This year Rimini hosted something pretty exciting, Alice in Wonderland- Lost inside you. 

As an American in Italy, I tend to get a little disappointed by certain types of events that I attend. 

I expect things… 

not necessarily anything specific, my expectations aren’t high. These events just seem to… 

lack “something”..

… and with just a tiny little extra thought, effort or organization the experience would go from 

“Aright, thanks. It was nice.” to  “THAT WAS AMAZING. I WANT TO GO BACK”. 

So I wasn’t sure I’d be writing about our visit when we decided we’d give it a try.  I much prefer the local Sagre and some of the seasonal events that this area sprouts throughout the year because the quality of my experience during these events just seems to be more… 

“right”

We had a very busy summer with the renovation of our new house. Then finally packing… And moving … and it was just A LOT… So we decided this would be the one thing we do before the summer ends and it would mark our “getting back into the groove of things” moment. 

When you do a quick search online to understand what Alice in Wonderland might be or what to expect, Ai tells you that it’s an “immersive experience, which transforms visitors into the protagonists of an enchanted fairytale journey through the world of Alice in Wonderland using light, sound, live theatre, and themed food.” 

It’s supposed to feature dreamlike atmospheres with stunning backdrops, a Mad Hatter’s tea party, and interactive elements…

Much of this was true. 

As soon as you arrive at the entrance, you’re invited by a red carpet that takes you on a journey somewhere wonderful. You hear voices and sentences calling you into the story as you realize where you are. 

Your first stop is the ticket booth. The area is dreamily lit, with red lights against a flowery backdrop reminiscent of Wonderland. The only thing missing was interaction with a character from the fairytale or at least seeing them pass by as you wait your turn. Some art or other images that could accompany the sound and lighting would do too. 

Anything really…

Once we reached the booth, and I truly hope this was not the experience of everyone who entered this summer, we were welcomed by a very annoyed signorina who quickly and roughly gave us our tickets and told us our total price. 

The pricing for the park, when compared to the other parks in the area, is not bad. It’s not overly expensive so it can easily fit  in for those of us who like to budget. 

Once you get to the entrance you’re invited inside by “The road to Wonderland” display. The pleasant walkway displays some of what you’ll soon come to interact with later in the park. Butterflies , clocks, keys, a white bunny, all made from fabric and metal. They come to life through lighting. 

The lighting and displays hit the spot and were absolutely beautiful, as Ai had mentioned. 

I went to Ai because the website didn’t quite satisfy my curiosity when I was looking to understand what to expect. There is quite a bit of information on there, but its vagueness misses the needs of a potential guest. Yet its inspiring poetic and dreamy writing invites you to come and check it out anyway. So I wanted to. 

What I lacked from the website was easily found online anyway, so I was happy to plan our evening with that. Even when I needed some extra guidance, I just commented on one of their facebook posts. They responded within a few days and thoroughly provided me with all the details I was missing. 

As we walked through the park, I was a bit disappointed by the fact that even though the lighting work was the main event of the entire experience some of the lighting was broken or off and not repaired before opening. It’s been open all summer and you can see the stress it endured through the destroyed displays and missing lighting. 

On The road to wonderland we were fortunate to have met the white bunny who told us “It’s quite late” and that they “Lost Alice”. He invited us to  “proceed by following the red carpet and help them find her!” 

His voice: calm and quiet but also a little magical in his demeanor.

I absolutely loved this interaction and hoped we’d get more of it during our search for Alice. This ended up being one of Noah’s favorite parts of the evening and my heart melted every time he said “We have to find her. Where is she?”. 

I won’t tell you step by step what we saw on our path through Wonderland but I promise to share all of my thoughts about the experience. I do hope that you get to visit when Wonderland shows up again if you haven’t this time. 

The flower garden was beautiful, the colorful lights and displays taking you to a house with what resembles Alice’s legs and arms sticking out, surrounded by furniture and other light displays that fit the scene perfectly.

Noah, who had recently seen the movie, immediately recognized the scene and loved being a part of the fairytale. He has been quite confused about several parts of the movie, including the twins. He’s still a little young to fully follow how they speak and what they mean. So when he saw them on the path and looked up at the gigantic bellies he wanted to keep on studying them and it took us a while before we could continue on. 

I think a lot of children definitely enjoyed the puppet show near the Mad tea party but Noah and Rosa (the lovely little girl who joined us last night with her parents) preferred sitting on the gigantic lit up chairs and interacting with the display. 

One of my favorite areas was the Caterpillars Hookah, unfortunately there was no display whatsoever with the caterpillar or any light work reminiscent of him, at least that I had noticed, but the entire area was covered in carpets and seemed to be slightly protected from the rest of Wonderland. While the park is noisy and loud this area is purposely a bit more quiet and calm. With a mesmerizing but quiet song in the background. Very fitting and in my opinion perfectly reflects Alice’s experience when she finds the Caterpillar. 

This area is one of the first places that offers food as you follow the path. I didn’t get to see what was on the menu because we were running late to the show we wanted to catch.

And here is where all of that sound that calls for you throughout the park is coming from. 

You’ve reached the red queen’s castle. 

It’s also where most of the staff in the park can be found. The rest was pretty bare from characters or people to lead you. I have a feeling the point is to give you that “lost and alone” experience Alice had during her adventure in Wonderland. And as you interact with the displays, you also share her wonder. 

The red queen is my favorite character and I was delighted to have been stopped by two actors, one of them being her! 

Unfortunately, when she heard me speaking English to Noah she clammed up and smiled, waving us through completely coming out of her character. 

Her guard (I think that’s what the actor represented) jumped in to say hello to Noah in english and interact with him, and it was a great save in my opinion! 

They both led us toward a staircase where we’d find the rest of the food shops and the stage where we’d finally get to see the show “Lost inside you”

Noah really enjoys watching dancers and actors on stage and this show certainly kept his attention. He enjoyed the colors and the dramatic display of emotions.

I agree with Noah and also think the message was very well thought out. I truly enjoyed the introspection that they lead you through as they perform. 

I would have loved it if it wasn’t a recording with them just moving to the words. I really believe this form of acting takes away from the emotion they are working hard to portray. It seems like a common method used at these types of events. 

We saw a different Alice in Wonderland interpretation near the Rocca Maletestiana in Rimini a few years ago and I remember this being one of the parts I didn’t like about that show as well. Although the rest of it was absolutely amazing. 

Since I’m a foodie, I should spend a lot of time on what we ordered. I’d like to describe the tastes, aromas and how it connected me with the environment.

But I can’t. 

There isn’t much to say. I ordered french fries and nuggets for me and Noah and my husband ordered a burger. While we expected these to be the options and also expected it to be higher priced than at a normal restaurant we also had a higher expectation of the quality and the experience. 

The shriveled fries tasted stale and dry while the nuggets were soaked in frying oil that tasted like it hadn’t been changed regularly. I tried a bite of my husband’s burger and thought it was better curated than what Noah and I had ordered. All of the portions were very small so we ended up ordering more to satisfy our hunger. 

Not so much our cravings…

It didn’t quite bother me that the menu options weren’t themed

What really struck me was how tired the staff looked. Everyone. 

We chose to do this visit toward the end, knowing that Wonderland will disappear after the first weekend in October. You can tell they were finished with it all. 

So as I ordered our fries and burger, the guy at the counter tried to be pleasant and fun but he had no voice left and I could hardly hear him over the music of the show going on behind us. He apologized and tried to repeat himself until we both understood each other and I appreciated that very much, but felt really bad for all of them. 

We wandered through the park enjoying the different light displays once the show was over. 

Some of our favorites were the interactive ones like the so called maze (which is simply a large hallway divided in two by a sort of row of cards lighting display). My son and Rosa loved running through it and around the wall with their dads. 

The Mad Hatter gigantic swings bring you back into that dreamy and whimsical feeling just in case you somehow lost it somewhere along the way. 

The Cheshire cat surrounded by mirrors and what looked like chandeliers could have been fantastic but unfortunately the mirrors were extremely dirty and the chandeliers beads were broken. 

We wiped off a few mirrors but can only see our faces… it would have been nice to see how each mirror makes you larger or smaller.. But as mentioned earlier, the park was a bit unkept. 

The park had been open for less than an hour when we arrived and wasn’t very busy last night at all. So it was clear that it had been, unfortunately, left neglected through time. 

I wasn’t quite pleased with the fact that the only ride in the park was also not included in the entrance fee. It felt kind of weird to pay for a 2 minute carousel ride and that kind of takes away from the experience of being in Wonderland. I would have preferred paying for it before entering the park. 

We skipped the Carnival area because our kids are just too young for it, but if I’m not mistaken the games would also be a separate charge as well. 

All in all, I think they hit exactly the spot with the displays and the lighting. I believe it would have made a better impact if the park would have been better kept throughout and until the end of their run. The costumes of the characters we did see were fantastic, it would have been nice to see more than the 3 that we did encounter as we wandered through Wonderland. Interacting with them truly helps you connect further with the experience of being in wonderland. 

If I have to rate the evening, I would give it a 7. 

Not quite perfect but we definitely enjoyed our time.