Saturday, December 30

Ta da! i'm finally back to blogging. wanted to blog about our exploits in italy for really long, but i've been procrastinating and slacking.

Well, so our trip to italy is summed up in 4 days, saturday morning flight and back on a tues night flight. the end. only kidding~!

I've loaded up all the pics on Sony Image Album, here it is. (click here)

But, I've decided to throw some here too, the more memorable ones~

Stansted Airport
Left Guildford in a rush, travelling via the last train to stansted, whereby jacky, terrence, pp & i had to spend the night (playing big 2 & snacking + krispy kreme donuts for breakfast!) caught our early 8am flight and off to Italy we go!


Italy: Rome, aka Roma (via Airport Ciampino)

Checked into our hostel 'Des Artiste', a lovely place with marble floor steps and creaky old lifts (yup, those that you see in old movies, or so i thought :P) Another 'first' would be the pug i saw at the roof terrace - he/she (should be a he) was the fattest pug i've ever seen! *faints*

That evening, we took the bus down to the Vatican City and visited St Peter's Basilica, whereby the cardinals were having mass.. and I couldn't take a pic of the main al fresco featuring St Peter. *shrugs*






























THE HOLY 'C'!
Saint Peter's Basilica and the obelisk in St Peter's Square





















shhhh... it's time for mass.

















The next day, we started off with a must-see place - - The Colosseum! The Giganticness/Colossal size simply blew me away. It was bigger than big, and it was built by 80AD..AMAZING! It is truly a sight not to be missed.









Us & the Colosseum!


















Down the road, we entered the Roman Forum, the central place of ancient Rome, whereby the massive Basilica of Maxentius and Constanstine was actually the adminstration of justice. There were also the temple of caesar, arch of titus, arch of augustus, shrine of venus and many many others. From all the ruins left on the ground, broken off from the temples/ archs, it is really not too difficult to imagine the wonderous sight it must've been back in the old days of ancient Rome.








Following that, we visited the spanish steps which was not as spectacular as i expected, perhaps it's the lack of flowers due to the season. Walked over to the Trevi fountain, the largest Neptune fountain in Italy. Looking at it, I was truly in awe at the magnificence of the huge sculptures and the emotions they displayed. Then again, I was in awe very often when I visited the other attractions :X Oooh.. and there, i ate my proper Italian gelato! I took a pic with 4 cones (only 1 is mine!) but..well, the camera's gone. But the gelato ice cream is super good! like all the pizzas that I'll eat.. *hmmMmmm* Mama mia!










Marble sculpture of Neptune, and 2 seahorses depicting the calmness & roughness of the sea.
















In the evening, we went to the Pantheon, which was meant to be a pagan church for the seven gods of the planetary system, but was converted into a christian church later on and now, is a resting place for 2 Italian kings and painters like Raphael. The building itself however was what interested me, it was a large circular building with a dome shaped roof but with an eye in the centre. Back in uk, i chanced upon an article about it, apparently, if built in modern day, it would've collapsed w/o a supporting beam due to the composite of concrete. However, it has managed to withstand centuries with the unknown Roman concrete and an ingenious & painstaking method of building. Viola! the Best preserved roman architecture remains, for tourists such as us ( :

The next day, we visited Vatican City once more, to see the Vatican Museum & the Sistine Chapel. I have NEVER seen so much art covering the walls! I have NEVER seen such large beautiful works of art covering the ceilings. We were in a rush to catch the afternoon train to florence, that my eyes were truly strained to suck in the sights of it all. And I couldn't. How could I, when I had to twist my head from right to left and upwards constantly, while still watching at a respectably fast pace? Back we still managed to discuss some of the art pieces by Michaelangelo, like 'The Last Judgement', a powerful awe-inspiring painting which included his self-portrait; and the main ceiling al fresco in the Sistine Chapel, featuring 'Adam & Eve' and 'The Garden of Eden'.. Other paintings of the different saints, gallery of maps, the egyptian museum..*argh* i wanna eat it all in! *laughs* I sound pretty insane but you would be too!

Right: Stained glass painting of Madonna & child

Top: The Double Helix w 3 grinning dubious creatures (namely jacky, me & pp)





In Rome, we visited a choice selection of the main sights we wanna see, as I have mentioned previously. The city, although full of conmen and rubbish-strewn streets, is a really lovely place. Everywhere I went, I could see buildings with beautiful sculptures, to me at least, it was a romantic place. A city with so many old building that just felt so old and full of history, it has a dreamy feel to it. Simply gorgeous. (and filled with yummy pizzas from the plentiful pizzerias!)



Florence

We checked into our hostel - hostel Sampaoli, a rather far walk from the train station, but we had a gorgeous en-suite room with old furniture such as old cupboards, chairs, a fake fireplace, comfy duvets and warm lighting. Even the toilet had it's own old bronze-styled key! So quaint, so cosy, so delightful!

Unfortunately, terrence had to rush back to uk and catch his flight back for singapore, leaving pp, jacky & me to enjoy italy for the rest of the trip.

The next morning, after a typical italian working style breakfast of standing by the bar & chowing down our sandwiches (super good!), we walked a fairly far & freezing journey to the Piazza Michaelangelo, where we inhaled the breath-taking view of Florence in all its beauty and italian renaissance charm.


































We snapped a photo with a bronze replica of Michaelangelo's David (the real one is in the Academia Gallery) and hurried down to Piazza della Signoria, for more sights of sculptures. It is here, in the square, the original site of Michaelangelo's David stood, and of coz, we snapped more pictures with it, and others like Perseus with Medusa's head and another smaller-scaled Neptune fountain.





















We hurried on back, and swept past the Florence Campanile and Baptistry but a flat battery blew our chances of snapping the bronze 'Gates of Paradise' - depictions from bible testaments...darn!












Pisa























After re-charging our batt (the camera and ours) back in the hostel, we caught a train down to pisa to snap some pics of the Leaning Tower of Pisa before it gets dark. *phew*! just in time for some shots...before we headed back to the Pisa International Galilio Galilei Airport...




And so ends our little 4 day budget trip in the boot-shaped european country - Italy. It was a truly enjoyable trip with my surrey buddies - terrence, jacky & pp, I could do it again and again with no qualms! (except for limited money)

But maybe we could hit another place--prague perhaps? *grins*

Labels: La Dolce Vita, Qui Sono Venuto~