A Month on the West Coast... Absolutely the Best Trip Ever

And here we are talking about the American dream....a month on the road in the United States, touring the whole south-west without missing a thing! My trip started in San Francisco, 4 fantastic days...if at first, like everyone, I had the myth of Los Angeles, after visiting this city..LA has been amply surpassed! SF is the emblem of the perfect city...tons of things to see, totally different neighbourhoods, and that typical shape with ups and downs that makes it unique (Lisbon by comparison looks like a single neighbourhood!).

The view of the Golden Gate Bridge left me breathless..and on top of that without even catching the fog, which is very frequent around here! The harbour area, fantastic with Fisherman's Wharf, is sensational...tons of little shops by the sea where you can find everything, and a Hard Rock Café that seems to go on forever it's so big! Then I reached the peak visiting Chinatown, which if I'm not mistaken should be the largest in the world..the English language doesn't exist in there...everyone speaks only Chinese and there isn't one American, I mean not one! but are we in SF or Beijing?!?! Little Italy is small but pretty...there are still emigrants who speak perfect Italian..how nice to feel at home thousands of km away!! Then the Castro district, the most famous gay district in the world and above all the legendary Alcatraz prison..who has never heard of it?? it's in the bay of SF and can

be visited by boat, not to mention the typical Cable-cars...the trams that whisk you here and there around the city...whoever comes here can't not take a ride on one! Having left SF..we head off to rent the camper van in Oakland, the nearby town, and off we go..heading for Yosemite National Park, very beautiful with its gigantic waterfall..then we see Sequoia NP...absurd to see such gigantic trees..and on top of that we even catch the snow! Then we arrive in Death Valley..the famous valley of death...sheer desolation!! And finally the next day Las Vegas!!! arriving in daylight it gives you the idea of a big closed funfair...but in the evening it's something absurd, lights everywhere, thousands of people on the street, confusion everywhere and you who seem like a kid when he sees toys eheh! You don't know where to go first, so many are the casinos..there's the Eiffel Tower, Venice, the Pyr

amids, Eurodisneyland, the Statue of Liberty...but is this a miniature world?!?! absurd...I'm speechless..we even try our luck at the slot machine but obviously we run off before we're left in our underwear!! Having left sweltering LV we go back to the national parks..with a visit to Zion, which seems like a typical climbers' hangout! Much different is Capitol Reef NP, it almost looks like Cappadocia (Turkey) for its typical mountains....Canyonlands NP has a breathtaking panorama, while Arches NP is beautiful for its arches everywhere, some of them truly gigantic! The visit to Mesa Verde NP is very characteristic, with the little village carved into a mountain, but far more spectacular is the view of Monument Valley NP, the theme of many John Wayne westerns..with its red hills!..while entering the Indian territory we find ourselves at Four Corner...that is the only exact point where 4 sta

tes border each other, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah..! The visit to Antelope Canyon NP is absurd..in the middle of the desert, it's a sort of underground quarry with cracks from above through which the sun enters creating a beautiful play of light! And here we are at the Grand Canyon NP...enchanting..above all because we allowed ourselves the luxury of seeing it with a little ride in a small plane! A quick stop in Phoenix, we head first to Saguaro NP to admire the cacti and then to Tombstone, a hole in the desert, but very famous because everyone lives like cowboys and goes around like that ehhe!! We go back to California...and we stop to visit San Diego, a beautiful city by the sea, with a strong Spanish influence, given that it's very close to the Mexican border..here you begin to savour the "scent" of the real California..sea, sun, beaches!! We close our trip with the city of

angels..Los Angeles! 4 days between visiting Hollywood taking 1000 photos of the stars on the Walk of Fame..and hunting for the sign on the hill eheh! Beverly Hills is the symbol of wealth...Rodeo Drive is something few can afford...unbridled luxury everywhere! The top though was the visit to Universal Studios, where they produce most American films...a whole day going around film studios and really fun attractions...to understand many of the tricks of the films and relive them! The last stop was a visit to the sea...could we leave without seeing Santa Monica?? no no, Baywatch had to be seen eheh...and off along the endless beach to that crazy place of Venice Beach, where there are the legendary gyms on the beach and the most bizarre people in the world...mamma what sights eheh!!! The United States really are a world apart...stunning!!!!!!!!