Nonsensical Nothings

italy

ok, here's my overdue italy post which is somewhat abridged but still quite long. first of all we had to check in at glasgow prestwick airport where the ryanair staff were extremely unhelpful and quite mean to us. we were very pissed off but it was like so long ago so i won't go into details but they were very anal about the weight of our check-in luggage and the size of our hand-carry. then we spent the night at london stansted airport which was way too cold. wth these airports. they know people will be sleeping there but make no effort to make it more comfortable. and of course i hate all the paranoid airport security as well.

anyway, we saw some mountains on our flight to milan.
italy's public transport sucks. we missed our train stop coz the stupid train doors have to be opened manually and the door we were going to get out from was spoilt so we couldn't get down in time. they also don't announce the next stop, difficult to see the station name, etc. anyway, because so much time was wasted due to missing our stop, we didn't have time to explore milan. we had to go straight to lake como. this is a picture of hailstones at lake como.

the next day we took a boat ride to a few islands and saw some nice houses and stuff.

there was a helicopter delivering a crate to a house
we fed the ducks some of my leftover panini. paninis suck. they're so hard, it hurts your hard palate (roof of the mouth) to eat it. it's like the appropriately named pain (buns) in france.

cathedral (duomo) of como
spent 2 nights at lake como, then went to venice. venice has suchhh nice souvenirs. look at all the masks!

more masks and some stuff made from murano glass. some murano glass stuff are soo pretty. if i were rich i would totally buy lots of venetian souvenirs.

piazza san marco

there were so many pigeons around. we fed them some french fries. if you stand holding your arm out, one will just perch on it even if you're not holding food.

saint mark's basilica

we weren't planning on riding a gondola coz we heard it was expensive, but this group of 3 people approached us and asked if we wanted to share a gondola. it was 100 euro for a gondola so we ended up paying only 17 each.

spent 2 nights in venice, checked into our hostel at florence, then took a train to pisa just to see the leaning tower of pisa where every single person was taking pictures pushing/leaning/supporting etc the tower. italy also has some really bumpy roads and the lousy bus driver just sped over them.

all my pictures quite fail. only this one semi-pass lah.

random poses

then we took a train back to florence. florence is quite boring. this is a replica of the statue of david. to see the real one you have to queue up a few hours to get into the museum.

the night view of florence

this is pitti palace where when the security guard scanned me with a metal detector, it was suddenly triggered by my bra clasp. i was shocked for a moment then we started laughing and when we passed them again, he purposely scanned yannee's back and tried to scan eelynn as well. then when we were leaving, the entrance guard also knew about it - he was laughing and making a gesture at his back.

boboli garden

grape vines

after 2 nights in florence, we went to cinque terre which consists of five coastal villages. upon arriving, the train conductor was so nice to offer to take a picture for us.

we caught the sunset

we walked the street of love which connects 2 villages - riomaggiore and manarola.

the next day, we went to a beach at monterosso, one of the villages.
then we had some drinks. that's eelynn's lemon slushie, my really horrible limoncello which is a lemon liqueur, and yannee's white wine and sciacchetra which is a local wine made from naturally dried grapes.

we spent 4 nights at cinque terre which was way too long. the hostel sucked, the people sucked, and it was kinda boring. then we went to rome where marco was our tourguide. this trevi fountain which marks the end of one of the aqueducts which supplies water to rome. supposedly, if you throw a coin in, you'll come back again next time. i didn't throw one in coz it was soo bloody hot and i was grouchy. don't want to go back to rome. italy's hot in summer and rome was the hottest place we visited. unbearable. possibly hotter than malaysia. sometimes the sky got no clouds at all.
this is the pantheon which we didn't get to enter coz it was closing. it was originally a temple for the ancient roman gods but it was converted into a church. marco says most old buildings are only maintained if they are turned into a church.

we watched the italy vs spain match in a cinema. marco got us free tickets. it was kinda cool but i was quite tired.
the next day, we went to the roman forum where commerce and administration of justice took place in ancient rome
the arch of constantine to commemorate emperor constantine's victory over emperor maxentius
the colosseum, the largest ampitheatre built in the roman empire, where there were gladiatorial contests and stuff
there are fountains like this around rome which has refreshingly cold spring water

if you block the spout like in this picture, the water will come out of the hole on top and you can drink from it!

st peter's basilica in vatican city. it's the burial site of saint peter.

short skirts, shorts, sleeveless tops, etc were not allowed so we had to cover up. i was almost not allowed in because the guard thought that wearing a bedsheet (that marco lent me) was a bit offensive but some lady standing nearby turned into this sari-like thing for me and luckily he let me in. i look weird. haha. bleh. they should have provided shawls or something for people who would obviously be "offensively" dressed in their sweltering summer.

piazza navona where marco told us about the rivalry between the architect who built the fountain in the middle and the one who built the building on the right. as an insult to the guy who built the building, one of the statues on the fountain is shielding his face, either because he thinks the building is too ugly or because he's afraid the building has been built poorly and will fall on him.

there were "statues" which would move if you dropped them some coins

eelynn and marco got a caricature done by a guy who did it so quickly and effortlessly

on the way to the airport on the final day, marco brought us to see the mouth of truth where supposedly your hand will be bitten off if you tell a lie with your hand in its mouth

and that is all. spent another night freezing in london stansted before finally coming home. 2 weeks in italy. so tiring.

posted by Cherie @ 1:39 am