Okay, this is my last entry on the Italy trip. I just remembered I haven't done the recap for Italy. I did it for Thailand, and China. So I should do it for Italy too. So here goes:
1. Celcom partner is Vodafone. Should have better international roaming rate. 3G works just fine. Only they charge by bytes (not sure about the rate). Let just say, with all the SMS, phone calls and internet browsing using my T5, my telephone bill wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be. No need tweak the configuration if you already have the phone set up for internet connection in Malaysia.
2. Shopping. From non-shopaholic view point, leather goods are of good quality and cheap especially at the small shop that don't except credit cards :). The goods look like locally made and have no recognizable brands (but then again I'm a non-shopaholic who don't know much about branded stuff). You can try haggling but don't expect the price to drop very much. It might work more to you side if you haggle discreetly with the shopkeeper.
3. Language. More people speak English in the touristy are like Rome, Florence and Pisa. They are also more 'tourist-friendly'. In less touristy area, an Italian phrase book or dictionary would help you a lot.
4. Dress smartly. Even the street vendors are impeccably dressed!
5. Shoes. Wear proper shoes. I made the mistake of not properly worn in my leather boots (the leather was still stiff). They bit my toes! Only now, after the long walks, they are properly worn in. If you go in cold weather, your shoes also should sufficiently insulate your little toes. You wouldn't want to have frost bite.
6. Take care of you belongings. I didn't have any problem. Perhaps because I wasn't smartly dressed :). But upon returning to Malaysia, I heard stories of people being pickpocket.
7. Have a great time. If you appreciate arts, culture, architecture, history, etc. you would need more than a week to see it all ;).
Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Day 9 (Sunday): Rome - KLIA
7.00am
Breakfast at the hotel. It was our last day in Italy. I had wanted to go to the park near our hotel again. However I woke up late. I had a restless night. My aching right knee woke me up every now and then through out the night.
8.30am
We already checked out of the hotel and on the bus to the airport. 40 minutes later we reached the airport in Fiumicino. We checked in our luggage and lingered for a while.
10.30am
We queued at the security check. There was a long queue. 20 minutes later, it was my turn. I emptied my pocket, put my backpack into the scanning machine. I walked into the metal detector gate. “Beeep!”. The security guard asked me to take off my boots and my scarf! Not wanting to make any scene, I obliged. Sure enough, the thing did not beep!
11.30am
After uneventful check at the immigration, and speed train ride, we reached the gate for international flight. The flight, scheduled for departure at 12.20pm got delayed.
1.20pm
We finally boarded the flight home. I though the waiting was over. But no. According to the captain, we would be delayed. There was too much traffic! Can you believe it? My first air traffic jam! The plane finally took off at 2pm.
3.30pm
That was the time on my T5. But the plane must have crossed some time zone for it was sunset. Before I knew it, I lost sense of time. More than 10,000 km later, we landed in KLIA around 7.30am Malaysian time on Monday 19th November.
Breakfast at the hotel. It was our last day in Italy. I had wanted to go to the park near our hotel again. However I woke up late. I had a restless night. My aching right knee woke me up every now and then through out the night.
8.30am
We already checked out of the hotel and on the bus to the airport. 40 minutes later we reached the airport in Fiumicino. We checked in our luggage and lingered for a while.
10.30am
We queued at the security check. There was a long queue. 20 minutes later, it was my turn. I emptied my pocket, put my backpack into the scanning machine. I walked into the metal detector gate. “Beeep!”. The security guard asked me to take off my boots and my scarf! Not wanting to make any scene, I obliged. Sure enough, the thing did not beep!
11.30am
After uneventful check at the immigration, and speed train ride, we reached the gate for international flight. The flight, scheduled for departure at 12.20pm got delayed.
1.20pm
We finally boarded the flight home. I though the waiting was over. But no. According to the captain, we would be delayed. There was too much traffic! Can you believe it? My first air traffic jam! The plane finally took off at 2pm.
3.30pm
That was the time on my T5. But the plane must have crossed some time zone for it was sunset. Before I knew it, I lost sense of time. More than 10,000 km later, we landed in KLIA around 7.30am Malaysian time on Monday 19th November.
Saturday, December 08, 2007
Day 8 (Saturday): Rome wasn’t Built in One Day
So is it possible to see Rome in one day? I didn’t know, but I was willing to try.
6.20am
I packed instant ‘Beef Kurma’ and bread into my backpack. Then I took the lift down to the restaurant for breakfast. As the lift opened at the ground floor, the aroma of scrambled eggs and strong cappuccino greeted me. I instinctively follow the aroma, only to find a closed door. It was still early. Already dressed in multiple layers of clothing, I headed out for a little morning walk.
I walked westward of Via Labicana. I There’s a little hill next to our hotel. I think the hill is called, Esquilino. I climbed the stairs. The stairs lead to a park. It was eerily deserted. There were some ancient structures. Then I realized, I was very close to Coliseum. The hill overlooks it!
7.00am
I returned to hotel for breakfast. The hotel had the usual continental breakfast – omelette, bread and the likes of it. As usual, I ‘smuggle’ items into my backpack. I met my travel companions.
8.00am
We organized ourselves and started walking. The temperature was cold, must be in the region of 7-8 degree Celsius. One or two travel companions had to turn back to get additional layers of clothing.
About half an hour later, we reached our destination. It was still early. Not many tourists around. There were only one or two street vendors setting up their souvenir stalls. Some of my travel companions headed to the stalls for souvenir. The others went to shoot some photos.
I was the only one who brought a tripod. Hence, my camera had somewhat became the camera for taking ‘group’ photo. I took out my tripod, and screwed it to the dSLR. I pulled the legs to extend it. First, ok. Second, ok. Then, the third leg, it came off! The base of the third leg snapped from it’s two siblings. After supporting my cameras and occasionally me, my tripod of 10 years finally gave up on me.
Somehow I managed to precariously balance everything and took last group photo.
9.00am
At the first door, we went through a simple security check. The security politely asked everyone to put his or her jackets and bags through the scanning device (in English!). Luckily, the queue wasn’t long. Otherwise, I could have frozen due to the cold temperature (I’m exaggerating, but you know what I meant).
Once we passed the security check, we headed to the ticket 
counter. We thought we could get a special price if we bought the tickets as a group. But no, it was Euro 11.00 flat. We went through the ticketing gate. Then followed the crowd through an archway (that looks like a tunnel). It opened to the arena. Actually what you would see is a somewhat a maze underneath the arena.
While the rest of the group was busy taking photos at the arena, I walked along the archways. Saw some of the columns that used to form the Coliseum. Some how I found the stairs leading to the top section of the Coliseum. I took a few photos before my dSLR went dead! After seven days, I finally dried up my battery.
I had to switch to my back-up camera – my old Nikon Coolpix 7600. Yes, I was paranoid. I brought two cameras, with two memory cards each. I glad I did. I must be the only one in the group who brought two digital cameras. Even though my back-up camera have limited capability (it performs very badly in low light), I glad I had it. My other travelling companions had to use their mobile phone camera (due to camera ran out of battery or memory).
10.30am
We were out of the Coliseum. By now the square around the Coliseum was thronged by tourists. Among the tourists, we met two group of Malaysians. The first group was from Ministry of Defence (I’m not sure about this, if they weren’t they could be from the Army/Navy). The second was two men from TV3.
We follow the mass up a small hill. At the top of the hill was a huge archway, Arco di Tito. We went through it. We walked through ancient ruins. And got down some stairs. It was as if we were walking in an ancient town. There we ancient ruins all around us. It was the Foro Romano, or in English, Roman Forum.
Following other tourists, I found a little corner of the ruins where there were flowers. With hand gesturing a stab, I asked an old Italian lady if this was where Julius Caesar was killed. She nodded. I asked another tourist (the handsome man got a guide book with him):
Me: Inglese? (English)
Handsome blonde: A little.
Me: Is this where Caesar was killed?
Handsome blonde: No, he was burned here.
Me (looking puzzled, and thinking wasn’t Caesar was only stabbed?)
Handsome blonde (looking unsure): Cremated?
Me (smiling and comprehending): Aa… Ok. Thank you.
We continued walking. The Foro Romano is like a town with ruins that looked like temple, houses and what nots. We walked along what could have been an ancient road, now named Via Sacra. We exited the site through an archway, Arco di Settimio Severo at the end of Via Sacra. We climbed up some stairs that lead us to more-recent buildings. At the little square, there were some street vendors selling touristy souvenir as well as practical things (battery, cheap tripod, guide books, films etc). Inspired by the handsome tourist, after a little haggling, I bought a guide book for Euro 6.00.
The square led us to a bigger square called Piazza del Campidoglio. Interesting enough, there’s a poster of Aung San Suu Kyi hanging on one of the balcony. Perhaps this is to show support of democracy. On another side of the square was a church. I didn’t get the name but I’m sure it wasn’t Aracoeli. There was a short photo session of bride-groom and the wedding attendees. With the church and the square as the background, the picture must have looked good - except for the jacket that the bride had to wear over her white wedding gown. By now, three of us were separated from the main group.
The three of us went down some staircase and reached to a main road. I think the road is Via del Teatro Marcello. We pondered where were the rest of the group. If they decide to walk to the Vatican City, it would be to go northwest-ward (some one mentioned that we should go to
Vatican City). If they decide to return to the hotel, it would be southeast-ward. Looking at the map, the route back to hotel was more straightforward than the route to Vatican City. So we headed northwest. On our left was more stairs that lead to Church of Aracoeli. We continue walking. In front of Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II (a place where Mussolini once made a speech) we found them!
The rest of the group wanted to go for lunch. They wanted to find a halal restaurant as told by the first group of Malaysian we met earlier. Some wanted to return to hotel to charge their batteries. Me, as I had my daypack, prefer to have a simple ‘picnic’ lunch and continue exploring. Somehow I managed to convince the two guys to join me while the rest headed back to the hotel!
But before picnicking, two of us badly in need of toilet break. We found a group of policemen and asked one of them. The polite policemen told us that we have to use toilet in one of the many restaurant there. He pointed us to the direction of one restaurant. At the restaurant door, I asked politely:
Me: Inglese? (English?)
Serious-looking Staff at the door: Yes.
Me (looking somewhat guilty): May we use the toilet?
Staff (now smiling): Yes. Go to the left and down.
So off we went, down the spiral staircase. Why was I feeling guilty? Because I want to use his toilet without buying any food from him! We had to queue for the toilet. We were later joined by the polite policemen. There was only one toilet. We had to wait for quite a while.
Once we answered the nature call, we were ready for our picnic. We took a bench at what I think is Piazza Venezia. I took out a loaf of bread and a pack of “Brahim” instant beef “Kurma”. My companion took out some oranges. I began arranging the food on the bench. There were a few pigeons at the area. My companion, pitying the pigeons, suggested that I gave a piece of bread to them, which I did. Great mistake! Before we knew it, we were swamped by pigeons. It was a chaos.
Lucky for us, we haven’t took out any of the food from the packages except for a slice of bread. We grabbed everything and moved to another bench. I don’t know why, but the pigeons didn’t flock us once we moved to another bench. And so we were able to continue with our picnic. We finished the bread and the beef. My companion was about to keep the oranges since he had no knife to cut through the skin. Both guys were amazed when I took out my ‘swiss army’ knife from my parka pocket. We (or rather the two guys, I avoid sour fruits that may cause stomach upset) had oranges as desert.
2.00pm
While we were queuing for the toilet, the other guy managed to figure out how take a bus to go to Pantheon and other places of interest. I welcomed the news for after climbing up and down the stairs, my right knee began to ache. I’d begun using my broken tripod as my walking stick. I could still walk, but at a slower pace. At the rate I was walking, it was almost impossible to see Rome in one day!
There were a three bus stops at the Piazza Venezia, ‘Yellow’, ‘Red’ and the last one if I’m not mistaken ‘Green’. The ‘Yellow’ and ‘Red’ buses are double-deck-open-top kind of bus. We decided to go for the ‘Red’ buses simply because the buses were higher than the ‘Yellow’ ones. The fare was Euro 16.00 for one day. We were given earphones. At each seats we could slot the earphones and listen to the explanation while the bus travel through the city.
According to the bus route map, the nearest stop to Pantheon was Piazza Navona. I told my friend who sat next to me that we should do two rides. On the first ride, we should just sat and see where the bus would take us. On the second ride, we should hop on and off to head to places of interest. He agreed. Little that we knew that our other friend didn’t know that the Euro 16.00 bus fare was for one day.
The bus drove northwestward of a main street called Corso Vittorio Emanuele. As the bus drove along the road, I looked left and right according to the voice from the earphone. Before long, I was lost as what monument the fellow was explaining and what was I seeing. I decided to just look at whatever I want to see and later consult my guidebook.
The bus crossed the river Tevere on a ‘elaborately’ (sculpture, carving and what nots) built bridge called Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II. Ponte must be Italian for bridge for I see it on every bridge in the map. From a distance we could see a huge brown building called Castel Sant’ Angelo. It was initially built as some sort of a family burial place for emperor Hadrian. Somewhere along the history line, it was turned into a fortress and now a museum.
Then the bus drove along a straight road, before stopping for three minutes. During the ride, I didn’t know that we were already in Vatican City. (At the end of the first ride I asked my companions where was the Vatican City, only to 
draw laughters from them. They told me that we were in Vatican City once we crossed the River and out of Vatican City once we crossed it the second time! Showed that I really wasn’t listening to the voice from the earphone. No wonder buildings in the area was funded by one priest after another.) At the stop, called San Pietro, there were some street vendors selling what I assume to be fake goods (handbags etc.) and some shawls.
The bus continued up the road, Via della Conciliazione. There were a round open space with lots of people. It was the Piazza San Pietro. The enormous building overlooking the piazza is Basilica di
San Pietro. The bus turn into Via dei Corridori. If you looked up, along this road is a structure that looked like a corridor. If I’m not mistaken some pope or priest used this corridor to get to the Castel Sant’ Angelo from Basilica di San Pietro. The bus went through one of the archway underneath the corridor and straight to Via Crescenzio. Before long we were crossing the river for the second time, only this time we used Ponte Cavour.
The bus drove through the city of Rome. We passed numerous monuments, squares (piazza), and fountains. Some were built by Michelangelo. And some of the monument was brought from Egypt (the thing that looked like a squarish column). One of the fountain consisted sculptures of women in provocative positions. Some time in the previous centuries, the power to be in Rome decided that the sculptures were too provocative and immodest. Instead of tearing down the monument, they build a wall surrounding it – effectively blocking everyone’s view of the provocative women! I tried to find the name of the fountain in my guidebook, but fruitless.
The bus finally reached the Colosseo. We were on the second deck. With cold wind blowing to our faces, we were cold. We decided we need a break. We got off the bus, and walked to our hotel. Along the way, I stopped at a shop to buy fresh batteries for my back-up camera (Bummer, I ran out of battery while on the bus. So not much photos during the ride). It was 3.30pm.
4.30pm
After sprinting for the bus, we were back touring the city for the second time. The guys had no problem running to the bus stop. I was never a sprinter, so it was very hard for me. I was grasping for a breath when I finally got on the bus. It was especially harder to breathe in the cold air. Eventually I managed to calm down and enjoy the ride.
We wanted to get off at Piazza Navona to walk to Pantheon. Unfortunately, due to time constrain we had to scrapped the idea. By the time we reach San Pietro (this time I knew I was in the Vatican City), the sun was already setting in. We decided to get down at the Termini stop and grab some dinner.
6.00pm
We got down at the Termini stop. The guys wanted to find the halal restaurant for dinner. Me, food was actually last on my agenda. I had some buns (smuggled from breakfast) and snacks in my daypack. Again due to time constrain – the last red bus was at 7.30pm, we had to scrapped the idea. The guys settled with McD.
I didn’t want to order anything, but change my mind when I saw that they are selling hot coffee and bun for Euro1.80. Ordering the set meal was easy, but getting the right set was not (there were a few types of buns). As in Genoa, the staff didn’t speak English. The lady
almost gave up pointing to the menu over our head (they don’t have those menu on the counter like in Malaysia), and just gave me a bun. Then I remember my T5. I drew the shape of the bun that I wanted and showed to the lady and her male colleague. They laughed and I joined them laughing. They finally gave me the correct bun. The hot coffee was refreshing and the bun was filling for my small stomach.
7.15pm
We walked to the bus stop in the cold night. The temperature showed on the little electronic information board was 3.5 degree Celsius. The Italian seemed to have installed these boards everywhere. I saw the boards were in most streets in Genoa, and now in Rome. And they seemed to show the temperature at that particular street (the reading varies from streets to streets).
7.30pm
We were on the bus. This time I settled for a seat at the lower deck. It was warmer. After the sprinting episode, I began to feel a little breathing difficulty. I suspected that it was due to the cold air. The bus finally moved fifteen minutes later. We reached our stop, Colosseo around 8.45pm.
So that was how I got to see Rome in one day!
note: Some of the photos in this entry are from my friend's camera. My back-up camera didn't perform up to my standard. So I lend my memory card to my friend and let him take more photos.
6.20am
I packed instant ‘Beef Kurma’ and bread into my backpack. Then I took the lift down to the restaurant for breakfast. As the lift opened at the ground floor, the aroma of scrambled eggs and strong cappuccino greeted me. I instinctively follow the aroma, only to find a closed door. It was still early. Already dressed in multiple layers of clothing, I headed out for a little morning walk.
I walked westward of Via Labicana. I There’s a little hill next to our hotel. I think the hill is called, Esquilino. I climbed the stairs. The stairs lead to a park. It was eerily deserted. There were some ancient structures. Then I realized, I was very close to Coliseum. The hill overlooks it!7.00am
I returned to hotel for breakfast. The hotel had the usual continental breakfast – omelette, bread and the likes of it. As usual, I ‘smuggle’ items into my backpack. I met my travel companions.8.00am
We organized ourselves and started walking. The temperature was cold, must be in the region of 7-8 degree Celsius. One or two travel companions had to turn back to get additional layers of clothing.
About half an hour later, we reached our destination. It was still early. Not many tourists around. There were only one or two street vendors setting up their souvenir stalls. Some of my travel companions headed to the stalls for souvenir. The others went to shoot some photos.I was the only one who brought a tripod. Hence, my camera had somewhat became the camera for taking ‘group’ photo. I took out my tripod, and screwed it to the dSLR. I pulled the legs to extend it. First, ok. Second, ok. Then, the third leg, it came off! The base of the third leg snapped from it’s two siblings. After supporting my cameras and occasionally me, my tripod of 10 years finally gave up on me.
Somehow I managed to precariously balance everything and took last group photo.
9.00am
At the first door, we went through a simple security check. The security politely asked everyone to put his or her jackets and bags through the scanning device (in English!). Luckily, the queue wasn’t long. Otherwise, I could have frozen due to the cold temperature (I’m exaggerating, but you know what I meant).
Once we passed the security check, we headed to the ticket 
counter. We thought we could get a special price if we bought the tickets as a group. But no, it was Euro 11.00 flat. We went through the ticketing gate. Then followed the crowd through an archway (that looks like a tunnel). It opened to the arena. Actually what you would see is a somewhat a maze underneath the arena.
While the rest of the group was busy taking photos at the arena, I walked along the archways. Saw some of the columns that used to form the Coliseum. Some how I found the stairs leading to the top section of the Coliseum. I took a few photos before my dSLR went dead! After seven days, I finally dried up my battery.
I had to switch to my back-up camera – my old Nikon Coolpix 7600. Yes, I was paranoid. I brought two cameras, with two memory cards each. I glad I did. I must be the only one in the group who brought two digital cameras. Even though my back-up camera have limited capability (it performs very badly in low light), I glad I had it. My other travelling companions had to use their mobile phone camera (due to camera ran out of battery or memory).10.30am
We were out of the Coliseum. By now the square around the Coliseum was thronged by tourists. Among the tourists, we met two group of Malaysians. The first group was from Ministry of Defence (I’m not sure about this, if they weren’t they could be from the Army/Navy). The second was two men from TV3.
We follow the mass up a small hill. At the top of the hill was a huge archway, Arco di Tito. We went through it. We walked through ancient ruins. And got down some stairs. It was as if we were walking in an ancient town. There we ancient ruins all around us. It was the Foro Romano, or in English, Roman Forum.
Following other tourists, I found a little corner of the ruins where there were flowers. With hand gesturing a stab, I asked an old Italian lady if this was where Julius Caesar was killed. She nodded. I asked another tourist (the handsome man got a guide book with him):
Me: Inglese? (English)
Handsome blonde: A little.
Me: Is this where Caesar was killed?
Handsome blonde: No, he was burned here.
Me (looking puzzled, and thinking wasn’t Caesar was only stabbed?)
Handsome blonde (looking unsure): Cremated?
Me (smiling and comprehending): Aa… Ok. Thank you.
We continued walking. The Foro Romano is like a town with ruins that looked like temple, houses and what nots. We walked along what could have been an ancient road, now named Via Sacra. We exited the site through an archway, Arco di Settimio Severo at the end of Via Sacra. We climbed up some stairs that lead us to more-recent buildings. At the little square, there were some street vendors selling touristy souvenir as well as practical things (battery, cheap tripod, guide books, films etc). Inspired by the handsome tourist, after a little haggling, I bought a guide book for Euro 6.00.
The square led us to a bigger square called Piazza del Campidoglio. Interesting enough, there’s a poster of Aung San Suu Kyi hanging on one of the balcony. Perhaps this is to show support of democracy. On another side of the square was a church. I didn’t get the name but I’m sure it wasn’t Aracoeli. There was a short photo session of bride-groom and the wedding attendees. With the church and the square as the background, the picture must have looked good - except for the jacket that the bride had to wear over her white wedding gown. By now, three of us were separated from the main group.The three of us went down some staircase and reached to a main road. I think the road is Via del Teatro Marcello. We pondered where were the rest of the group. If they decide to walk to the Vatican City, it would be to go northwest-ward (some one mentioned that we should go to
Vatican City). If they decide to return to the hotel, it would be southeast-ward. Looking at the map, the route back to hotel was more straightforward than the route to Vatican City. So we headed northwest. On our left was more stairs that lead to Church of Aracoeli. We continue walking. In front of Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II (a place where Mussolini once made a speech) we found them!The rest of the group wanted to go for lunch. They wanted to find a halal restaurant as told by the first group of Malaysian we met earlier. Some wanted to return to hotel to charge their batteries. Me, as I had my daypack, prefer to have a simple ‘picnic’ lunch and continue exploring. Somehow I managed to convince the two guys to join me while the rest headed back to the hotel!
But before picnicking, two of us badly in need of toilet break. We found a group of policemen and asked one of them. The polite policemen told us that we have to use toilet in one of the many restaurant there. He pointed us to the direction of one restaurant. At the restaurant door, I asked politely:
Me: Inglese? (English?)
Serious-looking Staff at the door: Yes.
Me (looking somewhat guilty): May we use the toilet?
Staff (now smiling): Yes. Go to the left and down.
So off we went, down the spiral staircase. Why was I feeling guilty? Because I want to use his toilet without buying any food from him! We had to queue for the toilet. We were later joined by the polite policemen. There was only one toilet. We had to wait for quite a while.
Once we answered the nature call, we were ready for our picnic. We took a bench at what I think is Piazza Venezia. I took out a loaf of bread and a pack of “Brahim” instant beef “Kurma”. My companion took out some oranges. I began arranging the food on the bench. There were a few pigeons at the area. My companion, pitying the pigeons, suggested that I gave a piece of bread to them, which I did. Great mistake! Before we knew it, we were swamped by pigeons. It was a chaos.Lucky for us, we haven’t took out any of the food from the packages except for a slice of bread. We grabbed everything and moved to another bench. I don’t know why, but the pigeons didn’t flock us once we moved to another bench. And so we were able to continue with our picnic. We finished the bread and the beef. My companion was about to keep the oranges since he had no knife to cut through the skin. Both guys were amazed when I took out my ‘swiss army’ knife from my parka pocket. We (or rather the two guys, I avoid sour fruits that may cause stomach upset) had oranges as desert.
2.00pm
While we were queuing for the toilet, the other guy managed to figure out how take a bus to go to Pantheon and other places of interest. I welcomed the news for after climbing up and down the stairs, my right knee began to ache. I’d begun using my broken tripod as my walking stick. I could still walk, but at a slower pace. At the rate I was walking, it was almost impossible to see Rome in one day!
There were a three bus stops at the Piazza Venezia, ‘Yellow’, ‘Red’ and the last one if I’m not mistaken ‘Green’. The ‘Yellow’ and ‘Red’ buses are double-deck-open-top kind of bus. We decided to go for the ‘Red’ buses simply because the buses were higher than the ‘Yellow’ ones. The fare was Euro 16.00 for one day. We were given earphones. At each seats we could slot the earphones and listen to the explanation while the bus travel through the city.According to the bus route map, the nearest stop to Pantheon was Piazza Navona. I told my friend who sat next to me that we should do two rides. On the first ride, we should just sat and see where the bus would take us. On the second ride, we should hop on and off to head to places of interest. He agreed. Little that we knew that our other friend didn’t know that the Euro 16.00 bus fare was for one day.
The bus drove northwestward of a main street called Corso Vittorio Emanuele. As the bus drove along the road, I looked left and right according to the voice from the earphone. Before long, I was lost as what monument the fellow was explaining and what was I seeing. I decided to just look at whatever I want to see and later consult my guidebook.
The bus crossed the river Tevere on a ‘elaborately’ (sculpture, carving and what nots) built bridge called Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II. Ponte must be Italian for bridge for I see it on every bridge in the map. From a distance we could see a huge brown building called Castel Sant’ Angelo. It was initially built as some sort of a family burial place for emperor Hadrian. Somewhere along the history line, it was turned into a fortress and now a museum.
Then the bus drove along a straight road, before stopping for three minutes. During the ride, I didn’t know that we were already in Vatican City. (At the end of the first ride I asked my companions where was the Vatican City, only to 
draw laughters from them. They told me that we were in Vatican City once we crossed the River and out of Vatican City once we crossed it the second time! Showed that I really wasn’t listening to the voice from the earphone. No wonder buildings in the area was funded by one priest after another.) At the stop, called San Pietro, there were some street vendors selling what I assume to be fake goods (handbags etc.) and some shawls.The bus continued up the road, Via della Conciliazione. There were a round open space with lots of people. It was the Piazza San Pietro. The enormous building overlooking the piazza is Basilica di
San Pietro. The bus turn into Via dei Corridori. If you looked up, along this road is a structure that looked like a corridor. If I’m not mistaken some pope or priest used this corridor to get to the Castel Sant’ Angelo from Basilica di San Pietro. The bus went through one of the archway underneath the corridor and straight to Via Crescenzio. Before long we were crossing the river for the second time, only this time we used Ponte Cavour.
The bus drove through the city of Rome. We passed numerous monuments, squares (piazza), and fountains. Some were built by Michelangelo. And some of the monument was brought from Egypt (the thing that looked like a squarish column). One of the fountain consisted sculptures of women in provocative positions. Some time in the previous centuries, the power to be in Rome decided that the sculptures were too provocative and immodest. Instead of tearing down the monument, they build a wall surrounding it – effectively blocking everyone’s view of the provocative women! I tried to find the name of the fountain in my guidebook, but fruitless.The bus finally reached the Colosseo. We were on the second deck. With cold wind blowing to our faces, we were cold. We decided we need a break. We got off the bus, and walked to our hotel. Along the way, I stopped at a shop to buy fresh batteries for my back-up camera (Bummer, I ran out of battery while on the bus. So not much photos during the ride). It was 3.30pm.
4.30pm
After sprinting for the bus, we were back touring the city for the second time. The guys had no problem running to the bus stop. I was never a sprinter, so it was very hard for me. I was grasping for a breath when I finally got on the bus. It was especially harder to breathe in the cold air. Eventually I managed to calm down and enjoy the ride.
We wanted to get off at Piazza Navona to walk to Pantheon. Unfortunately, due to time constrain we had to scrapped the idea. By the time we reach San Pietro (this time I knew I was in the Vatican City), the sun was already setting in. We decided to get down at the Termini stop and grab some dinner.6.00pm
We got down at the Termini stop. The guys wanted to find the halal restaurant for dinner. Me, food was actually last on my agenda. I had some buns (smuggled from breakfast) and snacks in my daypack. Again due to time constrain – the last red bus was at 7.30pm, we had to scrapped the idea. The guys settled with McD.
I didn’t want to order anything, but change my mind when I saw that they are selling hot coffee and bun for Euro1.80. Ordering the set meal was easy, but getting the right set was not (there were a few types of buns). As in Genoa, the staff didn’t speak English. The lady
almost gave up pointing to the menu over our head (they don’t have those menu on the counter like in Malaysia), and just gave me a bun. Then I remember my T5. I drew the shape of the bun that I wanted and showed to the lady and her male colleague. They laughed and I joined them laughing. They finally gave me the correct bun. The hot coffee was refreshing and the bun was filling for my small stomach.7.15pm
We walked to the bus stop in the cold night. The temperature showed on the little electronic information board was 3.5 degree Celsius. The Italian seemed to have installed these boards everywhere. I saw the boards were in most streets in Genoa, and now in Rome. And they seemed to show the temperature at that particular street (the reading varies from streets to streets).
7.30pm
We were on the bus. This time I settled for a seat at the lower deck. It was warmer. After the sprinting episode, I began to feel a little breathing difficulty. I suspected that it was due to the cold air. The bus finally moved fifteen minutes later. We reached our stop, Colosseo around 8.45pm.
So that was how I got to see Rome in one day!
note: Some of the photos in this entry are from my friend's camera. My back-up camera didn't perform up to my standard. So I lend my memory card to my friend and let him take more photos.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Day 7 (Friday) – I’m leaving on a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again
6.45am
It was my last day in Genoa. I had to muster the ‘strength’ deep within me just to drag my self out from the comfort and warmth of my bed for my long overdue morning walk. I’m exaggerating, but you get what I meant.
In the cold morning breeze, I walked up the small alley in front the hotel. I reached a little newsstand. 
The beautiful lady shopkeeper was busy arranging newspaper and magazines. Except for a few passer-by, the well lit alleys were pretty much deserted. A lady stopped to buy a newspaper. They both took note of me and my dSLR.
Me (with a smile): Buon Giorno
Two stylish looking ladies: (smiled back)
The smiles were some sort of permission for me to continue taking photos in the area. They continued with their daily routine, paying no special attention to me.
I was tempted to literally go up the alley in front of me (the alley have steps and railing). Unfortunately I have limited time and could not afford to be ‘lost’. 
So I took the alley that leads to the main road, Via Roma. I walked up until the end of the street (which is not that far) and came to a some sort of a round-about, Piazza Corvetto. It was perhaps the busiest streets near the hotel at that hour.
I turned back, crossed Via Roma and headed down toward the hotel. I saw another newsstand. There was a tree next to it. 
The absence of leaves indicated that winter is coming. I continued walking. I entered Galleria Mazzini. It was as deserted as the road and alleys. Even though it was somewhat ‘in-door’, it was still cold. Imagine my 
surprise when I saw a lady sleeping in front of a door! I wondered why she was there. Judging from her shoes (shoes with pointed heels), I didn’t think she was a homeless.
I returned to City Hotel for our last breakfast. I took one last photo of the view from my window. We checked out at 8.15am and left for work.
1.00pm
We were on the bus, leaving the office. 30 minutes later, we reached the airport. We checked-in our luggage and loitered at the lobby for a while.
2.30pm
We went through the security check. At the check point, one of our fellow travellers got stopped. The airport security checked the photos in his camera (no photos were allowed at the security check area). To their delight and laughter, there was a photo of his (taken by me) posing next to an airport security car. After the little incident, we headed into the boarding area only to discover our flight was delayed.
4.00pm
The flight finally took off. About an hour later, we reached Rome. We exited at gate A3.
5.45pm
After some confusion, we finally was able to locate our bus. It was already dark. We were caught in a KL-like traffic jam on the highway. We reached the hotel at 7.00 pm. The best way to describe the hotel, Hotel Delta is that it was the total opposite of City Hotel in Genoa. Hotel Delta is a modern building (when compared to other building from previous centuries) right next to a main road, Via Labicana. The bus actually stopped us right in front of the hotel door.
In Genoa, my first thought when the bus driver told us in his limited English to drag our luggage up the cobble stone alley, was, “Oh God! What kind hotel are we staying in!”. While I thought the room in Genoa was small, it was far more luxurious compared to the room in Rome. Not to forget the service. In Genoa, the housekeeping staff left a card with their name after they clean your room. If your room is kind of neat when you left it, the staff would reward you with a candy (that is too sweet for my tooth). No such personalize service in Rome.
7.30pm
At the hotel lobby, I grabbed one of those tourist map. After my ‘exploring’ stint in Genoa, the group leader gave me the task of locating stuff on the map, namely roads that could have halal restaurant. We found one road on the map – Via Merulana.
We walked along Via Labicana toward what I think was east. We passed a lot of small road before arriving to a crossing. Once we spotted the sign Viale Manzoni, we knew we were already on Via Merulana. Our only dilemma was either to head north ward, or south ward. I didn’t exactly know how we made the decision, either we were following my instinct to head north, or because there were some McD sign in the north (on the map). Must be the latter, because if we fail to find the restaurant, we could head to the McD.
At the first ‘friendly-looking’ shopkeeper, we stopped and asked for direction. He told us to go further north. Eventually we realized that the doors along the road were all numbered. The address for the halal restaurant was shop number 271. We were, by then, 70 doors away.
After the long walk, we finally located the restaurant. There were rice briani, kebabs, falafel and the likes of it. I spotted a letter on the wall similar to the one I saw in Genoa. After seeing the portion of rice per serving, I decided to order bread (those round flat bread that looks like a cappati) to go with a plate of meat (I don’t really eat chicken and they didn’t have fish). The shop was patronized by people in ‘dubious’ looking clothes. As simple as we were, we were perhaps more well dressed than the rest in the restaurant.
Hence, I didn’t not dare to ‘flaunt’ my dSLR to take photos. I kept it zipped underneath my parka most of the time.
After dinner, we braved the cold night to head back to our hotel. Along the way, there were a lot of graffiti on the buildings. One of the was a anti-US.
9.15pm
We were back at the hotel.
It was my last day in Genoa. I had to muster the ‘strength’ deep within me just to drag my self out from the comfort and warmth of my bed for my long overdue morning walk. I’m exaggerating, but you get what I meant.
In the cold morning breeze, I walked up the small alley in front the hotel. I reached a little newsstand. 
The beautiful lady shopkeeper was busy arranging newspaper and magazines. Except for a few passer-by, the well lit alleys were pretty much deserted. A lady stopped to buy a newspaper. They both took note of me and my dSLR.Me (with a smile): Buon Giorno
Two stylish looking ladies: (smiled back)
The smiles were some sort of permission for me to continue taking photos in the area. They continued with their daily routine, paying no special attention to me.
I was tempted to literally go up the alley in front of me (the alley have steps and railing). Unfortunately I have limited time and could not afford to be ‘lost’. 
So I took the alley that leads to the main road, Via Roma. I walked up until the end of the street (which is not that far) and came to a some sort of a round-about, Piazza Corvetto. It was perhaps the busiest streets near the hotel at that hour.
I turned back, crossed Via Roma and headed down toward the hotel. I saw another newsstand. There was a tree next to it. 
The absence of leaves indicated that winter is coming. I continued walking. I entered Galleria Mazzini. It was as deserted as the road and alleys. Even though it was somewhat ‘in-door’, it was still cold. Imagine my 
surprise when I saw a lady sleeping in front of a door! I wondered why she was there. Judging from her shoes (shoes with pointed heels), I didn’t think she was a homeless.
I returned to City Hotel for our last breakfast. I took one last photo of the view from my window. We checked out at 8.15am and left for work.
1.00pm
We were on the bus, leaving the office. 30 minutes later, we reached the airport. We checked-in our luggage and loitered at the lobby for a while.
2.30pm
We went through the security check. At the check point, one of our fellow travellers got stopped. The airport security checked the photos in his camera (no photos were allowed at the security check area). To their delight and laughter, there was a photo of his (taken by me) posing next to an airport security car. After the little incident, we headed into the boarding area only to discover our flight was delayed.
4.00pm
The flight finally took off. About an hour later, we reached Rome. We exited at gate A3.
5.45pm
After some confusion, we finally was able to locate our bus. It was already dark. We were caught in a KL-like traffic jam on the highway. We reached the hotel at 7.00 pm. The best way to describe the hotel, Hotel Delta is that it was the total opposite of City Hotel in Genoa. Hotel Delta is a modern building (when compared to other building from previous centuries) right next to a main road, Via Labicana. The bus actually stopped us right in front of the hotel door.
In Genoa, my first thought when the bus driver told us in his limited English to drag our luggage up the cobble stone alley, was, “Oh God! What kind hotel are we staying in!”. While I thought the room in Genoa was small, it was far more luxurious compared to the room in Rome. Not to forget the service. In Genoa, the housekeeping staff left a card with their name after they clean your room. If your room is kind of neat when you left it, the staff would reward you with a candy (that is too sweet for my tooth). No such personalize service in Rome.
7.30pm
At the hotel lobby, I grabbed one of those tourist map. After my ‘exploring’ stint in Genoa, the group leader gave me the task of locating stuff on the map, namely roads that could have halal restaurant. We found one road on the map – Via Merulana.
We walked along Via Labicana toward what I think was east. We passed a lot of small road before arriving to a crossing. Once we spotted the sign Viale Manzoni, we knew we were already on Via Merulana. Our only dilemma was either to head north ward, or south ward. I didn’t exactly know how we made the decision, either we were following my instinct to head north, or because there were some McD sign in the north (on the map). Must be the latter, because if we fail to find the restaurant, we could head to the McD.
At the first ‘friendly-looking’ shopkeeper, we stopped and asked for direction. He told us to go further north. Eventually we realized that the doors along the road were all numbered. The address for the halal restaurant was shop number 271. We were, by then, 70 doors away.
After the long walk, we finally located the restaurant. There were rice briani, kebabs, falafel and the likes of it. I spotted a letter on the wall similar to the one I saw in Genoa. After seeing the portion of rice per serving, I decided to order bread (those round flat bread that looks like a cappati) to go with a plate of meat (I don’t really eat chicken and they didn’t have fish). The shop was patronized by people in ‘dubious’ looking clothes. As simple as we were, we were perhaps more well dressed than the rest in the restaurant.
Hence, I didn’t not dare to ‘flaunt’ my dSLR to take photos. I kept it zipped underneath my parka most of the time.After dinner, we braved the cold night to head back to our hotel. Along the way, there were a lot of graffiti on the buildings. One of the was a anti-US.
9.15pm
We were back at the hotel.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Day 6 (Thursday): Last evening in Genoa
5.10pm
My fellow travellers gathered at the hotel lobby. On our way to the pizza restaurant last Tuesday, we discovered ‘Coop’ tucked away from the main road near our hotel. It was a little supermarket. Actually it was a chain of supermarket, very similar to ‘Giant’ in Malaysia. We walked to the ‘Coop’.
Since it was our last evening in Genoa, we wanted to buy some souvenir from Genoa. Genoa is not really a touristy place. Unlike Pisa and Florence where you can easily find ‘touristy’ souvenir, we couldn’t find any in Genoa – you know those souvenir that screamed ‘from Genoa’. So we settled for the next best thing, we bought Olive Oil. According to my friend, at Euro 5.00 even after conversion to Malaysian Ringgit, it was still a lot cheaper. For the same price, in Malaysia you would get a tiny bottle. In Genoa, you’ll get a big bottle! We must have stood out in the crowd of Italians. None of us speak Italian and the Italians don’t speak English either.
After making our purchases, some of us decided to return to hotel, some continued wandering. I didn’t want to spend the last evening cooped up in my hotel room. I joined the wandering group. At our first alley, some of the guys decided that they want to have dinner at a fish and chip restaurant. The rest of us continued walking down the little alley.
6.15pm
I stopped at a camera shop along the alley:
Me: Inglese?
Man: A little
Me (showing my dSLR): Power? Quanto costa? (Power? How much does it cost?)
Man (looked my dSLR): Si. Euro 50.00 (Yes. Euro 50.00)
Me: Grazie (walking away as I realized I can’t afford to buy it in Italy!)
(I had earlier discovered that my telephone charger was not working. I tried plugging my dSLR battery charger into the power socket in my room, the lights didn’t turn on. I had both items in the checked-in luggage. Didn’t want to risk accidentally discharging whatever power left in the battery, I didn’t dare to slot the battery into the charger. Lucky for me I had the battery fully charged before leaving Malaysia.)
We reached a little square. There were some street vendors there. But most were packing up their things. With the help of my T5, I managed to haggle the price of a leather glove to Euro 6.00 (RM30.00). It was not the furry kind (like the one I bought in Florence) but that was okay. After my mishap, I intended to use the glove as my biking glove.
We continued wandering. We found a shop selling leather goods just for female. From leather boots to leather jackets. Handbags, glove and what nots. Very cool shop. Too bad I was on a tight budget. Otherwise I might have bought a complete set of leather attire to wear while riding my two wheeler.
We went in another leather shop. This shop specialized in bags. Small handbags, purses, travelling bags, you named it, they got it. But none of the bags carried any well-known designer labels. The bags must have been locally made. One of the guy bought a wallet. The little shop accepted VISA and MASTERCARD!
We continued down the alley and found yet another square. By now, looking at the map we were 'lost'. We didn’t know the our location relative to the map. My guest: we were in Piazza Banchi. At the square, there was a newsstand. Among the things sold there was a box of vinyl records. The vinyl records were sold as low as Euro 3.00 per piece. I don’t know if you could still buy vinyl records in Malaysia, or if you remember how it looks like. But a fellow traveller bought one as a souvenir.
After that we continued into an indoor ‘market’ area. Not exactly a market, more like shop lots in an old building. We walked along the corridors. I spotted a halal sign outside a restaurant. We went in, while looking at the menus on the wall, I spotted some sort of a ‘halal certificate’ issued local Islamic centre. It was a letter in Italian and a few Arabic characters with picture of what looked like a mosque. I ordered a ‘falafeel’ – some what like a kebab but instead of meat, substitute with vegetarian stuff. At the counter:
Me: Inglese?
Moustache man: Yes, a little.
Me: Mosques nearby?
Moustache man: Yes. 3 (mosques). 5 minutes walking. Tomorrow, 12pm come here.
So the man must be a Muslim for he understood the underlying intention of asking the mosque. Some of the guys were wondering if it was possible to perform Friday prayers before leaving Genoa tomorrow.
After buying dinner, our group split into two. Two of the guys returned to the hotel. Three of us continued walking. This was after all our last evening in Genoa. I particularly want to see their Aquaria – reputably to be one of the best in Europe. Yes, I got to see it, but only from far, from Piazza Caricamento. Crossing the piazza, we reached Porto Antico (Port Antico?). The view was great! So was the wind! With the wind blowing, the temperature could have reached zero degree – if it didn’t, it sure felt like it. While we were taking photos – very touristy – we saw people jogging along the port. There we were, dressed in multiple layers of clothing and still had our teeth chattering because of cold, these joggers jogged calmly in their simple jogging attire!
We must have almost circled Porta Della Marinetta before deciding to turn back. Though the road was well lit, it was deserted. The guys was scared that we would get mugged. Somehow we managed to get to Via San Lorenzo which ultimately brought us back to Piazza Matteoti. We went into Palazzo Ducale. There was a little photo exhibition going on. The subjects were mostly Asian people. Looking at the photos, I realized, I could have similar photos back in Malaysia. Sorry, no photos of the exhibition or the artwork in Palazzo Ducale as I don’t want to infringe any intellectual property law.
9.15pm
We exited to the now very familiar Piazza De Ferrari. Fiftteen minutes later we were back in the hotel. I packed most of my things. The following morning, we were suppose to check out before going to work.
My fellow travellers gathered at the hotel lobby. On our way to the pizza restaurant last Tuesday, we discovered ‘Coop’ tucked away from the main road near our hotel. It was a little supermarket. Actually it was a chain of supermarket, very similar to ‘Giant’ in Malaysia. We walked to the ‘Coop’.
Since it was our last evening in Genoa, we wanted to buy some souvenir from Genoa. Genoa is not really a touristy place. Unlike Pisa and Florence where you can easily find ‘touristy’ souvenir, we couldn’t find any in Genoa – you know those souvenir that screamed ‘from Genoa’. So we settled for the next best thing, we bought Olive Oil. According to my friend, at Euro 5.00 even after conversion to Malaysian Ringgit, it was still a lot cheaper. For the same price, in Malaysia you would get a tiny bottle. In Genoa, you’ll get a big bottle! We must have stood out in the crowd of Italians. None of us speak Italian and the Italians don’t speak English either.
After making our purchases, some of us decided to return to hotel, some continued wandering. I didn’t want to spend the last evening cooped up in my hotel room. I joined the wandering group. At our first alley, some of the guys decided that they want to have dinner at a fish and chip restaurant. The rest of us continued walking down the little alley.
6.15pm
I stopped at a camera shop along the alley:
Me: Inglese?
Man: A little
Me (showing my dSLR): Power? Quanto costa? (Power? How much does it cost?)
Man (looked my dSLR): Si. Euro 50.00 (Yes. Euro 50.00)
Me: Grazie (walking away as I realized I can’t afford to buy it in Italy!)
(I had earlier discovered that my telephone charger was not working. I tried plugging my dSLR battery charger into the power socket in my room, the lights didn’t turn on. I had both items in the checked-in luggage. Didn’t want to risk accidentally discharging whatever power left in the battery, I didn’t dare to slot the battery into the charger. Lucky for me I had the battery fully charged before leaving Malaysia.)
We reached a little square. There were some street vendors there. But most were packing up their things. With the help of my T5, I managed to haggle the price of a leather glove to Euro 6.00 (RM30.00). It was not the furry kind (like the one I bought in Florence) but that was okay. After my mishap, I intended to use the glove as my biking glove.
We continued wandering. We found a shop selling leather goods just for female. From leather boots to leather jackets. Handbags, glove and what nots. Very cool shop. Too bad I was on a tight budget. Otherwise I might have bought a complete set of leather attire to wear while riding my two wheeler.
We went in another leather shop. This shop specialized in bags. Small handbags, purses, travelling bags, you named it, they got it. But none of the bags carried any well-known designer labels. The bags must have been locally made. One of the guy bought a wallet. The little shop accepted VISA and MASTERCARD!
We continued down the alley and found yet another square. By now, looking at the map we were 'lost'. We didn’t know the our location relative to the map. My guest: we were in Piazza Banchi. At the square, there was a newsstand. Among the things sold there was a box of vinyl records. The vinyl records were sold as low as Euro 3.00 per piece. I don’t know if you could still buy vinyl records in Malaysia, or if you remember how it looks like. But a fellow traveller bought one as a souvenir.After that we continued into an indoor ‘market’ area. Not exactly a market, more like shop lots in an old building. We walked along the corridors. I spotted a halal sign outside a restaurant. We went in, while looking at the menus on the wall, I spotted some sort of a ‘halal certificate’ issued local Islamic centre. It was a letter in Italian and a few Arabic characters with picture of what looked like a mosque. I ordered a ‘falafeel’ – some what like a kebab but instead of meat, substitute with vegetarian stuff. At the counter:
Me: Inglese?
Moustache man: Yes, a little.
Me: Mosques nearby?
Moustache man: Yes. 3 (mosques). 5 minutes walking. Tomorrow, 12pm come here.
So the man must be a Muslim for he understood the underlying intention of asking the mosque. Some of the guys were wondering if it was possible to perform Friday prayers before leaving Genoa tomorrow.
After buying dinner, our group split into two. Two of the guys returned to the hotel. Three of us continued walking. This was after all our last evening in Genoa. I particularly want to see their Aquaria – reputably to be one of the best in Europe. Yes, I got to see it, but only from far, from Piazza Caricamento. Crossing the piazza, we reached Porto Antico (Port Antico?). The view was great! So was the wind! With the wind blowing, the temperature could have reached zero degree – if it didn’t, it sure felt like it. While we were taking photos – very touristy – we saw people jogging along the port. There we were, dressed in multiple layers of clothing and still had our teeth chattering because of cold, these joggers jogged calmly in their simple jogging attire!
We must have almost circled Porta Della Marinetta before deciding to turn back. Though the road was well lit, it was deserted. The guys was scared that we would get mugged. Somehow we managed to get to Via San Lorenzo which ultimately brought us back to Piazza Matteoti. We went into Palazzo Ducale. There was a little photo exhibition going on. The subjects were mostly Asian people. Looking at the photos, I realized, I could have similar photos back in Malaysia. Sorry, no photos of the exhibition or the artwork in Palazzo Ducale as I don’t want to infringe any intellectual property law.9.15pm
We exited to the now very familiar Piazza De Ferrari. Fiftteen minutes later we were back in the hotel. I packed most of my things. The following morning, we were suppose to check out before going to work.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Day 5 (Wednesday) : Road trip
note: Nudity warning!
5.30am
I woke up – the usual time for me in Malaysia during weekdays. Had a good hot shower and prepared some food for the road trip. I contemplated on what to wear. Since I’d lost my glove, I decided to wear as thick as possible so that I could tuck my palms under my arms (a.k.a. my armpit). It helped me during my walks previous day, so I was counting on that method again.
Didn’t want to leave the warmth of my bed, I switched on the telly. There’s only a few channel in English. I settled for one of the news channel. There was this show ‘Hardtalk’. I can’t remember who was the show host and who was the guest. But the topic was great. It was about re-engineering how we use (and manage) our power. Power as in electricity and the likes of it. The guest was saying that instead of using the current centralized model where the power station generate and distribute power, we should opt for distributed model. The new model works very similar to the internet where everyone generate their own content and contribute to the internet. In term of power, say I have solar panel or some other bio friendly power generating system, but I don’t use as much as I generate, so instead of wasting the resource, there should be some infrastructure for me to share what I generated, with others who would want to use it. The guest acknowledged that it would cost a bomb, but we can’t afford not to do it. Our current methods (burning carbon base material to generate power) are producing ‘green house’ gases, which in turn contribute to global warming. At current rate of global warming, we might become extinct in a few years (actually he did mention some numbers, but I can’t remember).
I have to admit, I’m guilty of contributing to our extinction (how many time have I left the lights, telly etc. on when I was not using it?). Today, I truly woke up from my ‘sleep’.
7.00am
Breakfast at the hotel restaurant. As usual, I ‘smuggled’ a bun and some other ‘smuggleable’ food into my backpack.
7.30am
As promised, we were already on the bus for our road trip. Our bus driver, Dominic, knew a little English (too bad I forgot to take a photo with him). My fellow travellers were a bunch of punctual people. We are heading to Florence. I didn’t do any background research on Florence before leaving Malaysia. So I knew nothing about it and did not know what to expect.
8.00am
We were on one of the bridges that I saw from the plane when we arrived Genoa on Day 2 (Sunday 11th November). The bridges actually part of network of highways that includes tunnels cutting through hills.
8.45am
The bus stopped. The place was similar to Malaysian PLUS ‘R & R’. If I got the name right, the place is called Boronia. Temperature was around 4 degree Celsius. We had some problem with the engine. A wire that supposed to tie some hose in the engine was broken. The bus driver had to improvise. About half an hour later we continued our journey. We passed a place called Massa. This is where marbles we quarried for export to middle east.
9.30am
The bus had to stopped again. This time it was in a place called Versilia Verst. We continued after about half an hour stop.
11.00am
We reached some sort of tourist registration office. It was drizzling. My first rain in Italy! After a quick registration (I’m not quite sure if we were registering ourselves or we were registering the bus), we hopped on the bus.
11.20am
We were caught in a traffic jam. My first traffic jam since I reached Italy!
11.45am
We reached the ‘drop-off’ zone along a river. The driver explained to us in his limited English that the bus could not take us to the main tourist attraction and he could not wait there more than 10 minutes. We had to walk for about 500 metres. We agreed to meet him at the same spot at 2pm. And so we walked.
We walked and walked until we reached some sort of town centre. We did a little sight seeing before the rest of the group decided to go shopping. Too bad shopping and me don’t really go well, otherwise I would have really enjoyed their company. As I didn’t want to stray far from the group, I had to follow them anyway.
Most of the shopkeeper there knew some English – enough to sell their merchandise. There’s a lot of leather goods. I finally got to buy my leather glove. The guy only had burgundy (I have no idea what colour was that, it looked purple to me). Too bad I couldn’t find the one that fit my hands nicely. I got a small ‘man’ gloves as the stall didn’t have glove for ladies in the colour that I like.
From the postcards sold in many stalls there, I gathered that the statue of David by Michelangelo must be somewhere in this city. I’ve seen it numerous time in Discovery Channel. It is a detailed sculpture of a man made of a single slab of marble. It was said that the upper portion of the statue was slightly bigger so that the upper portion would not appear to be small when view by normal people from below. Anyway, I couldn’t found the replica (in the original site), neither the original statue (moved into some museum to protect it from the environment).
correction: I was at the original site of David in Palazzo Vecchio. I didn't realize I passed a replica of Michelangelo's work (the were many statues). Only have one 'accident' photo with the replica at a corner. The rest of photos have us convenietly blocking the statue. :(
2.00pm
We were on the bus for our next destination: Leaning Tower of Pisa! Half an hour later we had a break in a ‘R & R’ the bus driver stopped for a bite. I managed to buy a non-refrigerated mineral water (in this cold weather, I really wonder why people need a cold mineral water).
Me: Inglese? (English?)
Cashier: No.
Me (pointing a bottle of mineral water): Aqua minerale, no freddo? (Mineral water, not cold?)
Cashier: Aa… Si. (Aa… Yes)
2.45pm
Back on the road (in the bus)! I opened my packed food – instant ‘Rendang’. Another person brought a loaf of bread. My travel companion asked don’t we have to ‘cook’ (dip the packet in a hot water) the instant ‘rendang’ first? I told him I already did it this morning in the hotel room and he was amazed on my preparedness. We share the bread and the ‘rendang’. In a matter of minutes, everything was finished.
4.00pm
We reached the main parking lot. We were suppose to ride on the feeder bus to the Pisa. Our bus driver followed us on the feeder bus. Upon reaching the next stop, he explained to us that the last feeder bus back to the parking lot is at 4.45pm. We have to either take the local bus, or walked back to the parking lot and showed us where to take the bus.
Got to see the tower! With the clear blue sky, it was beautiful. Unfortunately the late evening sun caused other building to cast some shadows. After a few photos, the rest of the group moved to the souvenir shops. I was hoping they would go to the tower, but no, they stayed at the shop for shopping. Very touristy! I reluctantly joined them a bought a few souvenir (I didn’t bring a lot of money and had to budget so that I don’t spent more than my daily ‘allowance’).
5.15pm
We started walking back to the bus. Along the way, I stopped to buy shawls and a pair of leather shoes. The shoes were for my brother. Everyone (including the shopkeeper) laughed when I took out the outline of my brother’s foot on a piece of paper! I believe that’s the best way to buy shoes for some one else as size number would varies from one continent to another. The price? Let’s just say the guys agreed it was cheaper than if bought in Malaysia.
5.30pm
We were on the bus. 2 persons were missing. The group leader tried telephoning them and discovered that they were kind of lost. It was already dark. The rest on the bus either worried or angry with the missing guys. After 20 minutes, they finally reached the bus. The bus left Pisa.
7.50pm
We reached our hotel. I was suppose to have dinner with a distance relative. I gave her a called as soon as I reach the hotel. Her husband would fetch me in half an hour. She told me to wait at the lobby. Just enough time for me to freshen up and change my clothes. True enough, half an hour later I saw her daughter coming to the lobby!
9.30pm
We reached her apartment on the top floor. Her house is located on one of those hills that seemed to surround Genoa. It’s a cosy place. She cooked an Italian dinner. A lasagnia followed by a succulent roast lamb. Dessert was a Tiramisu cake. I have a small stomach and I don’t normally drink coffee (neither eat it). But since she had already made the dessert especially for our dinner, I cleaned my plate.
We chatted. She pitied the guys who can’t seem to eat anything Italian here. She offered to bag the lasagnia and the roast lamb. At first I declined. But then she ‘painted a grimed picture’ of the guys, I took her offer. She also packed a loaf of bread and a bottle of chilli sauce (from Malaysia). Then she and her husband sent me back to the hotel. By 11pm, I was already in my hotel saying goodbye to her and her husband.
5.30am
I woke up – the usual time for me in Malaysia during weekdays. Had a good hot shower and prepared some food for the road trip. I contemplated on what to wear. Since I’d lost my glove, I decided to wear as thick as possible so that I could tuck my palms under my arms (a.k.a. my armpit). It helped me during my walks previous day, so I was counting on that method again.
Didn’t want to leave the warmth of my bed, I switched on the telly. There’s only a few channel in English. I settled for one of the news channel. There was this show ‘Hardtalk’. I can’t remember who was the show host and who was the guest. But the topic was great. It was about re-engineering how we use (and manage) our power. Power as in electricity and the likes of it. The guest was saying that instead of using the current centralized model where the power station generate and distribute power, we should opt for distributed model. The new model works very similar to the internet where everyone generate their own content and contribute to the internet. In term of power, say I have solar panel or some other bio friendly power generating system, but I don’t use as much as I generate, so instead of wasting the resource, there should be some infrastructure for me to share what I generated, with others who would want to use it. The guest acknowledged that it would cost a bomb, but we can’t afford not to do it. Our current methods (burning carbon base material to generate power) are producing ‘green house’ gases, which in turn contribute to global warming. At current rate of global warming, we might become extinct in a few years (actually he did mention some numbers, but I can’t remember).
I have to admit, I’m guilty of contributing to our extinction (how many time have I left the lights, telly etc. on when I was not using it?). Today, I truly woke up from my ‘sleep’.
7.00am
Breakfast at the hotel restaurant. As usual, I ‘smuggled’ a bun and some other ‘smuggleable’ food into my backpack.
7.30am
As promised, we were already on the bus for our road trip. Our bus driver, Dominic, knew a little English (too bad I forgot to take a photo with him). My fellow travellers were a bunch of punctual people. We are heading to Florence. I didn’t do any background research on Florence before leaving Malaysia. So I knew nothing about it and did not know what to expect.
8.00am
We were on one of the bridges that I saw from the plane when we arrived Genoa on Day 2 (Sunday 11th November). The bridges actually part of network of highways that includes tunnels cutting through hills.8.45am
The bus stopped. The place was similar to Malaysian PLUS ‘R & R’. If I got the name right, the place is called Boronia. Temperature was around 4 degree Celsius. We had some problem with the engine. A wire that supposed to tie some hose in the engine was broken. The bus driver had to improvise. About half an hour later we continued our journey. We passed a place called Massa. This is where marbles we quarried for export to middle east.9.30am
The bus had to stopped again. This time it was in a place called Versilia Verst. We continued after about half an hour stop.
11.00am
We reached some sort of tourist registration office. It was drizzling. My first rain in Italy! After a quick registration (I’m not quite sure if we were registering ourselves or we were registering the bus), we hopped on the bus.
11.20amWe were caught in a traffic jam. My first traffic jam since I reached Italy!
11.45am
We reached the ‘drop-off’ zone along a river. The driver explained to us in his limited English that the bus could not take us to the main tourist attraction and he could not wait there more than 10 minutes. We had to walk for about 500 metres. We agreed to meet him at the same spot at 2pm. And so we walked.We walked and walked until we reached some sort of town centre. We did a little sight seeing before the rest of the group decided to go shopping. Too bad shopping and me don’t really go well, otherwise I would have really enjoyed their company. As I didn’t want to stray far from the group, I had to follow them anyway.
Most of the shopkeeper there knew some English – enough to sell their merchandise. There’s a lot of leather goods. I finally got to buy my leather glove. The guy only had burgundy (I have no idea what colour was that, it looked purple to me). Too bad I couldn’t find the one that fit my hands nicely. I got a small ‘man’ gloves as the stall didn’t have glove for ladies in the colour that I like.
From the postcards sold in many stalls there, I gathered that the statue of David by Michelangelo must be somewhere in this city. I’ve seen it numerous time in Discovery Channel. It is a detailed sculpture of a man made of a single slab of marble. It was said that the upper portion of the statue was slightly bigger so that the upper portion would not appear to be small when view by normal people from below. Anyway, I couldn’t found the replica (in the original site), neither the original statue (moved into some museum to protect it from the environment).correction: I was at the original site of David in Palazzo Vecchio. I didn't realize I passed a replica of Michelangelo's work (the were many statues). Only have one 'accident' photo with the replica at a corner. The rest of photos have us convenietly blocking the statue. :(
2.00pm
We were on the bus for our next destination: Leaning Tower of Pisa! Half an hour later we had a break in a ‘R & R’ the bus driver stopped for a bite. I managed to buy a non-refrigerated mineral water (in this cold weather, I really wonder why people need a cold mineral water).
Me: Inglese? (English?)
Cashier: No.
Me (pointing a bottle of mineral water): Aqua minerale, no freddo? (Mineral water, not cold?)
Cashier: Aa… Si. (Aa… Yes)
2.45pm
Back on the road (in the bus)! I opened my packed food – instant ‘Rendang’. Another person brought a loaf of bread. My travel companion asked don’t we have to ‘cook’ (dip the packet in a hot water) the instant ‘rendang’ first? I told him I already did it this morning in the hotel room and he was amazed on my preparedness. We share the bread and the ‘rendang’. In a matter of minutes, everything was finished.
4.00pm
We reached the main parking lot. We were suppose to ride on the feeder bus to the Pisa. Our bus driver followed us on the feeder bus. Upon reaching the next stop, he explained to us that the last feeder bus back to the parking lot is at 4.45pm. We have to either take the local bus, or walked back to the parking lot and showed us where to take the bus.
Got to see the tower! With the clear blue sky, it was beautiful. Unfortunately the late evening sun caused other building to cast some shadows. After a few photos, the rest of the group moved to the souvenir shops. I was hoping they would go to the tower, but no, they stayed at the shop for shopping. Very touristy! I reluctantly joined them a bought a few souvenir (I didn’t bring a lot of money and had to budget so that I don’t spent more than my daily ‘allowance’).5.15pm
We started walking back to the bus. Along the way, I stopped to buy shawls and a pair of leather shoes. The shoes were for my brother. Everyone (including the shopkeeper) laughed when I took out the outline of my brother’s foot on a piece of paper! I believe that’s the best way to buy shoes for some one else as size number would varies from one continent to another. The price? Let’s just say the guys agreed it was cheaper than if bought in Malaysia.
5.30pm
We were on the bus. 2 persons were missing. The group leader tried telephoning them and discovered that they were kind of lost. It was already dark. The rest on the bus either worried or angry with the missing guys. After 20 minutes, they finally reached the bus. The bus left Pisa.
7.50pm
We reached our hotel. I was suppose to have dinner with a distance relative. I gave her a called as soon as I reach the hotel. Her husband would fetch me in half an hour. She told me to wait at the lobby. Just enough time for me to freshen up and change my clothes. True enough, half an hour later I saw her daughter coming to the lobby!
9.30pm
We reached her apartment on the top floor. Her house is located on one of those hills that seemed to surround Genoa. It’s a cosy place. She cooked an Italian dinner. A lasagnia followed by a succulent roast lamb. Dessert was a Tiramisu cake. I have a small stomach and I don’t normally drink coffee (neither eat it). But since she had already made the dessert especially for our dinner, I cleaned my plate.
We chatted. She pitied the guys who can’t seem to eat anything Italian here. She offered to bag the lasagnia and the roast lamb. At first I declined. But then she ‘painted a grimed picture’ of the guys, I took her offer. She also packed a loaf of bread and a bottle of chilli sauce (from Malaysia). Then she and her husband sent me back to the hotel. By 11pm, I was already in my hotel saying goodbye to her and her husband.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Day 4 (Tuesday) - 'Lost' in Genoa
After the disasterous dinner (the guys couldn't stomach the pasta) the previous night, they asked me to take them to 'my pizza restaurant'. We agreed to meet in the hotel lobby at 7pm. I had 2 hours to kill. I decided to roam the streets of Genoa.
City Hotel, though located at Via Roma, isn't exactly by the road side. In fact from the road, you can't see the hotel. My first imppession when our bus driver unloaded our bags and told us to walk (he had limited English), was "Oh my God! What kind hotel are we staying in!". I'll get back to the hotel later.
Via Roma is some what a main road. By KL standard, it is just a 2 lane one-way street with one lane seemed to be used as 'waiting lane' for buses, lorries and other vehicles. Why do I called it a main road? Because along on both sides of the road are designers' boutiques. You know, those lables that l can't seemed to pronounce, thus can't spell it. Those lables that if I buy, with my current salary, I'll be in debt for the whole year!
I followed the crowd (of well-dressed-Italians) walking into small nameless lanes. They brought me to somewhat another face of Genoa. These little lanes and alleys nestled in between the old-but-beautifully-preserved-buildings that seemed to form Genoa town. Lined on those alleys are small shops, workshops, art galleries, and even small museums. You could literally window shop from the lanes and alleys as you could see almost everything in the shop. In one of the worhop, I saw a lady wearing a white-doctor-like-coat over her stylish clothes busy at work - painting a porcelein bowl. Some doors open to private courtyards.
If you close you eyes and listen to footsteps on the coblestones, you could almost see people from previous centuries walking in these lanes and alleys. When you thought no cars could get through the small lanes, you would be suprised to see a car inching patiently behind pedestrians. Pedestrians - I too followed - gave way to cars immediately when there's enough 'clearing' to stand aside. I continued walking till the alleys became too narrow for cars. The wind wasn't blowing as strong as in the earlier lanes. Suited me just fine because I accidently dropped my woolen grove on the bus trip back from work the previous day.
Then I realized, I was in a 'red' district! People around me no longer wore impeccably smart clothes. There were young women every where. There were dubious looking men too. But they didn't bother me. With my canvas backpack and inconspicous parka, I must have looked liked an immigrant worker. I had my dSLR zipped underneath my parka (hence no photos for this walk). I continued walking until I reached a small shop. From the window I could see a black lady wearing burqa behind the counter. I went in. The shopkeeper was serving a beautiful Italian lady in designer clothes. Once the Italian lady left, I greeted the lady shopkeeper
me: (translation: peace upon you)
lady (beaming with smile): (translation: upon you too)
me: Inglese? (english?)
lady: no
me (with hand gestures): halal restorante? (halal restaurant?)
lady: si... si... (yes... yes... she took me to a shop a few steps from hers)
me: grazie (thank you)
lady: prego (welcome and she left)
No, I didn't eat at the shop. I had to return to hotel. It was 6.15pm. Shops were closing. I back tracked and passed the dubious men and women. I followed my instinct and wind direction. 15 minutes later I was at the hotel.
7.00pm
We walked to the pizza restaurant. We shared a plate of spagetti, three plates of vegetarian pizza, and four bottles of 'aqua minerale naturale'. The long walk was worth it when everyone returned to hotel full and satisfied.
10.00pm
Went to bed early. We would be going for a roadtrip on Wednesday!
After the disasterous dinner (the guys couldn't stomach the pasta) the previous night, they asked me to take them to 'my pizza restaurant'. We agreed to meet in the hotel lobby at 7pm. I had 2 hours to kill. I decided to roam the streets of Genoa.City Hotel, though located at Via Roma, isn't exactly by the road side. In fact from the road, you can't see the hotel. My first imppession when our bus driver unloaded our bags and told us to walk (he had limited English), was "Oh my God! What kind hotel are we staying in!". I'll get back to the hotel later.
Via Roma is some what a main road. By KL standard, it is just a 2 lane one-way street with one lane seemed to be used as 'waiting lane' for buses, lorries and other vehicles. Why do I called it a main road? Because along on both sides of the road are designers' boutiques. You know, those lables that l can't seemed to pronounce, thus can't spell it. Those lables that if I buy, with my current salary, I'll be in debt for the whole year!
I followed the crowd (of well-dressed-Italians) walking into small nameless lanes. They brought me to somewhat another face of Genoa. These little lanes and alleys nestled in between the old-but-beautifully-preserved-buildings that seemed to form Genoa town. Lined on those alleys are small shops, workshops, art galleries, and even small museums. You could literally window shop from the lanes and alleys as you could see almost everything in the shop. In one of the worhop, I saw a lady wearing a white-doctor-like-coat over her stylish clothes busy at work - painting a porcelein bowl. Some doors open to private courtyards.If you close you eyes and listen to footsteps on the coblestones, you could almost see people from previous centuries walking in these lanes and alleys. When you thought no cars could get through the small lanes, you would be suprised to see a car inching patiently behind pedestrians. Pedestrians - I too followed - gave way to cars immediately when there's enough 'clearing' to stand aside. I continued walking till the alleys became too narrow for cars. The wind wasn't blowing as strong as in the earlier lanes. Suited me just fine because I accidently dropped my woolen grove on the bus trip back from work the previous day.
Then I realized, I was in a 'red' district! People around me no longer wore impeccably smart clothes. There were young women every where. There were dubious looking men too. But they didn't bother me. With my canvas backpack and inconspicous parka, I must have looked liked an immigrant worker. I had my dSLR zipped underneath my parka (hence no photos for this walk). I continued walking until I reached a small shop. From the window I could see a black lady wearing burqa behind the counter. I went in. The shopkeeper was serving a beautiful Italian lady in designer clothes. Once the Italian lady left, I greeted the lady shopkeeper
me: (translation: peace upon you)
lady (beaming with smile): (translation: upon you too)
me: Inglese? (english?)
lady: no
me (with hand gestures): halal restorante? (halal restaurant?)
lady: si... si... (yes... yes... she took me to a shop a few steps from hers)
me: grazie (thank you)
lady: prego (welcome and she left)
No, I didn't eat at the shop. I had to return to hotel. It was 6.15pm. Shops were closing. I back tracked and passed the dubious men and women. I followed my instinct and wind direction. 15 minutes later I was at the hotel.
7.00pm
We walked to the pizza restaurant. We shared a plate of spagetti, three plates of vegetarian pizza, and four bottles of 'aqua minerale naturale'. The long walk was worth it when everyone returned to hotel full and satisfied.10.00pm
Went to bed early. We would be going for a roadtrip on Wednesday!
Monday, November 19, 2007
Back in Malaysia
My flight touched down this morning at 7.10am Malaysian time. I've been trying hard to adjust my internal clock with the local time. Tried hard not to fall asleep. Unpack my stuff. Half way through, my head was pounding. I had 3 hours of midday nap, had a late lunch then drove to my brothers place. Ended napping for another 1 hour at his place. So couldn't update this blog earlier.
Will try to continue with DAY 4 some time this week. Stay tune!
My flight touched down this morning at 7.10am Malaysian time. I've been trying hard to adjust my internal clock with the local time. Tried hard not to fall asleep. Unpack my stuff. Half way through, my head was pounding. I had 3 hours of midday nap, had a late lunch then drove to my brothers place. Ended napping for another 1 hour at his place. So couldn't update this blog earlier.
Will try to continue with DAY 4 some time this week. Stay tune!
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Day 3: Genoa - mixing work and leisure?
5.30am
After a few time of waking up at odd hours (not odd in Malaysia's time), I finally got out of bed. I had a mild headache. Could be due to too much sleep. Had a good hot shower, got into longjohn and work attire.
7.00am
Breakfast at the hotel. I had cereal and bread. 'Smuggled' a few bread into my backpack.
8.30am
Got on a charted bus to work. It took about half an hour to get to our destination. Work is beyond the scope of this blog. Let's just say work finished at 4.30pm and the trip back to hotel is about 30 mins.
5.00pm
My body was still trying to adjust to local time. To keep myself awake, I did a stock check of my food. I sort of did 'what to eat when' to make sure I have enough.
7.00pm
I went down at the lobby. I'm suppose to have dinner with my colleagues. I fell asleep a few times on the lobby chair while waiting for all my colleagues.
8.00pm
We adjorned to the hotel restaurant, 'La Rune'. After yet another long wait, the food finally arrived - pasta with fish. The portion is just right for my small stomach. I cleaned my plate even though everything tasted bland for someone used to Malaysian food!
After the late dinner, I took a walk with fellow 'travellers'. We wanted to find a seafood restaurant recomended by a distance relative. We ended at the so-called Christopher Columbus House. Then we walked along a street called Porta Soprana until we reached a square, Piazza Matteotti.
Since we couldn't find the restaurant, the guys wanted to return to hotel. We went in a building called Pallazo Ducale. The building housed a museum, some offices and restaurants. In the indoor 'courtyard' (sort of an atrium) is a modern art sculpture. Something about life sphere space.
We exited to Piazza de Ferrari. At the square is a beautifull fountain. The historical buildings around the square provide great backdrop. We took a lot of photos before walking back to hotel.
5.30am
After a few time of waking up at odd hours (not odd in Malaysia's time), I finally got out of bed. I had a mild headache. Could be due to too much sleep. Had a good hot shower, got into longjohn and work attire.
7.00am
Breakfast at the hotel. I had cereal and bread. 'Smuggled' a few bread into my backpack.
8.30am
Got on a charted bus to work. It took about half an hour to get to our destination. Work is beyond the scope of this blog. Let's just say work finished at 4.30pm and the trip back to hotel is about 30 mins.
5.00pm
My body was still trying to adjust to local time. To keep myself awake, I did a stock check of my food. I sort of did 'what to eat when' to make sure I have enough.
7.00pm
I went down at the lobby. I'm suppose to have dinner with my colleagues. I fell asleep a few times on the lobby chair while waiting for all my colleagues.
8.00pm
We adjorned to the hotel restaurant, 'La Rune'. After yet another long wait, the food finally arrived - pasta with fish. The portion is just right for my small stomach. I cleaned my plate even though everything tasted bland for someone used to Malaysian food!
After the late dinner, I took a walk with fellow 'travellers'. We wanted to find a seafood restaurant recomended by a distance relative. We ended at the so-called Christopher Columbus House. Then we walked along a street called Porta Soprana until we reached a square, Piazza Matteotti.
Since we couldn't find the restaurant, the guys wanted to return to hotel. We went in a building called Pallazo Ducale. The building housed a museum, some offices and restaurants. In the indoor 'courtyard' (sort of an atrium) is a modern art sculpture. Something about life sphere space.
We exited to Piazza de Ferrari. At the square is a beautifull fountain. The historical buildings around the square provide great backdrop. We took a lot of photos before walking back to hotel.
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