Europe Trip - Florence, Italy & Vatican City

Our first destination in Florence was Piazale Michelangelo, a square dedicated to the famous Renaissance sculpture Michelangelo. Located at the top of a hill, the hill gave us a wonderful view of the city of Florence! Somehow the name of the city of Florence reminds me of Florence and the Machine! 

A panoramic view of Florence city. Can see Ponte Vecchio on the left over the river and the massive Florence Cathedral on the right. Of course, since we already in the city of Florence, we wouldn't just see those attractions from far, right? 

In a snap of a finger, we travelled down the hill and nearer to all the attractions that we saw on the hill. After getting down from the bus, we noticed there's another group of Malaysian tourists (with Malaysia's flag, that's how we recognised them) who seems ended their tour in Florence! We couldn't help but to wave and cheer to them! We passed by the facade of the cathedral before reaching Piazza della Signoria. 

Piazza della Signoria should be renamed as Piazza of Statues, there were so many statues/sculptures at the piazza itself! Here's one of tens of them: Fountain of Neptune, God of the sea!

"The Rape of Sabine Women", an emotional statue. One of the best statues at the piazza in my opinion. The word 'rape' here actually means 'abduction' rather than sex against her will. 

Statue of Saint Veronica. It has kinetic feel in it, seems like moving although it's a static statue. 

Another statue of Michelangelo is spotted (left) and "Hercules and Cacus" on the right!

After admiring all the statues, we moved on to Ponte Vecchio, a medieval stone arch bridge which spans over the Arno River. In the old days, butchers occupied the shops on the bridge, but it's now filled with jewelers, art and souvenir sellers. The bridge itself is actually quite vibrant in colour, I think my camera's setting is not right...

After few twists and turns, a few friends and I were lost, couldn't even see the shadow of our tour mates. It's not fun getting lost in a foreign place, and thankfully it's not in Venice where almost every road doesn't lead to one another. Panicked, we quickly tuned into our walkie talkie to search for our tour guide but to no avail. We have no choice but to ask for the assistance of a tour guide from another tour group from the same tour company to contact our tour guide. So in the end, we waited by the Florence Cathedral (and admired) for our tour group to regroup with us. 

It's lunch time! Remember I mentioned in my previous blog entry where I couldn't get a nice food in Italy? Here's the prove! I ordered medium well beef steak with cheese, expecting it will taste as delicious as the one I had in Sheffield, and it turned out to be more like medium rare! Too raw and the odor of the raw meat is just unbearable. Worse, it came with a paper-like piece of cheese rather than cheese gravy. Not to mention the whole plate is almost completely filled with raw vege! The meal made me want to rawr!

I just let the bad things pass and focus on the good things ahead, 俗语说：“抱着愉快的心情旅行”. Fontana del Porcellino, a bronze fountain of a boar. Put a coin in its jaws and let it fall down for good luck they say. 

A wooden Pinocchio on a bicycle with moveable parts! This is one costly souvenir! The shield on the left already costs 20 Euros, imagine the Pinocchio! Honestly I don't think Florence is a place to have a vacation if you are looking for adventure and scenery, unless you like historical stuff and statues, many of them!

On the next day, we were brought to the smallest country on the planet - Vatican City. What shocked me was how tiny the country is, you can see the whole country at about 500m away from its border! What separating the country with Italy are some moveable metal fences, and a small gap is opened between the fences to allow tourists to enter the country. 

After passing through the fences, we have to queue, a long one, to get to a checkpoint which ensure we didn't bring in any dangerous material into the sacred place. 

Once you enter the Vatican City, you can feel that it's very sacred and religious. After all, the country is about the Pope. Do you know the name of the current Pope? Pope Francis! Too bad Pope was not spotted in Vatican City that day, or else... "Can we take a selfie?"

Inside St. Peter's Basilica. Tremendous amount of details were found in its architecture and sculptures. You gonna like this place if you are a religious person, or a person who like arts.

Is this the list of Pope? Sorry I couldn't read the language...

NEXT - Rome, Italy!

Europe Trip - Verona & Venice, Italy

 Love is in the air in this entry, as this blog entry will cover a love story and a romantic island.

“My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.” 
― William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

There we were, standing in front of Juliet's balcony, imagining ourselves as Romeo, luring Juliet to descent from the balcony and run away to somewhere nobody can find us... *back to reality*

In Verona, a 14th century house named Casa di Giulietta is said to be the balcony where Juliet was standing at in the story of Romeo and Juliet. Unfortunately this is not true as the story of Romeo & Juliet is just a fiction. The owner of this mansion made this up and in the end it becomes a tourist attraction! 

The place was super crowded with tourists. Since Italy has high pickpocket cases rate, we were very cautious about our surrounding and stayed close to each other. Below the balcony got a statue of Juliet, where it was so hard to capture a photo of it without any tourist touching her boobs! Nope they were not horny, just it is said that touching her boobs will bring us luck! 

Tourists attach their locks at the gate and fences around Casa di Giulietta, believing that doing so will secure their love with their love ones eternally. Look how high up this tourist went to prevent people from removing his lock!

The wall of love...

With just a cone of gelato, I felt so blessed and loved! 2 Euros for one! The taste was not bad and Verona (as well as other cities in Italy) has streets filled with gelato stores! So it's hard to know which is better because there were just so many stores!

"Must try!!" or "Beware!!"?

 Having a gelato in front of Verona Arena! Looks like a mini Colosseum, and now it's a venue for concerts!

On the next day, we have a whole day to explore Venice to our heart's desire. Venice is a city separated in 118 small islands, also known as City of Bridges and also City of Canals. Frankly, Venice is a highly anticipated destination by many of us, due to its critically acclaimed scenery, it's like a place where can only be found in a fairytale. However, it was not as pretty as many of us had expected. 

On the motorboat to Venice from mainland!

Our motorboat dropped us at the bottom of the city, where it is nearer to the renowned places such as Piazza San Marco, Bridge of Sigh and Rialto Bridge. The city has beautiful buildings, uniquely styled. 

A stunning looking bride (or was she a model?) with the Bridge of Sighs in the background. It's called the Bridge of Sighs because the bridge was the last place where the prisoners can see the outside world before they were locked up in the prison. 

Walked further down and we passed by Piazza San Marco, a square in Venice. Many platforms were on standby just in case Venice is flooded, as Venice frequently faces Acqua Alta, a dangerous high tide above normal height. An interesting fact: Venice is actually gradually sinking at the rate of 2mm every year! Luckily it didn't flood at the time we were there. So people, you better visit Venice before it becomes the next Lost World of Atlantis.

A must-do activity in Venice is have a ride in a gondola. It's expensive though, averaging more than 20 Euros per person per ride. Our gondolier was a little cool, certainly not as friendly as our punter in Cambridge, UK. The gondolier didn't spoke a sentence, maybe except the word 'sit down' when we got too excited in taking photos!

After a tour around Venice on the gondola, we explored Venice further by exploring alleys. According to the Internet, one of the must-do in Venice is getting lost on the streets of Venice! Thankfully we were not lost entirely while doing the exploration. After few turns and bridges, we reached Rialto Bridge. It links the district of San Marco and San Polo which are divided by the Grand Canal. Around here got many restaurants and cafes, we were searching for the McD store but I guess it's closed... 

The view of the Grand Canal from Rialto Bridge.

So we headed to a nearby restaurant, ordered pizza since pizza is originated from Italy! Some of my friends went for black squid ink pasta, which is also a famous dish in Venice. However, the name of the dish irks me... Back to the pizza. The cheese pizza tasted ordinary, nothing particular special about it though, a let down. I don't seems to get to eat nice food in Italy... (More on this in next post)

After filling our stomach partially, we moved on and returned back to Piazza San Marco. It was noon by then and more packed than it was in the morning when we first got there. 

Other than the increasing number of visitors, pigeons were spotted in abundance too! Be careful not to be conned by some con men who offers you some food for pigeon feeding, and then he can charge you a outrageous amount of fee for the food! 

It was time to return back to the mainland as the sun sets. Call me a superstar. Peace!

Next - Florence, Italy & Vatican City!

Europe Trip - Germany & Austria

Welcome to Neuschwanstein Castle! Some say the castle of Disneyland is inspired by Neuschwanstein Castle. I don't really see the resemblance, but the Neuschwanstein Castle is no doubt a magnificent piece of architecture. The mesmerising view above is made possible by viewing the castle from the Marienbrucke Bridge. 

We have to take a bus at ground level, which then ascended up a hill swiftly via a winding road to reach Marienbrucke. By 'swiftly' I mean 'super fast'! The driver was already familiar with the layout of the road, hence he drove the bus up the hill and cornered fast, and it was a little scary since some stretches were just next to a deep cliff!

It took about 10mins to travel by foot from the Marienbrucke bridge to the castle. We entered the castle for just a few mins, took some photos and left due to the rush schedule. However, the short period of time was enough for us to witness and take photos at the grandness of the castle. The beautiful castle was accompanied with picturesque views surrounding the castle!

Further down from the castle, we discovered a lake which looks amazing near sunset! Even a phone and capture postcard-like quality scenery here!

Surreal scenery with the help of DSLR!

After taking photos to our hearts' desire, we hopped on to the bus and headed to the next country in our itinerary - Austria. We spent 4 hours from Neuschwanstein Castle to our accommodation of the night in Austria. Thankfully, Fern Pass which links Germany and Austria was one of the road used which has very beautiful scenery too!

Our accommodation was in Innsbruck, Austria named White Mountain Hotel. Like its name suggests, the hotel is located on a hill, but the hill is not white. Maybe it is in winter when covered in snow. It was the best accommodation provided in our whole Europe trip! The place, or should I call it mansion, is huge. Some rooms for two were like a maze inside! Every room has a balcony with chairs outside for us to enjoy the view of the hill.

I would do anything to live at a place like this!

After a good night sleep and breakfast, we headed to town where one of the Swarovski's branches is. Swarovski is a leading crystal product manufacturer from Austria, you can see Swarovski in many renowned shopping mall in Malaysia such as Pavilion and Mid Valley. We had a tour in the store, window shopping here felt so 'atas' as everything here was expensive but luxurious! 

This big fly was not for sale though! I wonder how much it will cost!

The dragon costs almost 18 thousands Euro!

Crystal filled pendrive!

Our Europe trip has included the entrance fee into Swarovski Kristallwelten, a crystal-themed museum featuring many of Swarovski's crystal products in it. However, it's park is the main attraction. The fountain from a grass-covered head is pretty unique, but not sure how does it is related to Swarovski. 

From front: The park, Swarovski's factory and a grand, snow-covered mountain at the back!

In the museum-cum-store.

After visiting the museum, we discovered a maze made of grass at the back of the park! Most of my friends were imagining themselves playing in Running Man and had fun in the maze!

Last but not least...

Kthxbai.

Next - Verona & Venice, Italy