Venezia Santa Lucia - Venice, Italy
Venice (or Venezia Santa Lucia in Italian) is a fairy tale and romantic place. Everybody knows it. Probably every girl has a dream of riding a gondola with their partners and a gondoliers singing them some love song. (Wish its not some Baby baby baby Justin Bieber though..Ack!)
Venice is definitely a tourist place and I don’t think someone lives there anymore. Its full of different mask and souvenir shop from the minute you stepped out of the station. The Aurano Glass and the Mask are Venice’s trademark. You can buy the mask for €15-€50 and Aurano Glasses range for about €25-€500. They are indeed pricey. (I wanted to buy a really good mask as it will be nice to hang it on my bedroom wall but the big beautiful mask is too expensive and won’t fit my cabin size luggage!)
The nicest thing about it are the churches and small buildings.. They preserved it really well: VENICE IS VINTAGE.
The first thing that we did is to ride the Gondola. It cost us €60 for a 30 minutes trip.. You can negotiate the price and pick which Gondola you want, they are everywhere since the only public transport that they have are Water Taxi, everyone do the walk! I’m not even sure if I saw anyone riding a bicycle really.
Our gondolier speaks good english and told us some stories and history about the churches and other buildings. He mentioned that when its cold they obviously can’t make much money and OMG, he’s been a gondolier for more than 10 years, thats love for his job right there! But then since there are 4 of us on the gondola, its not as romantic so we just laughed ourselves up and forced Mr. Gondolier to sing us a song.. Unfortunately he can’t sing and I don’t think gondoliers these days would still sing you a song, they probably raps ‘rack city bitch rack rack city bitch!’ Ha ha!
The whole Venice is filled with bridges with different stories.. My favourite one is the Bridge of Sighs. Its not because of what it looks like but the story behind it. The bridge of sighs passes through Rio di Palazzo and connects the old prison’s interrogation room. The convicts usually SIGHS from the window and to see the final view of the beautiful neighbourhood of Venice before they are being taken down to their cells. And as I could remember, a local said a couple who will kiss on the gondola at sunset under the bridge of sighs will be granted eternal love and bliss. Isn’t it the opposite?! Aren’t they making the prisoner jealous if it happened that they’re looking at it?! Oh well *sigh*
Ok, Here’s my real version of Bridge of Sighs look. :P
The Piazzo San Marco is the main square of Venice and it took us ages to actually get there as it is at the bottom of Venice and miles away from the Railway station. Our legs and feet are next to being dead the time we got there.
I would suggest that if you’re coming from the Railway station, take the water taxi from there to see Piazzo San Marco first and walk your way up to the railway station. The water taxi cost about €3-€6.
As part of Venice’s bridge, Rialto Bridge is one thing that you need to see. To be honest, the whole trip in Venice was to actually hunt for bridges! Rialto bridge is one of the 4 main bridge in Venice but this is the oldest one!
Overall, Venice is a lovely city. A lady who makes crepes in one of the shops used to work in London and she’s telling how her life is better in Venice than the fast-paced and horrible weather London has. I couldn’t blame her, London is being such a moody bitch for over 2 weeks now. (I can’t wait to escape again!!)
I would say I’ll visit Venice again, but this time I’ll make sure to wear a comfortable shoes. ;)
*** Souvenir tips: If you’re not after the quality and really just want to get yourself some fridge magnet, don’t buy it from the railway station. There’s a bridge close to Rialto Bridge and its filled with souvenir shops, you can get yourselves some lovely fridge magnet for €1 and mask for €5. You’re welcome! :P
*Brings out the map to some random stranger* Ummm excuse me? Where are we??!
TRAVEL VIA: Railway Train
FROM: Milano Centrale
TO: Venezia Mestre
DURATION: 2hr 25m
PRICE: £65.00
LAST VISITED: December 2011
Cenaculo Vinciano - The last supper
The famous Last Supper painting. As of the reviews and tips online, you have to book the tickets 3 months in advance as there’s limit and high demands. We pushed our luck to actually get the tickets on the day. We were lucky enough that there’s spaces left, we just had to kill 2 hours for our turn.
I enjoyed bits of it but there’s stuff that I’m disappointed about..
Firstly, You can only view the painting from the great distant, its better to look at an art book. Second, you only have 15 minutes to stare at it - If you’re an art lover, its probably not enough.. Finally, taking photos are not allowed. I’m not sure if its because the camera’s flash has something to do with the detoriorating art work or they’re just scared that someone might copy it Ha Ha! Either way, €11 for that. Mmmm..
I’m not ruining anyone’s desire to actually see the painting itself as its a part of our world’s heritage. Actually while we were there, millions of ideas wondered in our heads.. How did he paint it? How did he reach the top? Did he use a ladder?! Why is Jesus painted in that position? Who’s this apostles? Is Judas black? Why is he holding a knife? Why is he pointing like that? There’s loads of questions, then it became really impressive. But still, the ticket is too pricey for 15 mins.
But hey! Who said youre not allowed to take photos? Leonardo Da Vinci, you’re cool.
“I’m disappointed.. Because its not in 3D” - Nikko Espinola
Ticket Price: €11.00
Visited: December 2011
DUMO DI MILANO - MILAN, ITALY
The biggest cathedral in Italy and the fourth largest cathedral in the world. A breathtaking sight and a must-see if you’re visiting Milan. Its free to enter the cathedral and the interiors are just jawdropping.
The most popular thing about it is to make your way to the top of Duomo. For a cost, its €6 to take the spiral stairs which is approximately 900 steps: a very narrow and steep lace stairs or €10 to take a lift.
Well.. We took the stairs! For 2 reasons: additional €4 for being lazy?! & we just had some massive 1955 calorie-fied burger. It wasn’t that bad but it felt like its never-ending.
But the feeling after seeing this?
Its totally worth it :) The view of the city and the Piazza is just stunning.
** Y’all have to be careful with the locals trying to give you feeds for the pigeons for some friendly photo-ops with the birds.. They’ll force you to pay for it and won’t leave you alone til you give them €5-€10.. Its quite scary to be honest.
Entrance Fee: €6
Visited: December 2011
Belfast City - Northern Ireland
FROM: London Gatwick
TO: Belfast International Airpot
Duration: 1 hr 30 mins
Price: £66.00 return
Belfast is like a smaller version of London. They have the high street similar to London’s Oxford Street, the only difference is the closing hours. You’ll expect a dead city by 5pm.
If you’re more of a city person but having some hate relationship with the stress its causing you, you might want to consider moving/visiting this place. A city but less crowded compared to London & the cab fare usually cost around £3.50.
But since Northern Ireland is part of United Kingdom, Belfast uses the British Pound - Sterling (£) so goodies and other stuff can be as expensive as England. But hey, a sweet 30 mins drive from the city to somewhere like this is just relaxing..
I travel to Belfast every now and then cos of my really close friend Ken.. Its like my second home away from England!
