Stepping in to La Spezia, Liguria

Our first stop in Liguria was La Spezia.

La Spezia is like the lesser visited cousin of the Cinque Terre villages. The plan was to stay a night in La Spezia and spend 2 days in the villages. Main reason was accommodation in the villages were fully booked. Accommodations in Cinque Terre were going like hot cakes. Despite the plan to visit Europe was set years ago but flight tickets were not booked till rather near to the travelling date... reason being there were a lot of uncertainty. Even after we booked the tickets, but before securing the accommodations, there was the Iceland volcano crisis...

As we walked along the streets in La Spezia, sis made a remark. She said, "This place feels like people's home." Indeed, unlike the rest of the places we stopped, La Spezia gives the feeling of that's where people live instead of people travelled in to the city/town and worked, manned the shops, then back home to somewhere secret.

La Spezia was also where we had a very yummylicious coffee at a very affordable price. Unfortunately the photo is with sister, so I can't share it here. Shame about that :(

The other food I want to introduce is the specialty of Liguria - Trofie al Pesto.

The other food we tried was this Bomboloni crema, from the same trattoria. Yum! :)

Side note: I miss the trofie al pesto... :(

Last stop in Toscana - Pisa

This is how the travel book looked like on the way to Pisa. Can't remember which day, think it was when we travelling from Rome to Florence but one of my water bottle was dripping on the book in my bag. The tattered book gave false impression that I travelled the world eh? Lol

We took a train from Florence to Pisa. The plan was to travel from Florence to La Spezia and hopped off to see the leaning monument. Train ticket is valid for a couple of hours and so long we reached the final destination in time, all is good. However we were worry that we might loiter a little too long and lost track of time, so we got 2 different set of tickets. From memory the price is the same, if it differs, it was very minimal.

We reached Pisa and it was raining :(
Left our big backpacks in the left luggage place and walked towards the direction of Piazza dei Miracoli.

On the way, by the river is this Santa Maria della Spina church. It somehow looks little comparatively to other churches.

Walking on, we reached the main purpose of stopping in Pisa.

We didn't climb up the tower but like other visitors, we tried to take silly pictures of pushing or holding up the tower. Somehow everybody else are more skillful than us - what took other people in a couple of minutes.. we took much longer. Can't figure out how people can get those leaning-on-the-leaning tower-pictures much easier than us but they just did. Tour guide told me later on that it's the photographer who made adjustment instead of getting the "model" moving front, back, left or right. Oh well... too late now :P

Since we were already in Pisa, thought we might as well pay a visit to a few more places before heading off to the train station.

This is Piazza dei Cavalieri. I gave up waiting for the few people standing in front of us to move away, they stood there for quite a while :P
A quick google (according to Wikipedia) showed that this square was the political centre in medieval Pisa. After the middle of XVI century the square become the headquarters of the Order of the Knights of St. Stephen. Now it is a centre of education.

Walked along the streets of Pisa... and headed back to Pisa Centrale Train Station, retrieved our backpacks and off to La Spezia.


Side note: Masterchef Finals on TV :P

A surprise package

Thought I'll take a break from the streak of travel posts. :)

It happened on a Monday afternoon when I was in the middle of wondering if I make a mess out of a report that I was suppose to run. I got a call from the front desk telling me that I had a package delivery and asked if I could pop down to pick it up. I was dumbfounded and wondering who would send a delivery to me... and that I don't remember making a purchase that needed to be delivered.

Anyways, this is how the package looked like.

From the side...

In the package...

Side note: I so need that Access 07 training that would only happen next month...

Lucca

Lucca is another city in Tuscany and is famous for its Renaissance-era city walls.

It feels like going into a secret city :P

This is the San Martino Church. One of the main monuments in Lucca.

The other famous building in Lucca is this San Michele church. It is said to resemble a wedding cake.

And this is the famous Piazza Anfiteatro, it is oval in shaped, so called after an amphitheatre. It would be a very nice picture if taken from the air - as potrayed in the magnet in the first picture.

Anyway, the day ended with us running like mad rushing to the train station after the withdraw-money-crisis which thankfully was alright in the end.


Side note: Wish it's Friday already ... sigh...

Siena of Tuscany

Siena is a famous for daytrippers who made Florence as their base. We took a bus to Siena and one of the first things that greet us is this....

... which is really good as sister was asking me where could we see floor paintings :D

The most well-known thing in Siena is Palio di Siena, which according to the Italylogue is a bareback horse race around Siena's main square, il Campo. It’s a tradition that dates back to the 1600s, and it pits the city’s districts, or contrade, against one another in what can’t even be described as a “friendly rivalry.” The horse raice runs twice each summer. May in Europe is nowhere near summer, that being said, of course there wasn't any horse race run when we were there. However, there is no reason why we shouldn't visit il Campo :)

Grin. There's also a duomo in Siena, which is no less interesting in its design but I personally still prefer the duomo in Florence :)

Siena is not too far from Florence (that's the reason of being a popular day trip) but there was a different feel as we strolled along the streets.

And it was funny to see how many people stopped to take a shot of this view between 2 walls :P
It started with a man who walked in front of us stopped to take a picture. When we reached the spot, we had a look and captured a shot. As we finished taking the picture, there was 3-4 more people who stopped and take a photo of it!

And another nice view from loitering on the streets :P

Before we left Siena, there were some guys singing to some loud music. Have totally no clue as to what happened though.. which is a shame :(


Side note: A bit restless... but can't put my finger to it...

More on Firenze

More picture on the duomo :P

Duomo or not, I would say this is a good place to visit to see Florence on the whole - Piazza Michelangelo. It's hard to miss it when you see another replica of David.

All across Europe, quite a few of the monuments allows you to go up to the top to see the city view. This piazza certainly is the place to see Florence. Standing there, looking out to the city, I can't help thinking, "Florence is absolutely beautiful."

We stayed for a while, had the leftover salami sandwich from lunch and took the bus down the hill again. Time to visit other places in Tuscany but also not forgetting to visit the famous pig before leaving Florence.

Side note: First day in new office...

My favourite Duomo

Another picture during daytime, in good weather.

To me, this duomo is the heart the Florence. Somehow each time when I see this duomo, it brings a feel of magical and contented. I can't really put it to words but... looking at it, I would thought, "I want to come here again with tour guide." :)

Entrance is free of charge but charges applied to climb up to the dome or to climb up to the bell tower. We climbed up the Belfry in Brugge and in Firenze, we opt to climb up the 463 steps to the dome instead of the bell tower.

the interior of the Duomo

Up at the dome... looking at the direction of the bell tower

I like how some parts are under the sun... but others are under the shades


Side note: New location next week

"the other Florence"

Crossing the Old Bridge, we explored "the other Florence" - Oltrarno. It indeed gave a different feel to where my favourite duomo was situated. A more little town feel, more like where people stay.

Even dogs are cute there :P

Walking down the street with a cone of gelato. Yum :)
We were running out of water supply, and coincidentally we found a little supermarket, ended up lugging around two 1 litre water bottle :P

A very obvious thing I noticed when we reached Italy was graffitis. They are everywhere - metro stations, on doors, walls, trains, everywhere.

Side note: The little P doesnt seem to blog lately.. hmm....

Firenze

This beautiful duomo greeted us at the end of the street.

Every time we walked passed this square - Piazza del Duomo, we would stop to take a few shots, rain or shine, morning or evening, far or near. It was getting dark as the weather was not good, so we did not go in... not this round.

It is said that Florence is the birthplace of Italian Renaissance and is the home of Michelangelo's David. One of the 2 major tourist attractions are Uffizi and Galleria dell'Accademia. Uffizi houses many famous paintings while Accademia is the home to the famous David. Grin. I even downloaded the Iphone app for Uffizi... hehe.. but after the long walk in Vatican Museo, we decided to skip both the Uffizi and Accademia. :P

In lieu of that, the David outside Uffizi will have to do :P

Further down from there, it led to Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge).

The shops, if not all, mostly are goldsmith shops. We were not into the shops but the view from this old bridge is beautiful :)

Crossing Ponte Vecchio, we reached "the other Florence" - Oltrarno


Side note: Too little time...

Roma to Firenze

Some travel guide said that to visit Italy, it may be best to fly in to Venice and travel down to Rome, so that there isn't such a big shock. Then again, in my opinion it may be better to experience Rome first. Sad to say, Rome isn't my favourite destination. Maybe it was due to the over crowded tourists (sorry I contributed to that), or that huge difference from hospitality we received from the Dutch, or the-not-very-bright metro stations, or we didn't spend enough time to grow a liking to it. In Rome, I started to carry my backpack in the front, being paranoid of pickpockets as I can't lock my backpack. It wasn't the most comfortable way to carry a backpack but better be safe than sorry.

Regardless, we bought an earlier train ticket to Florence than what we planned initially. That, was probably a good move. Now back to me saying that it may be better to experience Rome first... we went to Florence with the same expectation that it would be similar a situation as to what happenned in Rome. I was glad that say that I was wrong. People were less harsh and much nicer. Staffs manning the information counter were more helpful, the man selling bus tickets were less grumpy, people were nicer. A particular Italian lady were so kind to help us pressed for the bell in the bus for our stop and told us the direction to our B&B. She was speaking in Italian at all times but tried so hard to help us. I like Florence already :)

Even more so when we saw this beautiful building at the end of the street.

Side note: TGIF!

Smallest Country in the World

Vatican City - can be easily reached via bus or short walk from metro station. We heard stories of long queues and hours of wait to get into the attractions of Vatican City, but somehow it doesn't really make us wake up early to beat the crowd.

I thought the itinery of only Vatican City would make it a more relaxing day, translated to less walking required. And of course, it potrayed that impression to my poor sister :P How wrong I was, we walked and walked... that Vatican Museo is huge!

Upon approaching Piazza San Pietro, there were many guides approaching, asking, "Do you speak English?" We marched straight on and once we stepped into the piazza, the queue was so long that it went all the way to the opposite of the entrance.

Umm... maybe we should've woke up a little earlier. Grin, I was glad it wasn't too bad. The queue was actually moving rather quickly, maybe because it wasn't a queue to buy tickets but just for security check to get into St Peter's Basilica (Basilica Sancti Petri).

By the time we exited the basilica, and hang around the post office (Vatican City has their own stamps), it was noon time. Not knowing how big that musuem was and that we brought some plum cakes, we thought that would do till we get some lunch. Strangely enough, there wasn't a long queue to get into the musuem.

It is amazing how much effort and work was put into a room. Paintings so detailed and filled up the whole of ceiling, and somehow it gives the 3D feel to it.

The most famous room is Sistine Chapel, the ceiling was painted by Michelangelo. Photography is forbidden in this specific room and it was noticably darker. However there were people not only taking photo but used flash as well. It was then followed by announcement in multiple languages to remind that no photography is allowed :P

Vatican Museo was so big... by the time we finished the musuem, we were tired of walking and it was almost 5pm!

We were hungry but not wanting to grab food near Vatican City as it was noted to be expensive, so we travelled back to get some food. On the second night in Rome, we walked in to a nearby restaurant but food was bad, hence today we decided to give the pizzeria recommended by the B&B owner a try.

I ordered ravioli and was a little disappointed that the portion was small. I was starving!

There were only 5 of them (this must be entree portion!)

However menus in Italy were divided into entree/starter, followed by 1st main, 2nd main and dessert. Lucky for me, sister ordered the salmon spaghetti and the portion was much more filling, so I get to share :D Both the ravioli and spaghetti dishes were under the 1st main. We tried a second main dish which was a beef dish, and it was yummy!!

The price was reasonable and it was a good dinner especially we didnt have any lunch aside from the two plum cake. Plum cake is like another version of Apollo Cake :P


Side note: I like Windows 7 :)

Roma

The first visit the next day was the Trevi Fountain.

This the fountain that said if you throw in a coin, you will return to Rome. Likewise Colosseo, there was a huge crowd sitting around the fountain, under the sun with no shed. We treat ourselves to some gelati, took pictures of the fountain, help people take pictures with the fountain, looked at some touristy souvenirs and moved on to the Pantheon.

Further along, next stop was Pantheon. Like every other monument, it was on restoration. It was said that restoration work were usually done in May so that it would be ready without all the scaffolding come August with the high influx of tourist. By the look of it, not too sure if its this August or many years to come. Shrug.

Piazza Navona is where artists have their stalls set up, a good but but likely expensive place (comparatively) to sit at the nearby cafe and people watching...

... or people dressed up and pretend to be a statue (I'm sure there is a nice name to it that I don't know)

And I dropped the map here... we walked the whole piazza left, right, up, down, circle but unable to recover the map :( But lucky we have a spare one as it came together with the Roma Pass.

There was a lot of people everywhere, am not sure if of them were tourist... but look at the crowd

By that time, we were hungry but food at this area was really expensive, on both side of the road leading to this Spanish Steps were selling super expensive brand like Gucci, Max Mara and the likes of it. Hence the idea of grabbing dinner ... down the drain. We ended up travelling back to Termini Station, hopped in Conad (the supermarket in the station) and grabbed some food - pasta and mushroom soup. Forgot to snap a photo before eating :P


Side note: Windows 7 at work today.. :)