Project WWT Day 23 of 72 - Pisa, Italy

10th June 2017

The Italian weather has been very kind to us, too kind in fact as we had got ourselves some "nice" tan. My darker tone is stark when I hold Naaman's hand, thanks to our visit to Cinque Terre. I could barely recognise my own hand! Today started early for me as I set foot to explore Pisa alone in the morning. My itinerary for Pisa is very sinple really, there are only two places that I intend to visit. First is the Orto Botanico or Orto Botanical garden and secondly, the Piazza del Duomo.

Project WWWT Day 22 of 72 Florence, Italy

9th June 2017

Let's fall in love with Florence!

We drove up to Florence and we took the expressway called Fi-Pi-Li. The journey is quite smooth and took roughly 90 minutes drive. Florence is also a ZTL zone hence we could not park inside the town so we looked for a parking space outside the town across the river. We explored Florence by our feet. The weather is milder here than Cinque Terre, likely due to the availability of shades and it being a city as compared to Manarola, a coastal fishermen's town.

Project WWWT Day 21 of 72 - Cinque Terre, Italy

8th June 2017

While we are staying in Pisa, this place is really a leaping point for us to visit other nearby location. We have Florence and Cinque Terre in our mind and my thought was to visit the latter on the 10th of June but there is a slight change of plan and we proceeded to head to the 5 fishermen town - Cinque Terre. 

Project WWWT Day 20 of 72 - Pisa, Italy

7th June 2017

Prego!

Finally, we are making our way to the land of fashion, pastas & piazzas, parma hams and parmagiano regiano! Before I go any further, I would like to record some incidents and information for our journey from London to this wonderful location - Pisa. We flew via RyanAir from London to Pisa and the flight is scheduled to depart from London Stansted Airport. We took UBER to the airport and the journey took around 90 minutes and costs £111.13. The reason why it cost that much is because we took UberVan i.e. a 6-seater vehicle to transport all 5 of us plus 8 luggages + a stroller. I know that is a lot but hey, we have 3 adults, 2 children and 72 days of travel? Besides, yours truly has some really good looking arms by now although my face remains the chubby fat me (its a gift). If you are opting for regular Uber, it will likely costs half of that and at that price, it is way cheaper option considering that you have the car all to yourself.

Paris/ Milan Day 1

27th Dec 2009

This is our final day in Paris and we are bound for our flight to Milan at 1100hr so we had to check out of our hotel early to make our way to the Orly airport early for check in. We made our way to Charles de Gaulles Etoile where our shuttle bus is waiting to pick us up. The pick up location is just beside the Arch de Triomphe so I managed to have my final snap of the great structure early in the morning where cars and tourists are scarce, which makes a photo!

Bar area of Marriott Champ Elysees

Rome Day 7

19th Dec 2009

Today is effectively the last day that we had in Rome, as we need to wake up early to do the checking out tomorrow and head to the Ciampino airport to catch our early flight departure towards Paris, France. The itinerary for today is the Roman Forum/Palatino hill, the Isola Tiberina and Trastevere.

Anna, the best hotel personnel in Rome Marriott Grand Flora Hotel

Rome Day 6

18th Dec 2009

The day that I dreaded yet am looking forward to has finally arrives. We have booked a car from Europcar for the promotion that it offered to easyjet's passengers. I have pre-booked a Peugeot 308 SW and has already started to imagine how it would felt to operate one especially on a left driver seated car. One thing left me perplexed is that IF I were to rent the car for a day, it will costs me more compared to renting it for 3 days... unbelievable? Believe it! IT only costs me €75.43 plus administration cost of €3.

The view of Villa Borghese in the morn reminded me
how blessed I am to be able to behold such beauty

Rome Day 5

17^th Dec 2009

Today is an exciting day! The itinerary for the day will be to interesting visit places like the Scala Santa, The Colloseum and Palatino! We headed out early today as we wanted to make full use of the short daylight hours that we have to cover all that has been lined up for the day. The day started off a little bad as it was drizzling in the morning but thank God that the drizzling relented and we started to have sunlights around 1000hr.

 Beautiful facade of San Giovanni in Laterano

Rome Day 4

16th Dec 2009

Ahhh~ waking up in the morning and having a view of the beautiful Villa Borghese is truly magical! One could only imagine how beautiful it gets during other seasons especially spring and autumn. The plan for today will be to visit the Galleria Borghese, which housed a vast number of beautiful sculptures and next to the Ancient Rome. Day 3 of Rome was truly a better day compared to the rest of the days here although not without its small regrettable flaw... The metro is on strike today, which means no train service for the day!

I am still not keen on drinking from the fountain...

Rome Day 3

15th Dec 2009

Today we woke up late... maybe its the late night movie in the hotel and too much munching. Anyway, I have pre-booked a vatican museum tour today and the timing is supposed to be 1030hr but as we woke up late, we only managed to reach the Vatican City around 1045hr. Anyway, we are told that our ticket is still valid for another guided tour but it will only start around 1200hr, so we just hang around that area and did some souvenir shopping. Our guided tour only includes The Vatican Museum or Musee Vaticani. You can either stop at the Ottaviano Metro or Cipro metro. The guided tour package includes the entrance ticket for the museum, so you don't have to pay any extras. The package is not cheap though at €30 per pax but the tour is worth it, otherwise, you will be wandering around wondering. The breakdown of the €30 package are as follow:

Full price museum ticket - €14.00
Group tour - Ear phones - €1.50
Reservation fee - €4.00
Guide - €10.50

Although it may be pricey, but let me assure you its worth your while and you can get it at the Vatican City's official site at here for official site and here for English official site. If you struggle to find where the guided tour is... it is here.

Rome Day 2

14th Dec 2009

After a night of rest and the late night drama, we got ready for our day. But before setting out, we gave the reception another call and to ask whether they could upgrade our room as we were promised a Villa Borghese view prior to our checking in.The hotel personnel that attended to us was Anna (Yes, same name with our Venice reception lady but not the same person). She is very helpful and managed to help us secure a better room. Its an Executive suite!!! The room is huge! But the only down side is that it is facing the Via Veneto street, not the Villa Borghese. We are very tempted to keep the room but the urge to have a room with a Villa Borghese view got the better of us so we insisted from Anna on that. After a few moments, Anna called us with good news. There's a room for us on the 5th floor overlooking the Villa Borghese! Yay! At least something makes our day in Rome.

Room 506 Rome Marriott Grand Flora Hotel

Rome Day 1

13th Dec 2009

Upon touching down in Rome from Venice, the time is already nearing 2230hr and with the baggage collection wait time thrown in, it is almost 2300hr by the time we are ready to leave the airport. There is the regular Leonardo Express that we could take from the airport directly to Termini i.e. Rome’s main metro station or you could take a cab. Taking our luggage weight into account, we wanted to take a cab, which Fodor’s guide has mentioned that the taxi ride will cost a flat rate of €40 (Supposedly enforced by the government) to any location within the Aurelian wall and Rome Marriott Grand Flora hotel is although situated ride beside the northern Aurelian wall itself.

Rome Marriott Grand Hotel Flora

Venice Day 2

13th Dec 2009

I have planned to wake up early today to snap some photos of the dawn and thank God I woke up around 6am+. After a quick wash, a 3-in-1 hot chocolate and packing up my gears, off to the San Marco Grand Canal jetty we go. Temperature was around 2 to 3°C, which is bearable. Due to it being so early, there is practically no one on the streets apart from the cleaner and the restaurant suppliers and of course, yours truly.

Venice Day 1

12th Dec 2009

Finally, the time has come for us to head to Europe...our maiden voyage. Much time and energy has been poured in to plan for this trip and let us not forget the financial resources too. We have planned for this trip 2 years back and am glad that it could be realised. Praise God for His blessings that enable us to be able to do this.

View before crossing the bridge to Santa Lucia, Venice islands