Honeymoon to Europe, Part 1: Italy

4th, 5th & 6th July 2007: Rome, Italy
The hostel that we stayed in Rome is considered one of the best throughout our whole trip. It's a small little hut with aircon and this is the only plc that we stayed that provide aircon. It is a very interesting plc with many many rows of small little huts, just like mini chalets. The plc is very big and even have swimming pool, pub & restaurant.











In Rome, you will be able to see historical buildings everywhere. I admire the effort spent to preserve the buildings & sculptures. Vatican City is the most grand place I've ever seen. The architectural works are superb. Another significant building is Colosseum where prisoners were forced to fight with beasts. I love Trevi Fountain, it's v romantic at nite and it's fun as we can make wishes by tossing coin into the fountain, there are certain rules to follow when tossing the coin.

Vatican City


Colosseum


Internal of Colosseum


More photos at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mayzu.lin/RomeItaly#


7th July 2007: Florence, Italy
We stayed in a dormitory in Florence which we totally regretted. Luckily, it was only a 1 nite's stay. It is a room with 3 double decked beds and thus, we have to share the room with 4 other ppl, 2 Korean gals and 2 ang moh guys. The 2 Koreans gals were v noisy, packing things and talking non-stop, they even borrowed facial wash from me. The 2 ang mohs oso v noisy cos they snored very loudly. One of them even took off his shorts when he was going to slp, but of cos he cover himself with the blanket. I felt kind of insecured so in the end, me & wilson actually slp together in 1 single bed. Nevertheless, it was still an experience but we will never repeat it.











Florence is a relatively small town. We only spent half a day to explore the whole place. 1 day 1 nite is more than enough. We even walked all the way & climbed up to the hilltop to take a look at the michaelangelo's statue. I find Florence a very artistic place where you can see artists everywhere, even on the road.

















More photos at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mayzu.lin/FlorenceItaly#


Drop By to PISA
During our stay at Florence, we make a trip to Pisa which is just a 45 min train ride from Florence. From young, I always dream of seeing the real Pisa tower as I completed a Pisa tower jigsaw puzzle before. And my dream really comes true!



More photos at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mayzu.lin/PisaItaly#








8th & 9th July 2007: Venice, Italy
The hostel that we stayed was one of the worst. There was no aircon, only a pathetic ceiling fan. It was summer and was very hot. The staff told us not to open the window as there will be many mosquitoes flying in. I was so paranoid that I sprayed my whole body and the whole room with the insect repellent as mosquitoes love my blood.











Venice isn't as romantic as we thought, partly bcoz it was very crowded with tourists. We still can remember that the ticket system for the ferry was quite stupid. After buying the tickets, we are supposed to validate it before boarding. However, bcos it was so crowded, everybody was squeezing and the staff didn't even bother to check whether we did validate the tickets. After the first trial, we decided not to validate the tickets. We hold the card confidently and pretended that we have validated the tickets with our fingers covering the area which should show the date & time if we really did validate. We managed to escape all the times. I know we were v naughty but we really saved alot of money as a single trip cost 6 Euro which is equivalent to abt S$12! Even if you take the ferry for only 1 station, abt 5 mins away, it is still 6 Euro. It was also an exciting experience, heehee....

Based on the travel booklet, we walked through all the bridges in Venice, I cant remember the total number, too many. The best thing I enjoyed in Venice was to play with the pigeons at St Mark's Square. I was scared yet tempted to get close to them. We also had one of the most expensive dinner in our whole trip in Venice which cost us abt 90 Euro or S$180. It was at a restaurant by the river and they serve REALLY GOOD pork chops (swallowing saliva). The porks chop are cooked like beef steak, you can see a little blood and it was super tender and delicious. Yummy!!! I will always remember it.

One sad thing was that when we were back in Spore, we realised many of our photos & videos taken in Venice got corrupted. Sob...





More photos at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mayzu.lin/VeniceItaly#