The Pope and his city

The next day, we went to the Pantheon before our Vatican City tour. The building itself was quite interesting with an opening in the dome that serves ‘as a symbolic connection between the temple and the gods’. Rainwater also enters through the opening but drains away through 22 almost invisible holes in the marble floor. The Pantheon is still a church and also hosts the tombs of the artist Raphael, along with kings Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I. We saw some guards at the tombs and mistakenly thought they were Swiss Guards but Brian (aka our awesome guide) told us they were actually people who want to bring back the monarchy to Italy. We also went to the Piazza Navona which used to host public games back in the day and then it was Vatican City!

The Pantheon

Same as the Last Supper, just because its winter doesn’t mean that you can waltz into the Vatican City. The queues were long (probably not as long as in the summer) and we managed to bypass them only because of our tour. There are lots of people hanging around outside trying to get you to take a tour with them or to buy tickets from them, so beware. Our tour was to go into the Vatican City Museum, entering the city itself is free and a different entrance and we did that after our tour. The Sistine Chapel is inside the Museum, so be prepared to queue! The Vatican City Museum was like a million museums rolled into one, Brian said it was the second largest museum in the world, the largest one is in St Petersburg. Apparently if you spend a minute infront of all the exhibits, it will take you 7 years to get out of there. We walked through so many exhibits on our way I can’t really remember the names of them all. There was one sculpture which Brian mentioned was the inspiration for ‘The Thinker” and another which apparently inspired Michelangelo for his David. All these little tidbits made our tour quite interesting cos we would not have taken a second look at those sculptures if Brian didn’t point them out.

As the Sistine Chapel is crazy crowded and you’re not really allowed to talk inside it, Brian spent quite a bit of time explaining the various paintings outside the museum to us. For some reason, I always thought the Sistine Chapel was kind of small and that the Genesis took up the whole ceiling but that is not the case. The Sistine Chapel itself is just full of paintings, with the Last Judgment on the end of the wall, 9 scenes from the book of Genesis on the ceiling, and another 12 paintings by various famous painters by the sides of the wall. Its kind of weird they don’t control the number of people who can enter the room cos photographs are not allowed but since there were so many people, its impossible to stop people from taking photographs. They should just adopt the Last Supper system and restrict only a certain number in and usher them out after a while, I think this way the paintings can be better admired. Honestly when I was standing there, I thought it was more like a fish market than anything else. Cant imagine going there in summer.

After the Sistine Chapel, we went to the post office to send some postcards out. We were quite lucky cos the guy actually wanted to close shop for the day but when we told him we justwanted stamps, he relented and let us buy the stamps, whew…

Giuseppe Momo's double helix staircase (one way is for the horses to go up carrying the blocks of marble/ stone, the one is for them to come down without crossing each other)

We then headed to St Peters Basilica to take a look. After watching Angels and Demons, I was prepared to be wowed and it is truly jaw dropping. It took more than 150 years to complete the Basilica and I can imagine why. We also saw the finished Pieta of Michelangelo in St Peters Basilica, which is actually different from the unfinished one in Florence. This Pieta only had Virgin Mary holding Jesus whereas the one in Florence had Virgin Mary, Mary Madalegne and Dionysisus. In any case, this Pieta was quite good and we think that Michelangelo is a much better sculptor than painter cos we were just not wowed by the Sistine Chapel.

St Peters Basilica

Michelangelo's finished Pieta

Painting of Mary

All in all, quite an interesting day out, and how can you miss the Swiss Guards in their weird and colorful uniform?

P.S. We are actually now in Germany, and have finished Italy, Spain and zipped past Paris. We are just taking a really long time uploading our various posts cos we're kind of lazy that way :p

Gladiators and ensuring our return

We arrived in Rome with me sick from getting caught in the rain in Venice so we spent one whole day doing nothing. Rather, I spent one whole day doing nothing but sleeping and resting while CS went round the neighbourhood, ran a few errands and made friends at the market.

After I recovered, we spent the next day on a walking tour. We had signed up for walking tours with Roman Candle Tours and they very nicely allowed us to postpone our tour for one day since I was sick. We did Ancient Rome on the first day and Vatican City on the second day. Our guide, Brian, was absolutely fabulous and both CS and I totally loved him. He was very knowledgeable and shared many tidbits and information with us. Ancient Rome really came alive because of all his explanations and since we had been to Greece and Turkey where there were a lot of Greek and Roman remains, it just added to what we already knew. We were both a little underwhelmed by the Colosseum though cos while it is indeed rather huge, we were just not taken by it for some reason. I must say the ancient Romans were rather clever though, with the whole seating system, trapdoors to bring gladiators/ animals up into the arena etc. The engineering was really quite amazing and of course to construct such a huge buiding is just unimaginable then. Oh they had people dressed up as gladiators walking around, if you take a photo of them they will demand money from you. We didn't take any photos of them but I thought it must be quite cold to walk around like that in this weather, brh...

Colosseum

After the tour, we went to the Vittoriano (aka Wedding Cake) as you are supposed to get a great view of Rome from there. However I think they closed the upper levels since it rained and the floor was rather slippery. We then headed to the Trevi Fountain and again for some strange reason we weren’t taken by it. We did do the cliché thing of throwing a coin in the Trevi Fountain, so let’s see if we go back to Rome, haha… According to Lonely Planet, an average of 3000 euros get chucked into the fountain on an average day! And there was a homeless man who apparently was making up to 1000 euros a day for 34 years! Apparently throwing the coins in the fountain was as legal as taking coins, lol… It is however illegal to enter the fountain, so maybe you should use a net or something, haha… We ended the day with the Spanish Steps with no sights of any supermodels :p

Vittoriano

Trevi Fountain

Kit Cat Diaries -> 23 Mar

They told me my parents wrote to say that I'm not to sleep or sit on the dining table anymore, so I've found some new places to chill, like this washing machine, though it tickles rather when it's spinning... ...

... ...and my cat sister's new basket, after some paws swiping we've decided to be civilized so we've got to take turns... ...

... ...the shoe cabinet, though it gets a bit squashed with all the plants... ...

... ...and my all-time fave spot now, the top of the fridge, though I don't understand all the commotion always when they see me up there... ...*sigh* when can I go back to the dining table again?

Masquerade! Paper Faces on Parade, Masquerade!

The whole reason for us going to Venice at that particular time was because we wanted to see the Carnevale at Venice. The Carnevale is an annual festival in Venice’s which starts about 2 weeks before Ash Wednesday and ends on Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras. Traditionally masks were worn during the Carnevale, this is to allow one's identity and social status to be hidden. Of course people probably wear them now more out of fun than anything else but it's still spectacular to see. Carnevale is actually celebrated throughout Italy but the one in Venice is the most spectacular and people really dress up compared to other cities in Italy. There are also Balls held in Venice but are by invitation only. With that bit of info out of the way, let's talk about the trip proper.

Amazing costumes and masks

Some others who shared our interest in the masquerade...

We checked into our hotel on a rainy and gloomy evening and quickly made our way to Piazza San Marco as that is where most of the people dressed up in masks and costumes gather. However as it was rather wet weather, most of them were sitting in cafes or walking around the buildings surrounding the piazza rather than being in the piazza itself. It was quite amusing to see everyone gathering in front of the café windows to snap photographs of the costumed people inside drinking their coffee. It was like a Hollywood moment with the paparazzi snapping away. CS was of course snapping away while I amused myself by admiring the costumes and pointing out new targets for him to take photographs.

In Piazza San Marco

As there wasn’t much costumed people walking around, we signed up for a walking tour in the end since there wasn’t much to look at or do. The tour was conducted in both English and Italian and we were the only two who chose English. Our guide was a very animated lady whose name we didn’t manage to catch. Though the tour was only one hour, it felt much longer cos of the various stories she was sharing throughout the tour. She also recommended a really good osteria where we had our dinner. It was this tiny place which was jam packed with people standing inside and outside drinking and eating various dishes, kind of like tapas actually. We had some really good chicken wings and actually went back over the next few days for them, but alas they only had them on the first day.

So very fun to see them getting into character and posing

I thought the faces were somewhat Japanese looking

We spent the next few days just walking around Venice and enjoying the sights. It was really interesting to look at all the costumed people and we really admire their efforts in dressing up with all the full works i.e masks, costumes, accessories etc. Of course there were people who just bought a mask to wear to get in the mood but those with the full getup were the ones we really admire and of course these were the ones who kept being stopped for photographs. They were generally quite obliging and happy to pose. There was one guy who was posing near the water and he almost got blown into the water by the strong winds! CS thought the whole thing was a bit like cosplay and I said someone should just dress up as Sailor Moon next year, haha…

Still in character and nearly blown away with the wind

Other than admiring the people who dressed up, we also took a traghetto which is like the poor man’s version of a gondola. You essentially get into the same thing (just not as nicely decorated, smaller and more crowded) and use it to get across the Grand Canal. It was quite an experience and though it was a really short ride (think 3mins or something) it was rather exciting. Hehe…

Gondola!, Gondola!

We bought strawberries at the market

While we really enjoyed Venice, I had the misfortune of being pick pocketed. I only realized it when we stopped for drinks and I noticed that my backpack was totally opened and my wallet was missing. Sigh… just my luck I guess :(

At the Rialto Bridge

My favorite Aglio Olio (with bacon on special request plus weird look from waiter)

In any case, Venice is really quite beautiful and we really enjoyed ourselves there. I think just doing a day trip does it no justice, you really need to stay a few nights to get the feel of the place and also to just wander the maze of streets and canals. Though hotels are a little bit pricier, things in general were not that much more expensive compared to the mainland, food was rather reasonable and there are supermarkets for you to buy water and snacks at around the same prices as Italy. Contrary to what many friends tell us about the smelly canals, smell almost non-existent, maybe cos we were there in winter. In summer it could be completely different. All in all, we totally enjoyed Venice and being there during the Carnevale was a total highlight.

Kit Cat Diaries -> 15 Mar

We haven't been much in the mood for photo posing recently. I went to the animal doctor sometime back and they gave me antibiotics which helps me to eat but somehow makes me sleepy, but I am getting better. Oh and very sad about Japan, I hope all the cats there are okay. I shall bounce back with more photos soon.

Beautiful, Dirty, Rich

On our second day in Milan, we thought of taking it nice and easy. We started in the morning with Castello Sforzesco. We had walked past it the previous day and saw that they had some Michelangelo exhibition going on so I thought it would be nice to visit. It turned out to be a collection of his drawings of the various buildings he designed and was really quite boring actually :p Luckily the castle was so huge they had many different museums inside so we visited some of the others like the Furniture Museum etc.

On our way to the Furniture Museum, we walked past their Egyptian Museum and there was a group of schoolchildren inside on an excursion. The museum staff were dressed up as Egyptians and were explaining to the kids about Egyptian history (I guess) and it looked so interesting CS said he wanted to go be part of them, haha… The kids were all listening attentively and they even asked questions! I don’t think the museum staff in Singapore does this at all and I think it’s a really good way for kids to learn. The Furniture Museum was mildly interesting and there were some pieces that looked quite weird.

After Castello Sforzesco, we headed to the Triennale Design Museum as our guide had mentioned the day before that the NYT had rated it as one of the best shows ever. It was really just a collection of things which were supposed to showcase Italian design I think. We got quite bored after a while though we did see all the exhibits. Xiu, did you go there when you were in Milan? Maybe we are both not creative enough to appreciate it, haha… There was a group of students there (I think they were students) and one of the girls was going on and on about the stuff on display, I’m not sure if she knew what she was talking about or just trying to show off. As the Triennale Design Museum was held in an exhibition area that had other stuff going on at the same time, we also saw an exhibit which was quite weird, it had this guy posing with various objects and he was going about design and how it should be like, something about not just slapping a label on something. Cant remember the name now, but it was weird. There was also an exhibit on Milan hosting the next World Expo at the same venue so we went to take a look. The highlight was that there was an actual baker baking bread there and we could eat the bread that he made! Hehe…. There was some strange bread which they labeled as being from Southeast Asia, which we have never seen before. Weird!

We ended the day at Corsco Como, we had a bit of difficulty finding it and walked into some really dingy areas but we got there in the end. The street looked very shiny and new and seems like where the beautiful and rich went to hang out. We went to 10 Corsco Como as recommend and it was made for beautiful people I guess. I had fun browsing through the books at the bookshop but there was an artist being interviewed there so I couldn’t wander around the whole area. It was the same case at the shop, they had some photoshoot going on so I couldn’t explore it fully. The clothes were alright but I really loved the shoes they had, sigh no shoe shopping so far other than the boots purchased in Florence.

Drove off to Bellagio the next day to see Lake Como. Bellagio is supposed to be the best place to see Lake Como, thus the reason for us staying there. As it was still winter, a lot of things were closed so we couldn’t visit any villas, instead we took the ferry and visited the other towns around Lake Como. We really enjoyed Varenna and had a nice time walking around the town. There was also a photoshoot going on there and I felt so sorry for the model cos it was so so cold!!! No signs of George Clooney though, he must have been busy preparing for the Oscars :p Some pictures from around Lake Como.

Varena

My Cappuccino

Beautiful Lake Como

Beautiful Lake Como again...

Next, masquerade!

Supermodel, work!

We arrived in Milan during Fashion Week so I was a wee bit excited about the possibility of seeing some models or even Anna Wintour, haha…. before that, CS writes about the soccer match he attended the night we arrived.

I had originally wanted to catch Inter Milan Vs Juventus in Turin but tickets were sold out. I suppose Inter Milan vs Bayern Munich is potentially a better matchup. Although my following of soccer and Inter Milan has reduced significantly in recent years and shifted towards tennis, walking up to the San Siro Stadium for a big match still stirred up emotions of excitement and anticipation.

After a tough time squeezing through the gates, climbing the towers up to the highest and cheapest seats in the stadium with the thousands of fans, as I approached the entrance to the centre, I hear the champions league anthem (you know the "The champions.., The champions..." one) and getting more excited. Stepping through the corridor into the stadium was overwhelming. I knew the stadium was big (80,000 capacity) but it was BIG. See a short clip I recorded.

Not much to comment about the match which ended 1-0 to Bayern unfortunately, but I still enjoyed the experience.

Ok, back to me writing, haha... The next day, we had a walking tour which brought us around Milan and also to see The Last Supper. Since it started in the afternoon, we went to the Duomo (yet another one!) and also the shopping mall which became the prototype across the world, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II for a looksee first.

The Duomo in Milan was quite different from the ones we have seen in Florence and Turin as the architecture was Gothic. They had finished cleaning it up so it was all bright and shiny for us to admire. We also climbed up the Duomo and while the view was nothing to shout about (I think the views from climbing the bell tower in Florence and Leaning Tower were much better) it was interesting to be up close and personal with the 140 pinnacles. Each one of them had a different figurine on top and I imagine it must have been crazy to both sculpt and clean all of them. We didn’t go down into the crypt so nothing to talk about there.

Duomo in Milan

As for Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, we didn’t really go into any of the shops but I did rather liked the building itself. The glass covered ceiling looked really pretty. They also set up a catwalk in the middle of the mall for Fashion Week but this is for the the less well-known designers. Loreal had a makeup room there so you can see the models getting their makeup done. We managed to see bits of the show when we walked past during our walking tour. Here are some pics

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

Fashion week in Milan

The Last Supper itself was quite amazing. This was one ticket you really need to pre-book cos there is no way you can waltz in and just get one. We got ours through the walking tour, Last Supper Tickets, which included the walking tour so though we booked everything more or less last minute, we managed to get in. The ticket really allows you to see that one fresco, and they have very strict controls. Only about 30 people are allowed in at any one time, atmosphere controlled environment and absolutely no photographs are allowed, they were very strict about that. There is actually another fresco at the other side of the room but as our tour guide said, that guy was unfortunate enough to be opposite Da Vinci so no one looks at his stuff. I did spent some time staring at that other fresco but it really cannot compare to Last Supper.

We ended the day with ‘Happy Hour’! Our guide told us about this practice in Milan where they have ‘Happy Hour’ from 6-9pm where if you buy a drink at a café, you basically get a buffet of finger foods, and this is how you basically have your dinner for a cheap price. Hehe we were quite happy to partake in this practice as it meant cheap dinner. The food is mainly finger foods, different types of pizzas, olives, tomatoes etc. Cheap food but filling and that’s what’s most important.

On our way back, we thought we could catch some celebrity attending the Prada show or something but no such luck. There was a tent where the fashion shows are being held and the paparazzi was there setting up but we didn’t stay to see any supermodel or Anna Wintour, maybe tomorrow...

Eat, Bike, Race

After resting and taking a short break in San Gimignano, we headed to Bologna which is supposed to be the gastronomical capital of Italy. We spent the day wandering around the city centre and visited the following

Basilica di San Petronio, which was undergoing a facelift for its façade, so we didn’t get a chance to admire its exterior which is supposed to be partially clad in red and white striped marble. Apparently this basilica was supposed to be larger than St Peters but Rome got wind of the scheme and cut off the funds, lol…

Torre degli Asinelli which is a leaning tower but not as famous as the one in Pisa. You can climb up the tower but I think we had enough climbing to last us for a while so we just admired it from the ground level.

Basilica di Santo Stefano, which is actually ‘an assemblage of four churches’. Since I just finished reading ‘The Historian’, I was actually a little creeped out by one of the churches (not sure which one), which was kind of spooky and reminded me of one particular chapter in the book. I won’t say which chapter so as not to give away any spoilers or to offend anybody.

We also did some window shopping and wandered past the oldest university in Europe. Dinner was at some really horrible place which I won’t even bother naming cos the food was so bad you have to taste it to believe it. It was seriously the first time that we had such bad food in Italy, and in the gastronomical capital of all places.!!! Disappointing to say the least.

The next day was far more exciting. We originally wanted to join a food tour but the price was a little too high for us, so we decided on a more exciting alternative, the Ducati Factory and Museum tour! Before that though, we managed to find a restaurant (Ristorante Garganelli at Savoia Hotel Bologna) for lunch and thank god the food was good. We were so happy we made reservations for dinner! It was that good! Some pics for you to drool over.

We basically did a ‘eat and run’ during lunch as we had to rush to make it in time for our Ducati tour so we were glad to go back for dinner. I was totally getting food envy during dinner cos everyone’s food looked so good! Too bad we only have that much space in our stomachs otherwise I would have loved to try everything on the menu.

My nice plate of seafood pasta...

Common dish in Bologna

- Tagliatelle al ragu

(Spaghetti Bolognese is not from Bologna!)

The Ducati Factory and Museum tour had to be pre-booked and we managed to get it at the last minute. They had a fixed time for the tours and we got the 3pm slot. I was the only girl in the tour, other than our guide. There was a Russian dude who flew in specially for the tour, talk about being a hardcore fan! We were probably the only two people on the tour who didn’t know much about bikes, cos when our guide was explaining certain things about the bike we were a bit lost (or maybe only I was lost and CS totally got it).

First up was the factory tour. We weren’t allowed any photos so no pics. The whole bike is made by hand and they apparently practise the kaizen method. It was quite interesting to see how the various parts come together. The whole company only has 1000 staff of which if I remember correctly, about 600 of them work on the factory floor and they make Ducati bikes for the whole world! That probably explains why their bikes are expensive. Next time I see a Ducati bike, I’ll remember all those Italian dudes on the factory floor.

After that, we went to the museum where we got another guide. The museum mainly had the racing bikes and since we don’t watch the races, it was a bit lost on us. We learnt that Ducati started out making typewriters and cameras. It was only after the war they made motorized-bikes out of necessity. The museum was like a shrine to all the various racing bikes, while I may not know much about them, they were certainly nice to look at.

Notice the tennis ball just above the handle?

Apparently, racers used the ball to hold a wet sponge to wipe their visors.

Range of Ducati bikes from the different years

Back at the same place for dinner, the Bologna football team came in for dinner, we guessed that they were probably having practice somewhere nearby cos the soccer players just wore their team sweatshirts and looked totally unglam, haha…

Beef Carpaccio with mushrooms

Pistachios crusted steak with balsamic sauce

After the exciting day of good food and interesting bikes, we went to the …. Ferrari museum! The factory tour is only available to Ferrari owners so the chances of us getting in is totally zilch. The museum was interesting enough and of course since you are there, there are many touts outside the museum asking if you would like to drive a Ferrari, haha… We got approached twice but we didn’t take up the offer, CS thought it wouldn’t be very fun to just drive it for 10 minutes in the town, he would rather drive it around the race track which was very costly. The museum was rather interesting and they also had a model of the factory and the various aesthetics and building design they took into consideration when building the factory to ensure that employees have their needs taken care of as well as minimal impact to the environment. The factory looked rather high tech, too bad we were not eligible to go in.

All the Ferrari F1 scale models ever raced

So that was our mini Eat, Bike, Race journey. Onward to strut like a supermodel.

Under the Florence rain – Part Tre and San Gimignano

Last day of Florence and it still rained! Sheesh….

We had originally planned to go to the Boboli Gardens but since it was raining, we spent the morning doing nothing as far as I can remember. We did go out to have lunch and had a tasty meal of beef tripe from a roadside stall near the Mercato. The stall had 2 students (I think) who were taking photos of the owners preparing the meal. There was a sign at the stall written in Chinese telling Taiwanese tourists that the beef tripe was a must try. I must say the beef tripe was good, spicy and comforting in the cold weather.

After that, we walked onto the Piazzale Michelangelo. Though it was a rainy and dreary day, the walk was worth it. The view was really worth it and they had bronze David too!

View from Pizzale Michelanglo

Bronze David

The view was actually taken the next day when it was nice and sunny. And that concludes our Florence journey, there were some places we didn’t go which on second thoughts would have been nice to visit like Santa Croce which has Michelangelo’s tomb and of course the gardens which we didn’t go cos it was raining. Oh well, we can always come back I guess.

After Florence, we drove off to Tuscany, specifically San Gimignano. It’s a nice little town which is considered ‘the medieval Manhattan’ of its time. We didn’t stay in the town itself, instead we chose this apartment on the outskirts of town. It’s managed by a lovely Italian couple who could easily be our grandparents! They spoke no English and we spoke no Italian but somehow we managed to communicate. They were really nice and gave us a bottle of recently harvested olive oil (40days) when we left. CS wanted to see the harvesting of olives and the production of olive oil but apparently it’s not the season to do so, so we made do with eating olive oil instead. But we did learn a bit of knowledge such as: there are 3 types of olives that produce olive oil but only 1 survives the winter to be harvested sometime in early January.

We spent one day walking around the town of San Gimignano and it’s like a movie set! I can almost imagine the cast of Merlin or Robin Hood around, lol… There was a wedding going on though we didn’t actually see the wedding we did see the guests and the confetti they left behind. It is quite a nice place to hold a wedding if you have the money to spare, all the wedding photos will definitely look fabulous.

San Gimignano

San Gimignano

There was a town nearby where New Moon was shot, V you should totally check it out if you come to Italy, haha… The previous occupants of the apartment had left the brochure of the New Moon tour in the room so that’s how we got to know about it. In case anyone needs to know the town is Volterra. Since I’m not a fan, we didn’t check it out and just spent our time in San Gimignano. It is a really nice little town to just chill and relax and that's what we did :)