not so hot. We pass through Joplin, a very nice little town, the square is picturesque in a typically mid-western style. We stop at an old Sinclair petrol station on Ash Grove, where we get to know the owner Gary, the petrol pump has belonged to his family since the 1920s, he is very friendly, we take photos with him next to the pumps and in his old car, we sign his guestbook and reluctantly say goodbye. We get the Route 66 book autographed. Thanks to this book we discover some extra things that are not reported in our guide, so we make small detours along the route to admire the true relics of Route 66.

The route is beautiful, we pass through Kansas for a short stretch; the old Route 66 only passes through 13 miles and crosses only 3 towns of this state. We pass through Galena and stop at the historical museum, then we pass over the famous Riverton bridge, the last remaining bridge of the Marsh Arch Rainbow, and we enter Oklahoma. There are so many things to admire, and many characteristic little towns. We pass through Miami OK and visit the famous vintage motorcycle museum, among which is hosted Steve McQueen's personal original Husqvarna racing motorcycle. We pass through Afton where there are the faded signs of motels and where there is the old Rest Heaven motel, one of the most famous in America, here all the travellers who, tired, travelled Route 66, used to rest.

We continue to Tulsa, the second largest city in the state of Oklahoma, we pass through Sapulpa where there are copies of original painted wall signs on the sides of the brick buildings, we stop to nibble something at Norma's Diamond Café and continue to see the Rock Creek, a bridge from 1921. We arrive in Oklahoma City at our Quality Inn Southwest hotel at 20.00, after 12 hours of travelling, we are exhausted, a quick tour of the city but everything is closed, it doesn't appeal to us either, here too dinner at Burger King and straight to sleep.

Wonderful Texas

Today we go to Texas, our favourite destination. First stop the Route 66 museum, as soon as we enter here too we are transported back in time, an old jukebox plays an Elvis song, there are all kinds of cars from those times, Marco is overjoyed at such splendour. It feels like being in an episode of Happy Days. We set off again and finally arrive at the border with Texas, we meet a couple of Americans who offer to take a photo of us under the Texas border sign, and we do the same for them. We sit in the middle of Route 66 cross-legged and take endless photos (fortunately not many cars can be seen). Here it is full of opossums, they are so cute, they pop out from the sides of the road from many little holes and stand up to sniff the air. We stop at Amarillo, the true land of cowboys, a stop at the Bugg Ranch, where there are 5 Beetles planted in the ground vertically. 1st symbol of Texas.

Tonight we sleep at the Best Western Amarillo Inn, also similar to a motel, we park our car right in front of the room door, it's a very nice hotel chain, we go out for dinner stopping at the most famous steak restaurant in Texas, the Big Texan, we eat excellent steaks and drink very good beer. Inside the restaurant there is a souvenir shop, they sell real rattlesnake tails and stuffed snakes, we are tempted to buy them but they cost quite a bit, and we settle for just the snowglobe with the fake rattlesnake inside.

New Mexico

We set off early towards Las Vegas NM, first stop the Cadillac Ranch (10 Cadillacs planted vertically in the ground facing the direction of the Pyramids of Cheops) something truly amazing, as soon as we get out of the car we start taking endless photos, we cross the wheat field where we hear strange little rattles, could they be rattlesnakes? We try not to get close to the tall grass, dressed as true cowboys with boots and hat we take a ton of photos, there is also a group of ladies who offer to take a photo of us together, there are many things to photograph, it is the stretch of road where all the old restaurants and old motels that made the history of this road are, the route is very long, the old Route 66 is interrupted at a certain point, so we take the highway again, we cross the border, we are in New Mexico and the desert starts to appear.

We travel for miles through the desert and there are not many cars travelling. We often stop along the road to photograph this marvel and you hear nothing, not even a bit of wind or the chirping of birds. We pass through Tucumcari boulevard, the most famous 5 miles of Route 66, full of motels including the famous and always photographed Blue Swallow motel, the Cactus Motor Lodge and the Teepee Curios, spectacular. We set off again and quickly pass through Santa Rosa heading to Puerto de Luna, we stop for lunch in a typical restaurant, we want to taste the famous chilli, I settle for a simple non-spicy taco, Marco, unaware of the power of that tiny chilli, swallows it without hesitation…the tears streaming down his eyes were endless! We arrive in Las Vegas, the city of the most famous bandits in America such as Billy the Kid, Today we stay overnight at the Comfort Inn.

Here we are another hour behind, it's early, it's 16.30 but it feels like we left the day before, too bad that here too it seems like a deserted town, nothing to see but plenty of time to pass, we wander the area far and wide but everything is closed. We eat excellent pizza at Pizza Hut and straight to the hotel to sleep.

Albuquerque

We set off travelling through the Pecos National Historical Park (ruins of a pueblo dating back to the 15th century, where the Indians lived), we stop to visit Santa Fè, a very beautiful city, capital of New Mexico, typically Mexican area, with its beautiful walls and the typical colours of the desert. It is the oldest American city, there are many shops selling real Mexican ponchos and sombreros! But they are too big to take with us on the plane, we reluctantly give up.

We spend the whole morning admiring this marvel then we set off again on the old 66 arriving in Albuquerque, where we head to a mega shop of typical Boots (cowboy boots), Dan's Boots & Saddles, Marco also buys his first big boots size 49 and another hat and since tomorrow is my birthday he decides to give another pair to me too….I'm overjoyed! We have dinner in a Mexican place with typical dishes, and while we dine a wedding is taking place right in the central square, they play Mexican dance music, it's very fun and characteristic. We go to the Mcm Elegante hotel and go to sleep, today too the tiredness is really making itself felt.

Red Rock state Park, Pueblo Acoma, Malpais, Petrified Forest and Painted Desert

Today is my birthday and I will spend it in the middle of the desert, what more could I ask for! Thousands of miles from home, but in the most beautiful corner of paradise in the world. We have many km to travel and many things to see. First of all we pass through the Pueblo Acoma (the city of the sky) a great stretch of desert, spectacular, we pass through El Malpais National Monument and the Red Rock State Park in Sedona and the view is breathtaking, the silence is broken only by the rare passing of cars.

The distances from one place to another are very long, we make short stops to admire the desert, for 300 km we didn't meet any cars, I fell asleep at the wheel….an experience to erase, luckily we were the only ones and I noticed it immediately, unfortunately the automatic driving has a flaw, it's boring and in the middle of the desert always at the same speed within the 60 mph limit, it's not the best. We pass through the Petrified Forest, 20 miles lost in the desert of petrified trunks with different shades of colour, then there is the Painted Desert, you see formations of soft rock of numerous colours. Stunning. The journey is very long but it is truly worth it, we also saw the tiny hay bales rolling along the road.

We arrive in Arizona at Holbrook, just time to check in at the hotel the Comfort Inn and we go out for dinner eating at the famous Butterfield Stage Co Steak House in far west style with excellent local meat. Then straight to sleep, tomorrow awaits us the marvel of all marvels "the Grand Canyon".

Here we are at the Grand Canyon

First of all we stop in Gallup to take some photos, typical Indian area, stopping at the famous Geronimo Trading Post to buy some souvenirs. We set off again, today too there is a lot to see, we do a long stretch of road admiring various attractions, we arrive at the Meteor Crater near Winslow and Flagstaff, we visit the museum and it is spectacular. We stop at the famous Mexican restaurant Tacos, where they make the best and most famous tacos in the world. Along the road we meet various real American ranches including the most famous Babbitt Ranch, where there is the Jack Rabbit trading post. We enter the Grand Canyon south rim heading towards Tusayan, the view is spectacular, seeing it live is a whole other thing, we spend hours staring at and photographing this marvel.

We come back down and arrive in Tusayan at our magnificent hotel the Best Western Squire Inn, for this night we have a real bridal suite, super galactic, just the bathroom is as big as half our house. Beautiful!

Las Vegas here we come

We set off towards Las Vegas in Nevada, we travel the entire Route 66 passing through Seligman, a place along Route 66 and full of bizarre things. Very nice! We stop further on at the Hackberry General store, to admire the classic Corvette, after about 100 miles we arrive at Chloride Ghost Town (ghost town), as soon as you enter this town there is a sign "beware of bandits", it really is a ghost town, you see the old rusty broken restaurant sign that swings and creaks in the wind, the windows of the houses full of dust and many iron objects hanging on the windows, like little iron dolls, it almost seems like satanic rites. Broken bicycles, dolls without arms, Too scary, we are too isolated, we decide to leave.

We continue our long journey, we pass through the dam that divides the border between Arizona and Nevada, it is still under construction, I take a few photos, who knows, if one day I ever pass through here again I want to see the changes. We arrive in the late afternoon in Las Vegas, I have always dreamed of coming here one day and today I can say "I Am Here", we go straight to our hotel the Circus Circus, our room is on the 34th floor of this enormous skyscraper, everything is in circus style, fascinating, something wonderful, you only see so much beauty in films. We drop off the suitcases, settle in a bit and run to discover our hotel. We are thrilled, we can't wait to have a quick go at the slot machine, just time to understand how it works and we immediately sit down to play.

It's very hot outside and the temperature difference with the inside is crazy, I am forced to put on a long-sleeved shirt, staying still playing I'm dying of cold. We decide to have a go on the very tall roller coaster that is inside our hotel, STUNNING, it feels like crashing over the glass, for those who suffer from altitude it is not advisable! we spend the whole evening inside the hotel playing at the casino and in the arcade. In here it's a city with lots of shops and lots of things to do. By now it's late, we go to sleep, tomorrow we enjoy the city.

Las Vegas and its Strip

We go out to discover the Strip, 4 miles long, full of luxurious hotels and shops, to get around we take the car, we find a car park right in the middle of the Strip, we start walking along this long road, we take endless photos, there are so many people, the heat is tremendous, at least 40°, we buy the ritual t-shirt at the Hard Rock Café, a tour of the Harley Davidson café, we spend the whole morning walking, we go back to the hotel for lunch and start playing the slot machines again, outside it's really too hot. We manage for dinner at the New York New York hotel. We walk the road again in the evening with all the signs lit up, too beautiful, we take the car and go for a drive, filming every tiny detail with the video camera. The evening is much more fascinating. We go back to the hotel to sleep and pack our suitcases, tomorrow a long journey awaits us, we're going to California.

We would have liked to stay longer in Las Vegas, there are so many things to see....surely it will be a good excuse to come back.

Welcome to California

We set off very early, today the journey is very long, we travel through much of the Nevada desert and arrive at the border with California, ritual photo under the state signs, today we can say we are in two places at the same time! The road is beautiful and the music we prepared beforehand on our iPod is spot on. We begin the crossing of California listening to "Welcome to the hotel California", we stop at Calico ghost town, in the Mojave desert 200 km from Los Angeles, it is a mining town from 1881, the classic Old West town, souvenir shops with typical items, old saloons, sheriff's office, everything seems to have remained as it once was. We stop for a couple of hours eating excellent sandwiches for lunch in a very particular restaurant.

As soon as we enter the restaurant we notice something very bizarre, the floor is entirely covered with peanut shells, there are people sitting at the tables eating them and throwing the shells on the ground, we sit down too and they immediately serve us a nice plate of peanuts (I can't eat them, I'm allergic) but Marco doesn't miss the opportunity and starts shelling and munching, the only thing that leaves us puzzled is that everyone looks at us when we throw the shells onto a plate. Are we doing something out of the ordinary? So we take the plate, empty it all onto the floor, now everyone smiles! Got it! That's exactly how it's done, we learned something new and it was fun. After making some particular purchases we set off again, the km that await us are still many, but we want to take them calmly, we are arriving at the end of our journey and at the end of Route 66.

Already from the highway I am very excited, we are about to enter Los Angeles, the city of angels, an indisputable destination. There is a lot of traffic, the roads are all jammed, you move at a snail's pace. We immediately remember that in L.A. smoking is forbidden! And there are many road billboards that remind you of it! Nothing more terrible! First of all we arrive at our hotel right in the centre of Beverly Hills, the Beverly Hilton, super galactic and beautiful, too bad they are a bit surly, they even try to tell us that we don't have a room booked…PANIC…we have the manager called, I had started to get worked up, such a thing is not possible if we have booked through an agency, the manager explains that we arrived late (it's only 19.30), but anyway there is a free room! Anyway? Absurd! And we are right in Beverly Hills, let's say the first impression was not the best.

Anyway, everything seems to have been resolved, we drop off the suitcases and go out for the first evening visit. We reset the GPS to Route 66 and arrive right at the end of this fantastic road, we are on Santa Monica beach. We park the car in a car park right on the beach, and we take a nice walk on the pier, there is the famous ferris wheel all lit up, lots of kids running on skateboards and rollerblades. Lots of restaurants and we stop to eat at the famous Bubba Gump Shrimp Co (the one from the film Forrest Gump), we have fried fish and lots of fresh fish, a delicacy, very good dishes.

It was a fun evening, we made many waiters laugh, on the table there was a kind of red triangle on one side and green on the other, I spent the whole evening playing with it, as soon as I put it on red the waiters rushed to clear the plates, and we ordered more drinks, so they turned it back to green annoyed, practically the whole evening like this, in the end one of them explained to us that red meant "take everything away and bring the bill, we're done", how I laughed and embarrassed I apologised.

We get back in the car and take a nice sightseeing tour of the city, passing through the luxurious area of Beverly Hills with its mega villas, we pass through Melrose Place then return to the hotel and notice that there is a famous star, lots of fans tearing their hair out, but we didn't understand who it was, the bodyguards don't want to let us pass through the lobby, What? I am a guest and I paid quite a lot to sleep here, so I'll pass through and how, as if nothing had happened we crossed the long red carpet reserved for VIPs, everyone was looking at us, of course they were all dressed in super elegant clothes, we in shorts and trainers, what a laugh. Then straight to sleep, it's late and tomorrow we still have a lot to visit.

HOLLYWOOD

We wake up early, go for breakfast at a Starbucks in the centre, and head again to Santa Monica beach to take some daytime photos, a nice walk and we head to Hollywood Blvd, we park the car in a paid car park and walk along the Walk of Fame, there are 3800 stars set into the pavement, with the names of the most famous people in cinema, music, theatre…I take a hundred photos of the best-known names, we stop at the Mann's Chinese Theatre known for the hand and foot prints of numerous film stars, we walk the whole street looking at shops and buying souvenirs, we get back in the car to go and photograph ourselves under the famous HOLLYWOOD sign, it wasn't easy to find, it's on a hill and you have to pass through private roads and super galactic mansions, but we made it after an hour of figuring out how to get there.

Endless photos, we send them immediately by email to all our friends "WE HAVE BEEN THERE"….truly exciting. We get back in the car and decide to take a nice drive along the Californian coast. We head towards Santa Monica, we continue to Venice Beach, we park the car and take a walk on the beach, there are many little shops and the atmosphere is the classic Californian one, everyone in very short shorts and rollerblades, skateboards and lots of street artists. We eat at a takeaway with very good Chinese food and continue towards Marina del Rey, the largest yacht harbour in L.A., we continue and arrive at Manhattan Beach, it really feels like being inside the TV series The O.C., my favourite, we have dinner in a fish restaurant right on Manhattan Blvd, unique dishes, truly excellent. We go back to the hotel, it's got late.

Last day along the coast in Malibu

Today we will visit the Malibu coast, 27 miles of scenic road, we often stop in the rest areas to photograph the surfers waiting for the perfect wave, you can see many dolphins swimming not far offshore, the colour of the sea is beautiful, the beaches very well kept and the view is spectacular. We stop on a beach to take photos on the lifeguard tower, like in the films, we set off again and enjoy the panorama from this magnificent road. We stop for lunch at the very famous Neptunes Net (famous for the film Point Break), here they make the best fried fish in California, we get a mega plate, there is any kind of fried fish, and it doesn't even cost much, 15 dollars the plate for 2. We return to the city to take a scenic drive around, it takes a lot of time, the traffic here is always congested and to do 8 km it takes us almost an hour.

By now it's evening, we head again to Hollywood Blvd and take a walk in the shopping centre, stopping to have dinner in a good restaurant, then we go back to the hotel, we have to pack our suitcases, tomorrow we go home unfortunately. Here too we would have needed more days....