Italy - Florence & Rome Part I
Continuing from my previous post.. ( Haha.. am typing this in the internet-laundry shop near the hostel. Isn't it amazing how things differ from Singapore? =P )
Florence, Italy - Land of the Gelato. =P
Started touring the city on Saturday after our crazy sardine-ride of a night sleeper train. Sheesh. We were so bushed, we slept up to 10am before setting off on our Florence city tour. Went exploring about the famous Mercato Central food markets + San Lorenzo market, which sold lots of souvenirs & trinklets for tourists. Yah yah, a tourist trap. =P We bought some small necklaces for our friends & relatives, only to find that they were sold cheaper at a stall down the street. -_-''' Wat the...?? Anyway, we realised that they were made in Murano, Venice (since we're going there soon, figured it'll be cheaper there? =P)
Of course, we had to try the gelato!!! Absolutely fantastic. The different flavours absolutely blows you away. Haha.. Just imagine - many more days in Italy (Florence, Rome.. we'll be sick of gelato by the time we leave Italy.. =P) Anyway, Florence is well known for a couple of key art attractions - especially Michaelangelo's David statue. My goodness. The queues for attractions in Florence is disgustingly long. O_O We wanted to head to Galleria Academia to view the statue of David (for the uninitiated, its the statue of David, think David & Goliath, the giant slayer in the biblical story), but the queue was SUPER long. Fortunately, we went back later in the afternoon & it was much shorter. Anyway, David was a really beautiful statue. Absolutely magnificent. The details paid to the statue - you could even see the veins sculptured into his hands. Woah.
(Drama: the gallery has this no photography policy. There was this woman who walked around with plastic bags in her hands. The moment she caught sight of someone with a camera, she grabs the camera, wraps it up and ties a knot, handing the bag back to the owner. The result? The owner now has a new plastic bag - cos the knot is so easily untied. -_-''''' Work done = negative. )
Anyway, the other highlight, the Duomo church was absolutely impressive also. The architecture & sheer size + its many frescos & paintings, were breath-taking. An absolute must visit for all pple heading to Florence.
The 2nd day was kinda wasted. Remember I said the queues in Florence for tourist attractions were horrendous?? We queued more than 3 hours for entry into the famous Uffizi Art museum. MY GOODNESS. But it was worth the wait. Famous pieces such as that of Aphrodite & other catholic pieces of art & sculptures adorned the interior of the museum. Absolutely gorgeous. As Teresa's mom said, by the time we come back from Europe, we'll be like Yakult - really cultured from all the art museums we have visited. Ok. =P
*** That night, we departed for Rome. That was when our 1st major glitch occurred in this trip. O_O Our ride to Rome required reservations. So we happily took out our reservations when it was time to board the train, and to our horror, we realised that the person had booked the wrong timing for our train!!! Aahhhh!!! Our train was for 8.53PM evening!!! The reservations person back in Paris had booked it for 8.53AM... O_O MY GOODNESS. We were so freaked out. We had 2 choices - head on, and hope for the best. After all, it was a straight train with no stops. They can't kick us out in the middle, can they? cos we had valid eurail passes. 2nd option was to hope that the conductor allows us to stand in the carriage since we had no seat reservations. We decided to head on - we had to get to Rome at all costs last night. Thank goodness the heavens were kind - the air conditioning in 1 carriage had broken down, and it was toasty hot in the carriage, so nobody wanted to seat in the carriage. As a results, the conductor didn't ask for our reservations since there was absolutely no one who wanted to sit in the ''oven carriage''. Boy, it was hilarious to see the weird looks people shot us when they passed our carriage and saw 7 pple seating in the hot carriage, happily playing cards. =P they probably thought we were mad!! =P To me, getting to Rome safely that night was the greatest miracle so far on this trip. ***
Rome, Italy - Home of Architectural & Historical Wonders
We arrived in Rome on 29th late night at 2230hrs. Having heard many stories of pickpockets from friends & relatives, I was naturally apprehensive. Thank goodness the hostel we booked was really near the train station - for departing the station, we could see many pple sleeping out in the open, under the stars, next to busstops, bicycle stands,... Pple begging,.. It was truly a different sight from many of the cities I have visited so far, and truly eye-opening.
The hostel in Rome here is based on the same concept as in Florence. Apparently, many hostels seem to be private apartments converted into student hostels. Imagine one of those Alfred Hitchcock movies, or hollywood murder movies, set in a dingy European-like suburbs with tall cold buildings. The houses are lined up in neat fashion, but the various floors house various tenants. You ring the door bell on the door outside the 1st floor and the person answers. Now, our hostel was on the 3rd floor. In Italy, apparently the 1st floor = 2nd floor in Singapore. So Singapore's 1st floor = ground floor here. Woah. Imagine carrying our bags 4 storeys up. Anyway, it was really creepy, cos the lighting was really poor and stuff.. Anyway, the hostel pple are quite nice & friendly.. =P
Started our 1st day tour of Rome today!!! We decided on heading for 1 of the guided walking tours of Rome by 'Romeing tours'. On hindsight, it was a really good idea, cause although we knew which places to visit, our ever friendly guide entertained us with interesting facts on the founding of Rome & its associated greek mythology. He made an otherwise boring and dull history lesson come alive with the hills & attractions in front of us. We were all especially pleased with the historical relevance of the attractions with the paintings we saw in the Uffizi yesterday. E.g. the Circo Massimo & Palatine hills was the scene of the rape of the Sabines, which was featured in a famous sculpture in the galleria; the tale of Lucretia committing suicide and her painting in the Uffizi;... It was powerful seeing art come to live in real physical nature..
Heading on to the Mouth of Truth, the...
*** to be continued ***
Florence, Italy - Land of the Gelato. =P
Started touring the city on Saturday after our crazy sardine-ride of a night sleeper train. Sheesh. We were so bushed, we slept up to 10am before setting off on our Florence city tour. Went exploring about the famous Mercato Central food markets + San Lorenzo market, which sold lots of souvenirs & trinklets for tourists. Yah yah, a tourist trap. =P We bought some small necklaces for our friends & relatives, only to find that they were sold cheaper at a stall down the street. -_-''' Wat the...?? Anyway, we realised that they were made in Murano, Venice (since we're going there soon, figured it'll be cheaper there? =P)
Of course, we had to try the gelato!!! Absolutely fantastic. The different flavours absolutely blows you away. Haha.. Just imagine - many more days in Italy (Florence, Rome.. we'll be sick of gelato by the time we leave Italy.. =P) Anyway, Florence is well known for a couple of key art attractions - especially Michaelangelo's David statue. My goodness. The queues for attractions in Florence is disgustingly long. O_O We wanted to head to Galleria Academia to view the statue of David (for the uninitiated, its the statue of David, think David & Goliath, the giant slayer in the biblical story), but the queue was SUPER long. Fortunately, we went back later in the afternoon & it was much shorter. Anyway, David was a really beautiful statue. Absolutely magnificent. The details paid to the statue - you could even see the veins sculptured into his hands. Woah.
(Drama: the gallery has this no photography policy. There was this woman who walked around with plastic bags in her hands. The moment she caught sight of someone with a camera, she grabs the camera, wraps it up and ties a knot, handing the bag back to the owner. The result? The owner now has a new plastic bag - cos the knot is so easily untied. -_-''''' Work done = negative. )
Anyway, the other highlight, the Duomo church was absolutely impressive also. The architecture & sheer size + its many frescos & paintings, were breath-taking. An absolute must visit for all pple heading to Florence.
The 2nd day was kinda wasted. Remember I said the queues in Florence for tourist attractions were horrendous?? We queued more than 3 hours for entry into the famous Uffizi Art museum. MY GOODNESS. But it was worth the wait. Famous pieces such as that of Aphrodite & other catholic pieces of art & sculptures adorned the interior of the museum. Absolutely gorgeous. As Teresa's mom said, by the time we come back from Europe, we'll be like Yakult - really cultured from all the art museums we have visited. Ok. =P
*** That night, we departed for Rome. That was when our 1st major glitch occurred in this trip. O_O Our ride to Rome required reservations. So we happily took out our reservations when it was time to board the train, and to our horror, we realised that the person had booked the wrong timing for our train!!! Aahhhh!!! Our train was for 8.53PM evening!!! The reservations person back in Paris had booked it for 8.53AM... O_O MY GOODNESS. We were so freaked out. We had 2 choices - head on, and hope for the best. After all, it was a straight train with no stops. They can't kick us out in the middle, can they? cos we had valid eurail passes. 2nd option was to hope that the conductor allows us to stand in the carriage since we had no seat reservations. We decided to head on - we had to get to Rome at all costs last night. Thank goodness the heavens were kind - the air conditioning in 1 carriage had broken down, and it was toasty hot in the carriage, so nobody wanted to seat in the carriage. As a results, the conductor didn't ask for our reservations since there was absolutely no one who wanted to sit in the ''oven carriage''. Boy, it was hilarious to see the weird looks people shot us when they passed our carriage and saw 7 pple seating in the hot carriage, happily playing cards. =P they probably thought we were mad!! =P To me, getting to Rome safely that night was the greatest miracle so far on this trip. ***
Rome, Italy - Home of Architectural & Historical Wonders
We arrived in Rome on 29th late night at 2230hrs. Having heard many stories of pickpockets from friends & relatives, I was naturally apprehensive. Thank goodness the hostel we booked was really near the train station - for departing the station, we could see many pple sleeping out in the open, under the stars, next to busstops, bicycle stands,... Pple begging,.. It was truly a different sight from many of the cities I have visited so far, and truly eye-opening.
The hostel in Rome here is based on the same concept as in Florence. Apparently, many hostels seem to be private apartments converted into student hostels. Imagine one of those Alfred Hitchcock movies, or hollywood murder movies, set in a dingy European-like suburbs with tall cold buildings. The houses are lined up in neat fashion, but the various floors house various tenants. You ring the door bell on the door outside the 1st floor and the person answers. Now, our hostel was on the 3rd floor. In Italy, apparently the 1st floor = 2nd floor in Singapore. So Singapore's 1st floor = ground floor here. Woah. Imagine carrying our bags 4 storeys up. Anyway, it was really creepy, cos the lighting was really poor and stuff.. Anyway, the hostel pple are quite nice & friendly.. =P
Started our 1st day tour of Rome today!!! We decided on heading for 1 of the guided walking tours of Rome by 'Romeing tours'. On hindsight, it was a really good idea, cause although we knew which places to visit, our ever friendly guide entertained us with interesting facts on the founding of Rome & its associated greek mythology. He made an otherwise boring and dull history lesson come alive with the hills & attractions in front of us. We were all especially pleased with the historical relevance of the attractions with the paintings we saw in the Uffizi yesterday. E.g. the Circo Massimo & Palatine hills was the scene of the rape of the Sabines, which was featured in a famous sculpture in the galleria; the tale of Lucretia committing suicide and her painting in the Uffizi;... It was powerful seeing art come to live in real physical nature..
Heading on to the Mouth of Truth, the...
*** to be continued ***
penned in the diary of memories by Alvin at
3:19 AM
1 Comments:
hey, i've a new blog. pls update your link.
cheerios,
gerald
By
shu, at 3:10 PM
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