Venice ( 16 – 18 April)
The closest BH and I ever got to Venice was The Venetian at Las Vegas and Macau.. haha.. I clearly rem that the skies at The Venetian were clear blue – I thought that it was just the artists’ impression of the place. I was so wrong.. the real Venice is indeed v pretty! The skies are blue and every picture you take is nice!
From Paris, we took Easyjet to Marco polo Airport. We only reached at night, 8pm. We took the booked the Water Taxi on Viator to bring us to our hotel. It’s a pity that it’s late and dark, we didn’t take any pictures on the water taxi. In fact, when we reached Venice it was quiet .. like a ghost town
we checked into our hotel and rested early that night – I was still feeling horrible because of my cold :/
Our hotel is The Westin, Europa and Regina We paid US$100/night as we managed to claim our SPG points for it. We were hoping to get a free upgrade to a room facing the waters BUT we didn’t. We only got upgraded to a suite.. oh well.. better than nothing
The next day, we woke up bright and early… it was a beautiful day!
We had a hard time looking for food which is affordable. I mean.. Venice is VERY touristy and it’s an island! Price of food/drink is high! We walked around and settled for food at a cafe (where there’s a lot of locals) Order your food BUT DON’T find a place to SIT The price of coffee when u sit and stand is different! We paid 2X more coz we sat. eeks!
So Venice is about walking around and getting lost… a map doesn’t help much
We spent the day walking around and chilling out at a cafe when we are tired.. it was really relaxing.. nah.. we didn’t take a gondola ride as it was kinda ex
We only spent a short time in Venice… after about 2 days, we left for Florence via Train. You can reach Venice train station easily by taking the Water bus ( it’s the last stop) and a stone throw away from the pier (literally)
Oh yes.. our FREE mask from the hotel
How scary! Got it free because the hotel forgot to give us a welcome gift as SPG members. In the end, we got the extra points + the mask! Yes, it’s so bulky but we lagged it back home in 1 piece
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Florence (18-20 April)
This is the 1st time we are taking the train in italy. There’s no need to go thru’ security checks or check in your luggage. It was really ez and convenient + the trains are v punctual and well maintained
After a few games of Hangman with BH – we reached Florence
We stayed at an Airbnb apartment This place is super cool and nice! Love the kitchen! Just that the climb up the flight of stairs (6 floors!) with luggage is a HUGE turn-off!
I personally feel that Florence was a little boring.. the weather was really wet too.. and it makes travelling v sianz..
Below shows the 3 BEST things in Florence (in my opinion)
Beautiful view of Florence.. it was a HUGE wow~~~~ The journey to this place was painful and tedious… we took a bus and it took v long… the traffic is extremely bad. We were really lucky because the rain stopped for the 30-45mins when we were there 🙂
Trattoria il Contadino is the BEST place we have eaten at! The price is affordable and the food is good! This restaurant does not have a fixed menu, the menu changes everyday! The server will tell you what they are serving for the day and you choose 3 courses + drink for $12euros! (Yes, the server repeats the menu to EVERYBODY) We ate here 2X. Thanks to our host who told us about this place! I only found out much later that this place was highly rave about on tripadvsior. We have our dinner around 6pm – it was still empty… The line gets super long when its around 7!
Space is the Prada + Mui Mui outlet! How can I miss that! haha.. I am not the only one who shopped, BH also bought wallet and belt. I am truly blessed to have a husband who likes shopping! well.. we reached Space at 10am, the place opens at 10.30am! Our no. is 23 and 24. You need to take numbers to go into the outlet for payment purposes. Read more about Space outlet here 😀
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Pisa ( 19 April)
We used Florence as a base to make a Day Trip to Pisa.
The weather was really bad – it was drizzling… we didn’t go up to the tower :/ Pisa pretty much have nothing besides the leaning tower… we snapped a few pics and headed back…
At some angles, the tower don’t look slanted.. haha..
ok.. next (and last stop) ROMA!