Europe 2nd Trip - Venice, Italy (Day 10)

3rd Nov 2013, Sunday, Rainy

High Tide

Today, i had planned a free day in Venice before we take our train down to Tirano. But because of the customs stamp for the tax refund, we wanted to head down to the train station first to see whether we can change to the earlier train to go Milan first (can't change reservations online too). So we woke up and got ourselves prepared and had breakfast. Then we went and do the check-out and asked for a water taxi (the ride back to the train station costs euro $70... @_@). There was heavy rain in the morning too and there was high tide at the Grand Canal. The water was already up to the pavement, and the ground wet everywhere. We had to go to another corner to wait for the water taxi, which was guided by the hotel staff who also pushed our luggage there. At the waiting place, i saw a tower, which was actually leaning (like the Leaning Tower of Pisa). The water taxi came after like 10 mins later, then the hotel staff helped us to take our luggage up to the taxi and i gave a small tip to the hotel staff to thank him and bid him good bye. Again, we had a good ride on the water taxi, we even had to bend ourselves down when going under the bridges (as the bridges were too low)...hohohoho....But after some time, we found ourselves got into a unfamiliar area, and it looked like the port of Venice, which worried us. So i went up to the taxi driver to tell him again that we wanted to go to the train station. And i think he said ya, ok. Then later he let us off at a stop different from the place we took the water taxi yesterday, which was not in front of the train station. So i went up again and asked him, he explained by saying due to high tide, he cannot drive in, so had to let us off here. He told us to just walk in the road and the train station will be there. So i got no choice and we got off (cos the driver had already stopped his boat), and he got our luggage off his boat. Then we tried to follow the road and walked in, luckily there was signs indication to the trains. But after walking a distance, i realised my shoulders doesn't have any weight sitting on them, i wasn't carrying my backpack!! i turned and asked my friend where's my backpack...and then i just ran off back to the place where the taxi had stopped. He had just started to leave, so i shouted to get his attention. Luckily, he still heard my shout, despite he was still on the phone and he threw mi my backpack....

A Nice Building saw @ Accademia Area

After i got back my backpack, i ran back to the train station and went off to the train reservation office. There was a queue and we were trying to get on the next train which was like leaving in less than 5 mins. When i got my turn, i was told that all the trains for the day was fully booked, there's no way we can change our reservation. So after discussion, we decided to forget about the tax refund, and continued our walk in Venice (anyway, it was really a risk going to that station to get custom stamps, cos by the time we could get there, there was no train back to Tirano). So we went to deposit our luggage at the train station and went to take the water bus to Accademia stop to find gelato. Along the way, we bought some postcards and souvenirs from a stall on the road (i told the owner with the stamps too). But again, we were unable to find the recommended gelato shop there and didn't manage to take gondola ride too (as it was raining). So we just walked around and enjoyed the views. The rain was also weird, it can be raining heavily in 5 mins, and it will stop after that. Then, we just went in to a restaurant there to have our lunch. The restaurant name is Terrazza del Casin dei Nobili. We ordered a clams & mussels bowl and my friends ordered seafood risotto (i didn't order any main course as i was not hungry and just now had a shock. Wondered was it that i used up all my luck to help block my friend' bad luck, and so now i not having good luck myself......hahahaaa).

Clams & Mussels Bowl

The clams & mussels bowl was not bad, and even the risotto was full of seafood, you can taste the seafood in every mouth. I tried one mouth, it wasn't salty and it tasted yummy. My 2 friends were enjoying the risotto and after the good lunch, we paid and made our way back to the train station. Then i realised the stall owner where we bought the postcards didn't include the stamps in...arghhh.....we went to look for stamps once we reached the train station, but no luck. Luckily, there was a shop in the train station that sells stamps, so my friend got her stamps and we went off to take our train to Milan. It was a 2 hours train journey, and we had to take another regional train to get to Tirano. And it was kind of scary, as it will be the last train out from Milan. If we didn't get on this last train, we will be struck in Milan for the night. So my friend decided to try get the train tickets for that regional train first, luckily we still managed to get the tickets. Because the stupid train was late, by the time we reached Milan, it was like less than 5 mins for our connecting train to leave. We had to make a mad rush to the platform to get on that train. I went off running to try see the board for the platform number, with no luck. So i went to ask the staff at another platform, and got to know where is it. Apparently, my friends already knew and got on the train and so i went up. I tried to move coach by coach to meet up with my friends....so tiring to carry and push my luggage along the super small walkway in the train...cos other people were also having their luggage near to their seats (One of the passengers still had to help me carry my luggage over, cos their was blocking the way and there's no way to move them). At 1 point, i had to stop cos there was a family with 2 young kids standing at one of the door and they didn't have the intention of letting mi pass across to the door of the next coach. They were just talking and letting the 2 kids jumping around, i just sat down and rested first. Anyway we had data, so i just texted my friends that i took a break first, continued to move in later. After that family got off, i tried to move in again, then i just stopped and sit near the train door. I started to sweat, and my arms were really tired from the pushing. At least there was wind coming in near the door.

After a lot of stops (don't know how many), the train seems to be more free up, and there were lesser people on the train. I tried to move again, finally i caught up to the coach where my friends were seated at. But there was still no empty seats, so i sat at the previous coach. Later then i moved up to sit beside my friends in the same coach. And later it turned out the train was delayed too, so we reached Tirano later than expected. But i'm just glad we reached Tirano and we found the hotel. The name was Hotel Bernina, it was the most recommended hotel which was located near the Tirano Train Station (Italy) and Tirano Train Station (Swiss). We had to go in from the hotel restaurant to get to the hotel lobby. There was a cupboard beside, where all the room keys are placed...kind of interesting....Then the hotel staff gave us our room key...and we took turns to go up to the room. You can see the outside street when taking the lift, too bad it was facing a construction site. And when we opened our room door, hahaha....the room was so small, not to what we expected. There was 2 single beds placed side by side and a bunk bed opposite the 2 single beds. And there was only 1 window, so we opened to let some wind blow in to cool the room. So it was decided i sleep the bunk bed, as i was the lightest. Me and one of my friends went downstairs to buy a bottle of mineral water...thirsty thirsty.....hahaa...did i mentioned, one of my friends was putting yoko yoko every night before she went to bed....luckily i was almost asleep by the time she was putting it....and i was sharing beds with her for the whole trip. Oh well, this is how i passed my day today...up and down....and exercised too much...hahaa...

I will definitely come back to visit Venice again, if i get a second chance (need to save $ first). It is worth the visit and there are still many places i didn't get to see this time and i will make sure i eat the gelato here and take a ride on the gondola boat.

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Bernina, Tirano

Europe 2nd Trip - Venice, Italy (Day 9)

2nd Nov 2013, Saturday, Cloudy

Florence Train Station

Today, we are going to Venice and we had reserved our train at 9 am plus. So we got up early again and prepared ourselves, packed our luggage too. Then i went to check on the fallen plank, and tried to put it back to the door frame (hope it doesn't fall again...hohohoo). After that, we went for our breakfast. The same breakfast was the same as yesterday, we didn't have much. After the breakfast, we went back to our room to collect our luggage and we had to carry our heavy luggage down the staircase...hahaha....Then we went and do our check out, and asked the hotel owner to call a cab for us. Then my friends went down first while i settled the hotel taxes and so, we made our way down to the main train station. It was still early when we reached the train station, luckily we had already made our train reservation, so we were just sitting around to wait for the board to show us the platform number of our train. I just ended up napping again...hahahaa....Finally, we boarded our train and i just slept almost all the way to Venice (sooooooo tired and sleepy....), and the journey was 2 hours long.

Our Hotel Room

Finally, we reached Venice. From inside of the train station, it looked normal. But once we stepped out the train station, the grand canal was just in front and it was crowded with people. And across the canal, was another street and in front of the train station, you can see water taxi stand and the water buses stops. I originally planned to take a water bus to the hotel. But when we saw the crowd at the water buses stops, it was like madness. It was soo crowded with people, that's like no way we can squeeze up the buses with our luggage. So we went for water taxi, and it required euro $60 to reach the hotel. Anyway we went ahead, which was way better. We were the only 3 people on board and we can stand at the back and enjoy the view without being squeezed. It was a nice ride, i enjoyed it and Venice was so beautiful with the buildings on both sides of the canal and is amazing the only transportation for them are boats..... We spent about 20 mins on the boat ride and we reached the port near our hotel. There was a short distance we need to walk from the port to the hotel and there was a lot of people at that area to (It was St. Mark Square area some more). So we dragged our luggage to the hotel (the hotel name was Villa Igea) first, after we did our check-in, the hotel staff brought us to the other hotel which was on another street behind, named Casa Nicolo Priuli Hotel. Apparently, there was 2 more hotels behind the main hotel and we were brought to the one further down. There was a staircase again that we need to carry our luggage up to our room...hahaaa....The room was so artistic, there was a large painting hanging on the wall of the room. It was having a single bed at a corner and a double bed on the other end. And the room was warm enough for me....whhahaa.....There was even a bath tub in the toilet.

St. Mark Square (Campanile)

After settling down in the room, we made our way out for lunch and our adventures in Venice. The streets of Venice can get confusing too..There were so many alleys around, not easy to remember where did you turn or whether you walked before. We walked towards St Mark's Square, there were a lot of shops around, there was masks shops, selling those party masks ( those types that you see in the movies), and many others. We also saw a shop selling cute cute sweets (called Marzipan), they were made to be like mushrooms, fruits, seashells and choclates, etc.We went to the lunch place to have our lunch first, the restaurant is called Trattoria Alla Basilica). They were having a set menu which was selling at euro $14, which was quite worth it. It was having an appetiser, 1st dish and a 2nd dish. As usual, i can't finish the 2 dishes again. :P...After the lunch, we walked back to visit St. Mark's Square. There was a lot of people at the square, can't even see properly on the buildings, and the buildings were under maintenance too (got barriers around them). So we went to take the water bus back down to the train station to start Rick Steve's The Grand Canal Tour (Starting point is from the train station and the end point will be at the St. Mark's Square stop). There were people everywhere...and pigeons, seagulls too. You can see gondola stops near the port too. I went to queue to buy the bus tickets and the tickets were not cheap there (euro $18 for a 12 hours ticket). And 1 thing good of getting bus tickets here in Venice, you don't have to look for tobacco shops to buy, the bus ticket counters are just in front of the water bus stops. Anyway we got the 24 hours tickets and while i was queuing to buy, there was an aunty who kept coughing behind me (so bad cough, like coughed until her lungs were coming out and she was still talking to her son/friend).

Santa Maria della Salute

Anyway, we got on the water bus after we got out tickets, it was easy to understand the water buses direction. You just need to go to the correct water platform with the bus number that you want to take, and see whether it is going to the correct direction that you want to go. There is a board too to display the timings of the buses. So we took bus no.1 back to the train station, which took like about almost an hour. There were a lot of amazing buildings to see, like the House of Gold, their casino, etc. But it was full of people, and the back of the boat which was outdoor, was too small to accommodate the people. We managed to get seats at the back still, as we took the final stop and took the same boat back again. And the boat was slowly moving and stopping at every stop. By the time we went back down to the last stop (Lido), the sun had already setting and it was turning dark. The boat staff got us down too, as they were changing the boat, so we can't take the same boat back to our hotel. So we got off and saw a supermarket (called coop) and since we still need to wait for the next boat, we went inside to shop around. In there, i saw a cute packaging of Nutella (and i don't see it in Singapore), so i decided to get some back. When my friend saw mi taking the nutella, she was asking why would people buy nutella in Venice when Singapore was already selling them? hohohoo....i just said is because the package is cute meh....kekekee... Then i left them and went to look for tea and when i came back to meet them, i saw them each taking 3 bottles of the same nutella i took..hahahaa....they 2 so cute...

My new Shoes!!

After the happy shopping in the supermarket, we went out to take a short walk around the area. There was a modern bridge in front of the water bus stop. It looked new and was definitely not like the other bridges which were with long history (Google Check: It was the 4th bridge over the Grand Canal, called Ponte di Calatrava). After that, we went back to take the water bus back, we alighted at Rialto stop. There, you can see the Rialto Bridge, and it was so packed with people (Why we didn't went and cross the bridge? hohoho....). Anyway, our main aim was to find a gelato shop (named Grom) there but we were unable to find it. We just walked at the streets, really, there were a lot of shops and people. We even went into a Bata shop as one of my friends had her shoes "opened mouth", so she needs to get a new shoes for the rest of the trip. Anyway, i went along to see see too, and saw the Adidas shoes, which were selling half prices and it was Adidas Neo series. So i went and picked 1 for myself...hehehee.....By the time we done with the shopping, it was already 7 pm plus. And so, we made our way back to our hotel. After we reached our hotel, we put our goodies in our room and then went downstairs again to buy water. It was so dark outside and there wasn't much light around. Luckily, there were 2 restaurants which were opposite our hotel still open, as i was getting hungry, i wanted to grab some food to eat (but at the same time, i was very sleepy...hahahaa).

Giant Turbot Fish

We saw a giant fish showing outside of 1 of the restaurants (named Ristorante alla Conchiglia), the waiter was telling us that the fish weighed 1.3kg and it was very good. So we decided to try on that fish for dinner...and we got a mushroom soup too. There was another table behind us, who were making a lot of noise, luckily they went off after some time. We waited quite a long time for the fish, really, can wait until sleep (I never felt that i can actually wait for my food until i almost dozed off on the table...hahahaa). Finally, it came and we finished eating the giant fish (i actually quite like the fish) and the fish itself cost us $82.80, so in total this dinner was the most expensive we had so far. Then we went back to our hotel to zzzz.....Another long day tomorrow....

Hotel Stayed:
Villa Igea

Places Visited:
St Mark's Square
Lido Area
Grand Canal Cruise

Europe 2nd Trip - Florence, Italy (Day 8)

1st Nov 2013, Friday, Sunny

My Breakfast

Today is an important day for one of my friend, as we are going to The Mall for branded goods shopping. But first, for the 1st half of the day, we will be going Galleria dell'Accademia first to see the famous work by Michelangelo, David. And so, we woke up at around 6am, got ready to go for our adventure today. I went out first and told my friend to remember to take the key and so i closed the door behind me. After walking for a short distance, i heard commotion coming out from our room. So i turned back and opened the door again, i saw my friend like in shock, frozen at her spot. Then on the floor, there was a plank-like stick. Hahaha....then my friend started to scream at mi and asked mi what did i do to the door, the plank fell just a few centimeters away from my friend. And the other friend was standing behind her, saw the whole drama. Then we all broke into laughter.....So drama....the door wasn't even closed when i closed it, how the hell the plank will fall down?? (but later when i went to see in the next morning, blue stack was actually used to stick the plank.) After the shock, we went down to have our breakfast. It was a bit sad on the breakfast, nothing nice to eat (i still miss the breakfast in Naples hotel......kekeke)....After we had our breakfast, i went to ask the hotel owner on how to go to bus terminal so that we can take the bus down to The Mall.

David (Taken from Web)

And so, we headed out to the Galleria dell'Accademia first as i had made the reservation at 9.30 am slot. We were required to queue for a while as there was security check required and there were security guards to control the crowd. Then we made our way in and got the admission tickets. As usual, 1 went off on her own and mi and another friend walked together. In there, the main highlight was the super big statue of David by Michelangelo. It was really big and no photography is allowed in the gallery. But i can still see some people had secretly took photos of the amazing statue using their phones. There were some other sculptures (by Michelangelo) and a collection of Renaissance paintings.  Apparently, i got no collection of other sculptures or paintings, except the giant statue of David...hahaha......There was a room of music instruments collection too. For this gallery, it wasn't as big as Vatican Museum or Borghese Gallery, so we ended the tour quite early. After this, we walked towards Florence Cathedral. The whole cathedral was super big, and it was also crowded when we reached there. It was amazing, it was so big and tall that you feel small just by standing in front of it. It was very white and there was lights shinning on it during the night. When i first saw it, i can't help 'wow', it was breathtaking and Baptisterium San Giovanni was beside it......But it was considered a public holiday today in Italy, and so the cathedral was closed. We were unable to enter to see the inner of the Duomo, which was one of the top 10 UNESCO World Heritage in Italy (which is a pity).

Gucci Outlet @ The Mall

So had no choice, we headed down to The Mall instead. We went and took a bus to the main train station and i got lost in the direction, i wasn't able to find the next direction where we need to walk to the bus terminal. So my friends took over and tried to find the direction, well, they managed to find the way to walk to the bus terminal (they are more expert in using google maps..hohohoho). Just as we reached the terminal, the next bus was 10 something, which we needed to catch this bus. If not, we have to wait like an hour for the next bus. Luckily, we did managed to catch the bus and off we went (Ticket costs euro $5 single way, euro $10 return trip). It was an 40 mins or so journey to the outlet, i just napped on the bus (so tired after waking up for so many days). Finally we reached the mall, and we went to the canteen for lunch. It's a bit sad, cos it was like a food court except you need to order first before you can choose your choice of pizza or salads. Anyway, it was a sad lunch, don't like it....After lunch, we started our shopping. First stop, Prada, my friend wanted to go there see see. Haiyo, it was crowded and it was like marketplace. The place was big though and it was 2-storey high, lower level was with bags, wallets and shoes and the upper level was with clothes, jackets, etc. Next stop, Gucci, it was also big with 3 levels and it was not so crowded, quiet. Really can slowly shop and see slowly, and indeed i saw a key pouch that i like the feel of it. So i just bought it...kekeke...my friends were still looking out for theirs. I was the first one to start the ball rolling...hahhaa...Later one of my friend got 2 wallets and 1 got a bag and a coin pouch.

Yummy Gelato

After shopping in Gucci, we went to see other shops. Actually, the place was quite small with not many brands. I was expecting the place would be big and there were a lot of branded shops around, it was smaller than the one i went in Japan. So if you are to visit The Mall in Florence, go only if you want to get stuffs from Prada and Gucci. If not, don't bother making the trip there. There were also branded shops around the streets of Florence, you just need to go the correct place. After all the shopping there, we went to the tax refund office located at the bus stop. As we were not going back from Italy, the officer told us that we need to go to 2 train stations (Chiasso & Domodossola) and get the custom stamps for the tax refund forms before we leave Italy and mail them back. Later on, i went back to check, the train frequency for this 2 stations were not so frequent and we were having a late train to take from Venice to Milan on the last day for Italy. Anyway, we went back to the hotel to put our stuffs first and then we headed to have dinner. Before dinner, we headed to a gelato shop instead, called Gelateria Carab. I got myself a plum gelato...ooohhh....it was so damn nice!! My another friend wanted to try something special and new, so she got a granita. The other friend doesn't want to have it at first, till both of us kept telling it was sooooo nice and i let her try one mouth from my gelato. She dashed back in to the shop and got herself 1 cup. I was the last one to finish it, as usual...the 2 of them had finished their first cup and they went back to have a 2nd cup..hahhaa...The shop owner was friendly too and think he was surprised why we kept going back to his shop.....kekeke....this was the last gelato i ate in Italy....If you are going to Florence, don't miss this small gelato shop. Best!

Inside of the Restaurant

After the nice and yummy gelato, we walked to our dinner place, named Ristorante Paoli. It definitely looked classy, and the interior was very beautiful. Too bad, it was fully booked when we reached there but we still had a bit of luck. We were allowed to take the table outside, so we went with it (cos i think there was one family after us wanted to take the outside table too, if we didn't sit in first). Then we ordered the food and had a nice dinner there. The tomato soup is quite thick and really tasted with tomato (not like those mixed with water and with no taste). The whole dinner costs us euro $60. After the dinner, we made our way to Piazzale Michelangelo. We walked quite a distance before we made it to a bus stop that we could take a bus up to the place. As we were walking, think i saw Ponte Vecchio afar but not sure...could be...hahaha....Oh well, and so we waited the bus for like half an hour or so before it finally came.....After 6 or 7 stops, we reached the piazzale (along the way, the 3 of us were in sleepy mode on the bus ride...hahhaa).

Overview of Florence City (Night View)

At the piazzale, there was a copy of David statue, smaller version and it looked kind of dirty. But when you turn away from the statue, is a good nice overview of Florence city with all the lights shining. There were 3 buildings that stood out from all other buildings, one confirmed was the Duomo (which was in the center), Palazzo Vecchio (i think it is, which was on the left side), and 1 more building on the right side (which i don't know what it was). After spending some time up there taking photos and looking at the view, we made our way to the bus stop. Gosh, the bus required an hour to come and it was the last bus. So we just sat there, stood there to wait for the bus to come. It came at 12.05 pm, my eyes almost wanted to close. We just napped on the bus when we boarded, after we alighted, we still need to walk a short distance back to the hotel. I never got used to the streets in Italy, as in i can't get familiarize with the roads we walked, from the hotel and back to the hotel. It was kind of confusion walking in Italy...hahahaa...but still we managed to walk back to our hotel safe and sound.

There's really much to see in Florence, too bad we had planned our stay too short here. Target myself to come again next time. ^_^

Note: For the tax refund thingy, if you are not leaving from Italy, then be prepare to give up refunding it. The VAT is 8% for minimum euro $150 in a single receipt and as i mentioned earlier, you will need to travel down to Chiasso or Domodossola (it may be different stations depending on where is your last destination, for mi, my last destination was Zurich) to get their customs stamp. If you are ok without the refund, then my advice is just forget it unless the train frequency to the particular station is very often (like every 1 hour), then you can go ahead with it. If not, don't bother about it. It may waste your 1 day just by doing this, so why waste it? Enjoy your holidays!

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Europa

Places Visited:
Galleria dell'Accademia
Florence Cathedral
The Mall
Piazzle Michalengo

Europe 2nd Trip - Pisa, Italy (Day 7)

31st Oct 2013, Thursday, Sunny

Snacks given on Train

Today we are going to move out of Rome and head to Pisa to see the leaning tower. We had the same breakfast again and we make sure that we got all our stuffs in our luggage and went to do the check-out. Then we got the hotel staff to help us get a cab to drive us down to the train station. When we reached the train station, we wanted to take the regional train down to Pisa but when we checked the board, the train was delayed. The first we saw is delayed for 15 mins and there wasn't any platform indicated yet. Then the 2nd time we saw the delayed time had jumped up to 20 mins and it wasn't stopping..it went up to 30 mins. In the end, we went for the high speed train instead, which was to go to Florence first, then take the regional train from Florence to Pisa (which was running hourly). So we decided to head for the hotel first to drop our luggage since we were going to Florence first now. It took us about 1 hour plus to reach Florence, so we just rested on the train for the time being. During the ride, when we were about to reach Florence, i got up to unlock our luggage. Then suddenly i heard a commotion behind and heard one of my friends saying 'Oh My God!'. Then i turned around and saw one of my friends had orange juice spilled onto her pants and there was a lady carrying a very big and heavy backpack and she was holding some metal poles/sticks. Apparently, she had lost her balance when the train was moving and had fell on our table and the cup of orange juice was spilled onto my friend. I think she can't really speak English but she kept telling us she was sorry....hohohoho..Luckily, we were heading to Florence hotel first, at least my friend can have a change of pants before heading to Pisa. Hahahhaa....We also made fun of her by saying she had become orange-flavoured after the spill too.

Main Entrance of the Hotel Building

Once we arrived in Florence, we headed out to take a cab to go the hotel. Once we reached the hotel building, the building lift was also the same as the one in Rome - with cage, just that the spring door wasn't springing in Florence.....hahhaa...as usual, we need to go up 1 by 1 cos the lift was too small for the 3 of us plus luggage. The hotel we booked was Hotel Europa, it was a nice comfy hotel and it is a family-run hotel. The hotel owner gave us our key and showed us our room, which was at the 2nd level (need to climb a small staircase up). She even helped us to carry my friends' luggage up, i carried mine up myself (think she was also panting carrying both my friends' ones..their are bigger size and more heavier). The room was really big for the 3 of us, the biggest room we had so far. There was a walkway towards the toilet, then on the right side was the room with 2 beds (1 single and 1 double). And the window was made of wood. After we settled everything, we headed out for lunch and to take the next train to Pisa.

Mango Gelato (From La Bottega del Gelato)

We walked to a self-service restaurant, called Self Service Leonardo. The place was like a canteen where you pick the food you want and pay at the cashier. So we got our lunch there and eat, it was ok. The drumstick we got was a bit dry and i still find the food salty. After the lunch, we headed down to the train station by walking and took a train to Pisa, which was about an hour journey. We reached Pisa at around 3 plus, then we started the self-guided walk by Rick Steve's book (as the starting point was from the main train station). So we just followed and walked towards the leaning tower of Pisa. Along the way, there were much to see and even managed to get ourselves a nice gelato from La Bottega del Gelato, just after we crossed the bridge over Arno River. (I had read about it on the web when doing the research, i wanted to try it). Both my friends got 2 flavours on 1 cone and i only got 1 flavour on top, which was mango (I love mango..^_^). It was really really nice...If you are going to Pisa, don't miss this gelato shop. You will not regret it. And it only costs euro $1.50 for the small cone, if i remember correctly, this applies to 2 flavours too, as long as it is on the small cone. I enjoyed the gelato very much and we continued our way while eating. Basically the walk took us 30 mins to reach the fields of Miracles where the Duomo, Campanile, Baptistry and the Campo Santo stood. Actually, when we were walking along the road, i didn't even see the top of those buildings (as an indication that we were about to reach). It was like you walked out until the end of the road, then you will see the famous buildings standing just in front of us and you will just like say 'wow' to yourself.

Leaning Tower of Pisa

So we got ourselves snapping photos away on the leaning tower, on the Duomo, on the Bastistry (don't think we saw the Campo Santo cos it was behind the Duomo and we didn't went to the back). Both my friends were trying to make the photos like they were holding the tower, pushing it, picking it up using camera angles. There were a lot of people trying to do the same thing too and we hung around until it was dark (anyway, it was already dark by 5pm plus). Then one of my friends was asking the other friend to help her take photos, i went behind her to make some funny faces (anyway, it was Halloween night today)......hahhaa...think she didn't even realised it till she found the 2 of us was laughing on something. After this, i was dying to look for the restroom, so i went ahead in to find the restroom while both my friends sat at the fountain to wait for me. But the restroom was closed for the day...argh!! No choice, i headed back to find my friends and we decided to go back Florence and have dinner. We walked our way back again and did some souvenir shopping whenever we saw the shops selling souvenirs. I got a collar pin and postcards for myself, my friend got t-shirts for her niece and nephew and another 1 got a cute pinocchio puppet which costs like euro $11. The shop uncle was showing us on how to operate the puppet, it was so cute. He controlled the puppet so well that the puppet was alive itself. He used the puppet to walk and even to kiss him on his check. After all the shopping, we walked down to see whether we can find any tobacco shop opened so as to buy bus tickets. It took us a distance to find 1 that was still open and once we got our bus tickets, there was no bus coming!! So we waited at the bus stop for like half an hour or more than that.....saw some kids dressed up for Halloween too and were running around the streets to have fun (but it wasn't what i expected. I thought it would be a big event and a lot of people would be outside the streets to celebrate). It was quite quiet that night....hahaha....

Finally the bus came and we boarded to head back to the train station. We got on the 7 pm plus train and reached Florence at about 8 plus. By then, we were all tired, so we got ourselves some snacks and headed to McDonald's to grab a fast dinner....The chicken nuggets there were much tender than Singapore and they were not dried. Then we ended up walking back to the hotel to rest for the day.

Hotel Stayed:

Hotel Europa, Florence

Places Saw:

Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II

Corso Italia (where a circa-1960 wall map of Pisa with a steam train was on a wall of a bar)

Ponte di Mezzo (Bridge that we crossed over Arno River)

Piazza Garibaldi (Where the gelato shop was located)

Borgo Stretto (Pisa' main shopping street)

Piazza delle Vettivaglie (Pisa's historic market square)

Leaning Tower of Pisa (Campanile)

Duomo, Pisa

Batisery, Pisa

Europe 2nd Trip - Vatican City, Italy (Day 5)

29th Oct 2013, Tuesday, Sunny

Our breakfast

Today we are going to visit Vatican City and Vatican Museum. We woke up at around 5 or 6 plus, and our breakfast was delivered to our room at around 7 am. It was a set for 3 persons, we had breads, butter, juices, coffee, hot and cold milk and fruits. There was only 1 table and 1 chair in the room, so 2 of us had to stand around or sit on the bed to eat the breakfast (Anyway, this will be our breakfast again the next day..hahaa...). Then we wrote our postcards and pasted the stamps so that we can send them out from Vatican city.

Mummy Coffin

After the breakfast, we made our way our to Vatican Museum. It was tiring to take the metro, as it really was like taking forever for the train to come and we had to miss 3 trains as they were always packed and nobody was willing to move to let you come in. (Really need to appreciate our SMRT trains...compared to Italy metro). We pushed our way into the next train that come after that, so squeezy...and everyone would just push you out if you are just standing in the way (Noticed that the Italians don't really say 'excuse me' if they want to move past you, they just push their way to get past you). There were a lot of people when we reached the museum (luckily we made reservations online and it was faster) and there was security check too. After we passed through the security check, then we went to get our tickets. Funny thing, there wasn't much sign to indicate how to enter the museum. We saw a sign that indicate it was at the upper level, so we went up and saw some directional signs...and so we parted in 2 ways again (1 friend went on her own with the audio guide, and mi and another friend walked on our own in the other direction). There were so many people walking around the museum (a bit hard to move around too). The first room (Museo Gregoriano Egizio) we went into was an exhibition on Egyptian stuffs. It was soooo big and so many things to see, there even have a real mummy and the coffins displayed there. The whole museum was so big and we kept following the directional signs so that we can make our way up to the Sistine chapel, which was the highlight. The ceilings was also so beautiful with the beautiful color paintings. There was even a room (Galleria degli Arazzi) on tapestries which were woven on textiles, they were so real too. In the next room (Galleria Delle Carte Geografiche) is the gallery of maps, where it displayed all types of maps by paintings. There was also very big walkways with beautiful arts on the ceilings (you really have to go see it yourself, it can blow you away...we don't see them in Singapore...but they are really really beautiful...it will made you wonder how on earth the people can do the arts up in the ceiling...). And so, we kept walking towards Sistine Chapel...it was a long way to there (there were 2 ways to get to the chapel, 1 is the long way and the other is a shorter way...and mi and my friend went on the long way).

A Glass Art

Finally, we reached a room and it was stopped by a long queue. Gosh, the queue wasn't moving much and the room was so hot...we were getting impatient waiting there...and we had no idea why the people in front wasn't moving...After like 15 mins of waiting, we finally able to get our way up to the Sistine Chapel. It was a great hall with a lot of paintings on both sides of the walls and the ceiling. And a lot of people were inside, security guards were also there to control the crowd and to prevent people from taking photos. The Sistine Chapel is the personal chapel for the Pope and the place to select new Pope. The Pope Julius II had approached and even tried to bribe and threaten Michelangelo to help repaint the ceilings of the chapel. Michelangelo had agreed only with the condition that he had the freedom to do it his own way. The whole work was completed from between 1508 and 2 November 1512 (the whole work was on Christianity). All the paintings were so nice to see and looked very like 3D, all by famous painters, like The Creation of Adam (by Michelangelo), The Last Judgement (by Michelangelo), The Last Supper (by Cosimo Rosselli) (it was with a semi-round table instead of a long table and i always thought that it was with a long table, and so when my friend asked mi whether is the painting The Last Supper, i told her no lah...hahaa....then later we realised it was really The Last Supper when we saw all the names of the paintings inside the Sistine Chapel in the garden), etc. After staying in the chapel for 5 to 10 mins, we made our way out, and we still need to walk some more rooms before we can reach the exit. Finally, we made it out to the exit (which was the starting point), but our other friend wasn't done yet. So we rested for awhile and had some snacks, cos it was past 12 or 1 pm in the afternoon (seriously, it really took us a few hours just to cover the museum and not sure whether we covered the whole museum). Then later,we went down to the garden to walk around, there was boards showing all the paintings from the Sistine Chapel. Then we walked around to another exhibition room, which were showing Asian stuffs and then explored to another exhibition showing all the stamps of Vatican City throughout the years while waiting for my other friend.

Old Bridge Gelateria

After some time, my friend was done with her museum tour. Then we walked out to the museum to look for lunch. While walking out, we saw a small gelato shop which was having a long queue. My friend recongised it as a famous gelato shop (Old Bridge Gelateria) which was recommended in her Rick Steve's book. So we headed over to get some gelato (since we were already there, and we didn't regret it...heheee). There was one lady who was trying to ask us whether we were in the queue but she was speaking in Italian, so i didn't answered her. So basically she just went and stood in front of us to queue for her gelato. Anyway, we each got a cone with single scoop each (it costs euro $1.50 each and it was a big scoop)...and i got the mango flavor. It was super nice, i love it when i had the first lick on it (don't think can find the same taste in Singapore). So we were licking the gelato happily, at least for me...until we finished, we decided on our lunch place (I was the last one to finish it, as usual...ahh...so nice..). Later, we went to a restaurant just round the corner for lunch. The restaurant name is called L'Insalata Ricca Ristorante and it was famous for salads and pizzas. But we had ordered spaghetti & pasta instead and it was a mistake. It was plain and had no taste, it was not nice (both my friends ate until very sad for their lunch there....i ordered maltagliati pasta which was slightly better than the spaghetti, at least can taste the tomato flavor in it (but it was too much, can't finish it too). Other than our main course, we ordered the clams & mussels platter as our appetizer. It was nicer than our main course though, but not the best (later, we had much better in other places). When i called for the check, the staff (don't know is it the owner) somehow purposely gave the bill to my friend instead to me...so funny..seems like he was playing with us in a friendly way. Anyway, the lunch costs us euro $36 without the tip and guessed both my friends had a very sad lunch there.....

St. Peter Square

After the sad lunch, we headed down to Vatican City itself. It was a short distance walk to there, but there were chairs placed at the St. Peter Square (for some event the next day), which we can't walk to the center of the square. And there were a ceremony going on too in St. Peter's Basilica, which later blocked out some of the places inside (which we found out later when we were exploring the Basilica). We went into the Basilica, it was very big place, which was built by Michelangelo too. It was packed with people too.Wasn't able to go see the St. Peter tomb as it was blocked out due to the ceremony going on, we were unable to walk near the main altar (which was directly under the dome and St Peter's tomb was under the alter) too. Mi and my another friend walked until we ended up at the museum-treasury but we didn't went in to see cos it needed to buy tickets. So we went out again and looked around the basilica, we saw Michelangelo's work - Pietà which he had created when he was only 20 plus year old (main highlight). There was a lot of statues built around the whole basilica and there were some baby angels around on the walls and pillars. There was a holy door at the right side of the atrium, which was only opened on Holy year (occur every 25 years).  There was even a bronze statue of St. Peter too, somewhere near to the main altar. The body of Pope John XXIII (who was known as "Good Pope John") was also displayed there, in a glass case. He was wearing a red cloak and white grown. After which, we left and spent some time at St. Peter Square for some night view photo-taking. We saw 2 Swiss guards standing outside on the left side of the basilica. Then we sat down to think of our dinner place, it was so dark even though it was like only 5 or 6 pm plus. So we decided to go back to our hotel restaurant to try their food as it was also being recommended in TripAdvisor (and they had a sad lunch, wanted something nice for dinner).

Our dessert

We walked back to the metro station, halfway, we saw a provision-like shop (but it looked like a supermarket but smaller). We got some chocolate powder as there were so many different flavors to choose. We even bought a tiramisu, aragoste clocclato and cannolo back for our next day breakfast. Then we went back to the hotel room first and then went for dinner downstairs at the restaurant, it was named Target Restaurant. We ordered a clams & mussels platter as the appetizer, and i ordered seafood risotto (as i was craving for some rice...hohoho...). The clams & mussels was nice, better than the one we had during our lunch and the risotto was full with seafood (every spoon was with seafood meat). The place was with a good ambiance too, quiet and did i mentioned? The waiting for the food was very long...basically can wait until sleep and Italian people always eat like 3 or 4 courses per meal (Appetizer, 1st dish, 2nd dish and dessert). How can they eat so much per meal and stay skinny? I can't even finish 1 dish...hahhaa......but their food are really healthy, not oily type. This dinner costs a bit more expensive...around euro $84. Ohh..we ordered a dessert too...it was with 3 different desserts.  After the dinner, we were finally going back to the hotel to rest....conscuss right after my bath.

Hotel Stayed:
Target Inn

Places Visited:
Vatican Museum
St Peter's Square
St Peter's Basilica

Europe 2nd Trip - Rome, Italy (Day 4)

28th Oct 2013, Monday, Sunny

Today is the last day in Naples and we are going back to Rome for a 3 days' stay. We woke up at around 6 plus and got ready for the day. We packed our luggage and went upstairs for our breakfast (Still love the croissant and the triangular pantry there - it was known as sfogliatelle...... ^_^....nice nice). After the wonderful breakfast, we made our way back to our room and collected our luggage, later went down to do the check-out. Then we got the hotel staff to help us get us a cab to drive us down to the train station. After 5 to 10 mins, the cab arrived and we said goodbye to the hotel staff (who were all very helpful and pleasant during our stay).

Our Queue Number

When we arrived at the train station, we went to the tickets reservation office to make our train reservation. It was a group of people waiting in the queue too..luckily it wasn't as crowded as in Rome. But we were targeting for the next coming train, so i was left to wait in the office and my friends went to the platform with our luggage first (so once i am done with the reservations, we can just board the train). After a 10 mins wait, i finally got my turn and got the reservations done. I rushed out the platform and caught with my friends and we boarded the train. It was a 1 hour plus ride to Rome. So we just rested on the train while the train left Naples to Rome. We reached Rome train station at 11 plus (we wanted to deposit our luggage at the train station first, but the queue was super long) and then we got on a cab to head down to the hotel (it was like 5 mins ride from the station to hotel). The hotel name is Target Inn and the lift is inside a cage, where you need to open the cage and then go into the lift and the door is with spring, which it will spring back at you. Anyway, the lift is not big too, and so we need to go up separately due to our luggage. Then we deposited our luggage at the hotel as it was still early for check in. After that, we made our way down to see the catacombs. We had to take the metro down and then changed to the bus...oh god, the metro and the bus really took a long time to come. We took the bus to go along the Appian way, and the road was still with rocks and the road was quite small, there wasn't any road for pedestrians to walk with the cars zooming by.

San Sebastiano Catacombs

Finally, we reached the place to see the catacombs, which is along Appian Way. There were 2 catacombs places there, the one we wanted to go is not opened yet, so we went to the smaller one - San Sebastiano Catacombs. We made it for the English guided tour, so we went down to see. It was quite small and dark, and saw some coffins spaces and graves inside. The guide was speaking too fast and the accent was a bit hard to understand..but can still make out some of the things she was explaining. Then she showed us the grave of Sebastian which was later moved away to St. Peter's Basilica. Later we were also shown that there were 3 rooms that were dug further deep in, these can be used for generations to generations if the area were bought. Then she explained on the vases used as urn and the paintings on the ground and the walls. Then she showed us the dinning place inside and told us that the church which was built by Constantine on top of the catacombs. After this, the whole tour is done, which lasted us like 15 to 20 mins inside. The tour ended in the basilica where we were allowed to take photos around, but there was going to be a funeral going on soon, so we were allowed like 5 mins or so walking around. After this, we went to the souvenir shop where we got some postcards and stamps to send back home.

Twin Churches of Rome

After this, we rested for awhile on a bench outside...stupid shoulders aching.....Then we took the bus down to the other catacombs (which is bigger) - Catacombs of San Callisto. When we reached there, the English guided tour is about to start. One of my friend went ahead and bought her ticket first, the other friend doesn't want to go in so i stayed outside with her while we waited for the friend who went in. While waiting, we walked around the catacombs, there was a path towards some private houses. So we just strolled along that road and enjoyed the breeze and blue sky and white clouds...saw some geese at one of the houses too, i went up to try to take some photos of them while my friend was busy texting on her phone...hohoho...We had some chocolate too while waiting, we waited at least half an hour or more, then my friend appeared again. After the wait, we made our way back to the metro station, where we saw the ruins building on Palatine Hill. After that, we took the metro to the start for Doice Vita Stroll and Heart of Rome Walk. But the starting point for Heart of Rome walk was further, so we went ahead with Doice Vita Stroll. When we came out of the metro station, it was just a normal street and when we turned behind a shop, we saw the Piazza del Popolo, it was so grand...really made you 'wow' there....it was so spectacular! There was an Egyptian obelisk standing in the center of the Piazza, and it was brought over from Egypt. And nearby the obelisk, was a fountain with some lion-like statues. But some kids were just sitting on the statues and riding them around. On the far end of both sides of the Piazza, were Fontana del Nettuno and another statue (not sure what is is....). And you can see the twin churches (Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria di Montesanto) standing in front of the Piazza.

Crucifixion of St. Peter (Taken from web)

At the side before we made our way to the Piazza, there stood the church of Santa Maria Del Popolo. It was quite a big church and there were a lot of beautiful paintings inside, and there were 2 great paintings (by an Italian painter - Caravaggio) hidden inside the church, which required to insert coin just to on the light to see them and no photo-taking is allowed. The 2 masterpieces were Crucifixion of St. Peter & Conversion of Saul (St. Paul). We stayed inside for a while, then there was a guy who inserted the coin to light up the 2 masterpieces chamber. Once the coin was inserted, everyone just rushed into the chamber to see the 2 masterpieces. It was super cool...the paintings were so real (almost can see the image popping out)....After the amazing viewing of the 2 grand masterpieces, we headed out to walk over the the Piazza and onto the streets of Rome. There were a lot of shops for shopping and the buses which were going around the streets were small type and it looked cute..hahhaa.....There was even a Ferrari shop around there....(saw a Ferrari F1 car in italy...kekeke).....After some shopping around, we were hungry and then we decided to go down to a 200 years old restaurant - L'Enoteca Antica di Via della Croce.

Tiramisu

The place has a nice ambiance and there was paintings on the walls too. We ordered a lamb shank, spaghetti, cheese platter, cod fish dish and tiramisu as the dessert. The food was nice, i like the lamb shank, the fried potato (as the side) and the cod fish. Most of all, i love the tiramisu!! We ordered their creme brulee at first but they run out of it. So we ordered tiramisu instead, and it was a good choice. I almost wanted to lick the whole plate but cannot...hehehe....but i was using my spoon to lick the remaining.... :P.....It was soooooo nice!!! I had a happy dinner there...hahahaa....and it costs us euro $75 (including the tax and tip). After dinner, we went to the opposite shop which was selling chocolates and gelato. There was a table showing their beautiful packages too, and one of our friend was already snapping her camera away on their food. Mi and my other friend felt kind of bad if we don't buy something from them and the staff was already asking us what do we want to get. So we went ahead and got a small cone of peppermint ice cream. It wasn't so good as expected and it costs euro $2.50 for a single scoop, it was just ok. After this, we continued our way down to the Victor Emmanuel Monument. It was a short walk down the streets, when we reached, we were standing on the opposite of the street, looking at the monument. And in the center, it was a big roundabout for the cars....But it was quite dark when we arrived and i can't see the statues on top of the Emmanuel. It also holds the tomb of the unknown soldier, who was chosen from the among 11 unknown remains from WWI war.

Roman Ancient Forum (Night View)

After the viewing of the Emmanuel, we made our way down to continue the walk.We walked past to a church which doesn't look so grand from the outside (Santa Maria in Aracoeli) with a very high stairs, besides it, was the stairs up to Capitoline Hill. By the time we walked until here, we were all tired from the walking and we still had to climb the stairs up..hohoho.....There were 2 great big statues standing on top of the both sides of the stairs...and opposite the Capitoline hill is the Theatre of Marcellus (which we later knew about during our segway tour) and it was the first amphitheater built before the Colosseum. Anyway, we climbed up the stairs to the Piazza del Campidoglio. My friends took a break on top of the stairs while i went in to explore around. Inside there, stood the statue of the emperor Marcus Aurelius and the statue of She-wolf with the twin brothers, Romulus and Remus (which both were explained by our segway guide too). We were unable to find the grand staircase, which was mentioned in Rick Steve's book. After a short stay there, we made our way down to the bus stop, but the bus we wanted doesn't come and while waiting, we saw 2 tour groups coming and went up to Capitoline Hill too and they seem like doesn't come back down. One of my friend doesn't want to give up looking for the grand staircase, so we went up again. This time, we walked further into the square and at the right side of the Piazza, there was a road downhill (it just looks like a normal road that is going downhill, who will expect at side of the road.....) it would turned out to be the view of the Roman Ancient Forum. It was lighted with few lights, but it was beautiful in the night too (although i will prefer to take the photos of it during the daytime).....

After taking some photos there, we made our way back to the bus stop and stood there and waited for at least an hour for the bus back to hotel. We were so happy the bus came, and were able to go back to the hotel to rest after a long day of walking (we were in need of water this day too....all run out of water...hahhaa).

Hotel Stayed:
Target Inn

Places Visited:
San Sebastiano Catacombs
Catacombs of San Callisto
Piazza del Popolo
Church of Santa Maria Del Popolo
Victor Emmanuel Monument
Capitoline Hill
Roman Ancient Forum

Europe 2nd Trip - Pompeii, Italy (Day 3)

27th Oct 2013, Sunday, Cloudy

Rooftop Garden

Today we are going to visit the city of Pompeii, had to give up hiking Mount Vesuvius cos both of my friends were tired from yesterday's walking. So we woke up at 5 or 6 am plus, then prepared for breakfast. Ooo...the breakfast area was on a rooftop garden, it was so cooling to have breakfast there and can see the blue blue sky. They even have a small area for table tennis. The croissants were great too and there was a cute triangular pantry that we all love it when we had it the first time. I tried the yogurt too, it was apricot flavor. I love the red orange juice too, it was in red color..different from the normal orange color. It was nice!! And the ham was nice to go with the bread.

Metro Tickets

After we had the wonderful breakfast, we made our way out to Pompeii. We had to buy our metro tickets from the ticket machine, which was 'hiding' in a corner. It's a ticket for 90 mins, and gosh, the metro was damn slow..We took like almost an hour just to reach the main train station to take the circumvesuviana train. By the time we reached there and got our tickets, it was like 10 plus to 11 am. There were a lot of people taking the train too, we made our way down to the platform to catch our train. We had to wait for another 15 mins or so for our train. Finally, our train arrived and we all boarded, it was packed with people. There was no available seats, so we stood near to the door. Luckily, there were some seats empty after a few stations, we were able to sit down (legs tired from all the standing...hohoho). Along the way, was able to see Mount Vesuvius, it was so beautiful. After the long ride, we finally reached the station of Pompeii. There was a tourist guide counter just in front of the station and the staff were trying to get people to buy their tickets for their guided walk. We just went in straight to the main counter (which was at the entrance of the city) and got our tickets.

Steep road to enter the city

Here is a brief introduction on Pompeii:
Pompeii was an ancient Roman city that was once prosperous during its time. There were gladiators fighting in the theater and the people were still using horse chariots. But all these were gone after the city was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Now what is left are the ruins that you can see in the visit and try to understand how the people had lived at that time.

When you first passed the entrance, there was this very steep road that you need to walk up to enter the main city (which is the city gate). One of my friends went on her own, listening to the audio guide (which we downloaded from Rick Steve) whereas mi and another friend, we went in walking with the guide taken from the book. The road of the city were all built with big stones (basically, you can see 1 stone and 1 stone as the road, not like our normal road that were built with tar). I had to jump from stone to stone to walk around...hohoho...One of my friends had a fall when we were walking up to enter the city (hurt her ankle but luckily, it wasn't too serious...). Anyway, she continued on her walk, and mi and my another friend continued ours. The road really wasn't easy to walk around, had to jump from rock to rock. The city was super big and amazing....we tried to follow the self guided tour and went and see those highlighted sites. And there was this 3 bigger and higher stones on the road, they were used to let pedestrians to walk around the streets when the streets were filled with water (used for washing the streets). As we walked further in, there was a big main square, where the temple of Jupiter and the city hall stood. Then we went to see the Basilica and the fish and produce market. Inside the fish & produce market, there was a display of plastic molds of Pompeiians who were caught in the disaster. Behind the molds display, was a wall of pictures that was kept preserved. We walked abit further in the market, there was display of actual mummies of the Pompeiians. 

Stoves made of marbles (Fast Food Joint)

After some time, mi and my friend just got tired and hungry. We bought a slice of pizza and ate before we continued our journey again. I saw my friend when we were just continued walking, i asked my friend, "Isn't that person look familiar?"...hohoho....
Next, we continued walking down the streets and saw the fast food joint, where we can see the stoves made out of marble. Then we just continued walking and we ended up on a stairs that lead us to a higher ground that we had a high view of the city of Pompeii. We took some photos there and headed back down to the city again. We ended up at the House of Tragic Poet. Next, we walked till the House of the Faun, this house was the biggest house in the whole city of Pompeii. But 1 side of the house was closed off, there was a big complete picture (which was showing the battle of Alexandra, the original is currently displayed in the National Archeological Museum) on the floor at the courtyard. Then we continued walking on the streets again, we ended up at the theater, which we caught with our friend. We took a moment to sit around at the theater, i climbed all the way up to the top. And from there, you can actually see Mount Vesuvius at the left side. Too bad, it was too cloudy, the clouds were covering the volcano..not able to take a clear shot of it.

Seafood Pasta

Then we left to see the biggest house again (as my friend had not seen it), mi and the other friend tried to find the 2000 years old lead pipes. It was caged at one of back alley, it wasn't very noticeable. But it was definitely old lead pipes..hohohoho....Then my friend brought us to the public bath, the entrance was very dark, as it was getting dark. We went in and take a look, it was dark inside, with no much light. And there was a black dog sleeping inside too, can't even see it. The bath was further inside, it was soooo big. By the time we finished walking, it was already 5 plus and the sun had already set, it was getting dark.So we made our way back to Naples train station. The train back to Naples was also packed with people and while we were on the train, there was a group of teenagers, shouting around the train and were very anxious. Later, we saw some of them were running out the 1st station and some of them were running in to the train. There was like a big commotion but they were all speaking in Italian...don't understand, so got no idea what was happening. When the train reached to the 2nd or 3rd station, we saw the teenagers ran out of the train and some were suddenly got caught by police, who were waiting at the station and they were in full amour. Hahhaa...one of the teenagers was still sitting beside my friend, she kept joked that she seated side by side with a criminal (Forget whether is the one seated beside got caught by the police...hahhaa...). After this commotion, we just waited for our train to reach Naples train station...like long journey back...Then we headed down to a restaurant nearby Naples train station area to have our dinner. The restaurant name is called
La Cantina dei Mille. We had a pizza and pasta (my friend ordered another pasta too cos they were too hungry), free bread were given too..but the bread was hard as rock...hahhaa..my friend knocked the bread on the table, and it sounded like taking a stone and knocking on the table...so funny...

I don't find the food bad, it's just salty for me to accept (the seafood was fresh and the prawns really smell nice). Anyway, i ate a little and as we were paying, the boss gave us his namecard and wanted us to give feedback on tripadvisor...kekeke.....Then we made our way back to hotel. The metro really cannot make it, we had to wait and wait for it to come.
Finally, we reached our hotel and we can rest for the day...yeah!! (Too bad, didn't even have time to shop around the streets near our hotel, there is a Disney store there too...)

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Tolendo

Places Visited:
Pompeii