It's likely one of the more culture-famous and fashionable countries in the world as well, attracting all kinds of people that may want to experience some of that. Personally for me, I'm there to cover some of the landmarks that I've heard of as a kid. Never knew that I'd had the chance to see all of it for real - till now!
This whole Italy trip was slightly (actually very much) inspired by Assasin's Creed lol.
Milan
The central city area of Milan is swarmed with people, together with the seemingly endless number of high street fashion brands around every street and corner. If the latest fads and trends interest you, this is definitely the place to be - after all, it is one of the fashion capitals of the world.
I'm too broke to do any kind of shopping there and had to make do with the city's sights!
Duomo di Milano
The duomo was quite a majestic and awe-inspiring spectacle. You'd need a ticket to enter the cathedral, where you could either get online (recommended), or at the site itself (what I did) - subject to long queue times and it being sold out.
The interior layout of the cathedral was epic - pictures on the web really do not do it justice. I remember standing still and giving myself a minute or two to take it all in.
Food wise, there's this particular drink sold on the streets called Vin brulé, which is a hot wine that tasted really good and was soothing to have for the cold weather. I also got recommendations to try some of the local bread and pizza (there were so many variations, I just ordered random ones).
Duomo di Milano's interior
The interior layout of the cathedral was epic - pictures on the web really do not do it justice. I remember standing still and giving myself a minute or two to take it all in.
Food wise, there's this particular drink sold on the streets called Vin brulé, which is a hot wine that tasted really good and was soothing to have for the cold weather. I also got recommendations to try some of the local bread and pizza (there were so many variations, I just ordered random ones).
Bismarck Pizza
Does that not look lovely? (for meat lovers of course). It's filled with fresh ingredients and is all hand-made and oven-baked on the spot.
Venice
I remember learning about this place during social studies classes in secondary school, thinking of how cool it was that there was actually a real city on water.
Though there are many things to do and see, the area is generally walk-able from one end to the other, and may take you an hour or so. The roads around the city are all well connected, with lots of joining alleyways/small side streets, just be careful to not get lost as it can feel like a maze at times.
If it's your preference, you can choose to take a vaporetti (water 'bus') through or outside the grand canal to various stops around the city - a 24h pass of unlimited rides would cost you €20.
One of the most iconic activities here is definitely the gondola ride, it is pricey though - €80/gondola for 30-40minutes (1 gondola can fit up to 6 people). There are various gondola stations throughout the city and I'd say it's hard for you to miss one, just make sure to negotiate with the gondolier to make sure that everyone's happy before getting on.
Start-off point
Small canals
Grand canal
Gondolier
In front of a house Mozart stayed at (the red one)
It was refreshing to have the ride in the morning as the water was less crowded and you had a lot of time to admire the water-ways in it's entirety. Had a good chat with the gondolier about the country's history and how the local's daily lives were generally like.
Regarding the well-known Venetian landmarks, Piazza San Marco is definitely one of the must-sees as it is home to the Basilica San Marco and Companile San Marco.
Piazza San Marco
Basilica San Marco
Picture in San Marco's piazza
Entrance to the San Marco basilica is free, but you'd need to deposit your bags before your allowed entry.
Campanile San Marco
Also known as the bell tower of Venice, it spans 99m tall and is the tallest building in the city. You can pay €8 to take a lift up to Venice's highest point to get a nice bird's eye view of the area.
Venice landscape
Ain't that nice to look at. Venice also has a couple of islands called Murano (place for glass-blowing) and Burano, where you'd need to take the vaporetti (water 'bus') to get there. If you'd like to get to Burano, you'd need to transit through Murano.
Burano
Picture in front of the local houses
What's really interesting about Burano is that no 2 adjacent houses are of the same colour. This was to help 'fishermen' and 'merchants' (in the past) identify their houses quickly as they came back from the sea. It also gave each and every house there some kind of 'identity', to both the property and the owner.
On another note, I believe that some people are into the whole Venetian mask thing, and you can easily get them from shops around the street. In fact, if your really into Venetian culture, the city holds an annual Venetian carnival sometime during Feb - Mar, where people (locals & tourist) will go into full dress-up mode for the festival.
Venetian Mask
Think this plastic/hard cardboard(?) one I bought cost €2, which makes for a nice inexpensive souvenir. The more 'original' hand-crafted ones can be very expensive.
Lots of very nice things to eat as well, including the local venetian seafood, crepes and gelatos (Italian ice cream).
Venetian seafood mix
It's always nice to get some local food recommendations, so that you can try something a little different, as compared to the main restaurants that can feel a little too 'commercial'. Seeing that Venice is 'at the sea', I'm gonna assume that fish would be a specialty of theirs(?) - hence the above order. Hah.
Pisa
Most tourists that go to Pisa is probably there to see the leaning tower (including me). The tower is situated in what Italians call 'Piazza dei Miracoli' or Miracle Square. Almost everything there was built out of marble and looked very well maintained.
Piazza dei miracoli (Miracle square)
Tower view from the square
Pisa cathedral
Leaning tower of Pisa
One of the fun facts about the tower was that it started to lean due to the weak soil foundation on one of its sides. After which, lots of works had been done to try and 'straighten' it (adding steel plate on the opposite side), but only made it lean more. It was only in the 21st century that it was safe for tourists to visit and even climb it.
I believe that the mathematician Fibonacci was also involved in some of the work that measured the mathematical angles(?) from the tower.
'Holding the tower up'
'Perhaps a slight nudge could topple it'
Ended up doing the 'mandatory' poses, even when I previously believed that I wouldn't resort to that. The feeling was kinda like - it had taken all this time and effort to get there; so might as well right?
If your interested, you can pay an additional €18 to climb to the top (which I did) - control on that seemed to be tight.
Ascending the tower
It's quite an interesting experience as I could clearly feel my body tilting to one side on the way up.
Top of the tower
View at the top was amazing and it was a slight ego-boost to have everyone else down below checking you out.
Cinque Terre
Cinque Terre, translates to 'Five Islands' - all of which are situated within the coastal areas of Liguria. I've only managed to get to Vernazza, Manarola and Riomaggio. Have no idea what the other two places are.
This one was quite a pain to get to as it involved multiple train transitions, but it was worth worth the effort as I've never laid eyes on any kind of coastal settlements before.
Houses in Vernazza
Local fried seafood - tasty stuff!
Vernazza
Manarola
Good place for pictures
Riomaggio
Sunset in Riomaggio
Coastal rocks
Quite an eye-catching place for sure. I believe during the summer, people try to dip and have a swim close to the shore-line. Not happening now though - you'd get hypothermia.
On the flip side, besides the usual scenery that everyone else were frantically trying to get pictures of, there wasn't really much else to do.
Florence
Florence is the city that reminds me dearly of assasin's creed (AC II to be specific). It is a small enchanting place filled with lots of rich architecture. In fact, many of the monuments that I've seen have reminded me a lot of what I saw through Ezio's eyes in-game. I remember looking at the ledges and windows of people's houses thinking to myself - 'this can be climbed right?'
If your visiting Florence, you'd probably be able to check most of the sights out in 1-2days.
View of Florence (taken from the top of Florence cathedral)
Piazza del duomo, Florence
This plaza square in Florence is home to the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral, Giotto's Companile and the Florence baptistry.
Florence Cathedral: Santa Maria del Fiore
Florence cathedral - alternate view (taken from Giotto's campanile)
Picture w/ the cathedral
Inside the cathedral
Cathedral ceiling
Florence baptistry
Inside the baptistry
They have a ticket office within the plaza that grants you access to all the places above. It's €18 for a 72hour access to the baptistry, top of Florence cathedral, top of Giotto's campanile, an underground museum under Florence cathedral and a museum visit (didn't go). If you'd rather not spend that money, looking from the outside always works. Still, there are lots of other things to see.
Ponte Vecchio
Santa Maria Novella
Basilica di Santa Croce
If your curious as to what 'santa' may mean, I believe that it translates into 'saint'. So most of these churches/monuments are tributes to saint (whoever).
Another very famous art sculpture that is housed in Florence is Michelangelo's 'David'. You can have a look at it at the academia gallery in Florence.
David, Michelangelo (1502 - 1504)
Most people at the academia gallery were only there to see this. It's quite intriguing to me as people could literally gaze and stare at it for quite some time. Personally, I seem to only be having immature thoughts when I look at it (lol).
Gelato (Italian ice-cream)
Of course, the gelato is always good after a long day of walking. I tend to get mango, limoncella or mint, or something random if I'm feeling adventurous.
Rome
The capital city of Italy, featuring a whole lot of famous landmarks, fancy fashion brands and a shitload of people. I'd think that the house-hold knowledge of (some parts of) roman history throughout the world is partly responsible for it's high number of tourists.
Trevi fountain
Night view
Very busy place. I've even had people/moms tapping me on the shoulder, asking me to gtf out of the way so that they can take a picture of their friend/daughters.
If your into the local sayings, toss your coin(s) into the fountain on the way out - it 'guarantees' your return to Rome + something thing about dating and marrying a roman I think. The money all (supposedly) goes to a charity anyway.
Pantheon
Inside the Pantheon
Honestly, I only came to this place cause it had the same name as a League of Legend's champion, was something Ezio had to climb into in AC and looked cool - lol. Don't get me wrong, I could definitely tell that it was one stunning piece of architecture, but I couldn't appreciate all the matyr(?) history attached to the place.
Piazza Navona
Castel Sant'Angelo
Spanish steps (super overrated)
Campo de' fiori
Trastevere
Tiber island
Some of the other iconic places that the hotel staff told me to check out. The areas were all of walking distance from each other, which made them quite easy to reach.
Italian pasta (no idea what it's called) - just ordered the 'pasta of the day'
Spritz (common Italian cocktail)
There's definitely no lack of food around Rome. There are literally shops and restaurants everywhere selling all kinds of food. Personally, I tend to avoid the 'fancier yet empty' restaurants, (servers trying too hard, then demanding that you tip them, on top of all the service charges that were already included) and go for more humble looking places, filled with people - it (probably) means that the food is local, more affordable and tasty!
Time for the biggest attraction in the whole of Rome, the Colosseum - where gladiators from the past fight and engage in manly bouts.
Colosseum
Good spot for photo
Inside the Colosseum
As the Colosseum ticket gives you access to the nearby Roman forum and Palatine hill, I thought that it'd be a waste for me to not go.
Roman forum
Lots of 'rocks' around the area
The Roman forum was quite an old place, hence lots of it were just remnants of what's left. Don't expect to see too much in some of the areas.
Palatine hill
View of Rome from the hill
The walk around Palatine hill was a lot more than I expected, with numerous inclines (duh, it's a hill). Expected a 30min walk-through, but ended up being there a few hours more. You can get a nice view of the city and the Colosseum at some parts of the hill.
Frankly, the first time I walked past this woman, it just registered in my mind as 'another one of those street peddlers'. On my way back from the Colosseum, I saw her display so much skill in the way she handled her spray cans and created so much amazing works of art on the spot for people. I was absolutely blown away and left a nice tip for her. Good reminder to not always be too quick to 'judge' (hate using this word).
Vatican City
This place is approximately an hour's walk (casual steps) from rome's city center. Seeing that it's almost the holiday season, they even put up a nice Christmas tree!
St. Peter's square
I remember seeing the Vatican city square several times on the news, where the pope addresses the people during special roman catholic events that happened annually (please correct me if I'm wrong). It is also an independent state and is the smallest country in the world - just over 100 acres, governed with an absolute monarchy, with the pope as its head.
St. Peter's Basilica
Close-up view
Inside St. Peter's Basilica
St. Peter's Basilica was the main building that oversaw the whole Vatican square. Entry to the place was free, but there's always a long queue into the place. If your lucky, you can witness some kind of mass happening, with the music and all. I remember trying to get a photo of it, and some random woman was giving me snide remarks that I shouldn't be taking pictures and that 'I'm not religious'. Okay, I'm sorry.
This had definitely been a nice, relaxing (minus all the walking) trip for me, and I've also felt a lot more confident in the way I'm starting to handle myself solo in a variety of traveling situations. Here's to more good things to come and wishing everyone a very blessed Christmas and a happy new year (inc 2019)!
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