Day 1: 19th Oct (Friday)
After a long 15 hour flight (transit in London - i smelt the London air! it was blardee 4 degrees!) and 6 hour time difference, we arrived the Eternal City.. 10am!
Took the Leonardo Express train from Fiumicino airport to Termini
Train Station. Ticket was Euro9.50 per person.. *ouch*. Comfy and quick so not complaining. As our Rome hotel - Gioberti was a short walk from the train station (100m), we found it quick. Room wouldnt be ready til 2pm so we left our luggage at the conceige and went for a meal. First meal we had in Rome and it was pretty good! A nearby trattoria called Pizzeria. (I took some pics with my hp.. but it was gone *sigh*) Zack said we must eat something nice for our first meal in Rome.. turned out we eat 'something nice' for most of our meals! Rome was rather packed and somehow we didnt feel very much at ease. You'd notice i hardly took any pics on our way to the hotel or around train stations. Dangerous.
When we went back to our hotel at 1.30pm, we were pleased to find our room ready and luggage sent up. Room exceeded my expectations actually. Rather spacious and my, there was a LCD TV! And a wireless keyboard which allows you to surf the net on the tv. We settled down, unpacked some stuff then hit the streets!
We are not structured travellers with everything all planned out and panic if we dont know where we will be at 11.30am on the 3rd day. All i did was pick out the must-see sites and a see-if-we-got-time sites. Hitting all the attractions is not on our plan. It's our honeymoon so we wanna look at places, walk, smell the air, kiss, walk, drink cappucino at a nice cafe, then on to next location. In short.. be flexible and enjoy the place!
So on our 1st afternoon in Rome... we just walked and walked.. and armed with a map, decided to find the Colosseum.
This is the first church we saw in Rome. It was a christian church. We found that out from the gelato vendor outside. We took some pics, filmed, ate gelato.. then moved on.
This must be some ancient stairs. We don't know. We were merrily walking when we saw this flight of stairs and wondered where it led to - some cathedral. Was some climb.. showed how unconditioned we were.. haha. This stairway looked ancient.. big steps and uneven. Anyway, this is a rather nice shot of zack too :P
THE COLOSSEUM
where gladiators fought in the early medieval era.. while blood thirsty spectators watched by. Construction started in AD70 - 72.. and can seat 50,000.
A Cross in the Colosseum? what irony!
Inside the colosseum. I wonder... its not a flat piece of land.. then how did the gladiators fought? Hide and seek?
Horses carriages.... for suckers. I am one, unfortunately zack is not. He said it stinks and its europe, price is gonna be ridiculous. So i can only take pictures beside it and not on it *pout* i love horses. They are so gentle with the prettiest eyes :)
THE ARCH OF CONSTANTINE
Us at the Colosseum
Italy's ambulance.. Zack sure was excited to see them. We heard sirens like every 15mins...
It was already dusk when we are done at the Colosseum. Tired after all the walking and jetlag. We then tried finding our way back to our hotel.. turned out to be a long long walk as we detoured quite abit. That is probably the fun part... just walking without anywhere in mind.. enjoying the cool air.. :)
For dinner: Went to an eatery just couple of shops away from our hotel for some takeaway pizza. Food was pretty lousy *grimace* We didnt find too many good food places in Rome unfortunately.
Day 2: 20 October (Saturday)
Half-day city tour (3 hours)
We walked quite a fair bit and along the way to Trevi Fountain, we passed some street vendors getting ready for the day and had a glimpse of the everyday life of the Italians.
fruits and vegetable seller
a cheese shop - sells meat too.
interesting fact: fromage = cheese (french)
Supermarket
ltalians sure love their dogs..
FONTANA DEI TREVI (Trevi Fountain)
not a good idea to go in the late morning.. doesn't make a good shot. No worries, we went back again at night and got a decent shot. You'll see later.
Legend: It is said that if you throw a coin over your right (or left) shoulder into the Trevi fountain, it will ensure your return passage back to Rome.
walking along a roman street...
we are lagging behind the group again.. haha..
not good tour travellers i must say..
cos we are always taking shots...
....and filming
The PANTHEON
The name comes from two Greek words pan, "everything" and teon "divine".
ST. PETER'S SQ AND VATICAN CITY
We are here!!!
This is one of the world's most famous squares, designed by Bernini in the 1630s. The gateway to the largest church in the world.
We were taught how to cut queue by our guide.. haha. Here is where our tour ends. Decided to go way up to the top of St. Peter's Basilica.. The CUPOLA!
climbing up the cupola
notice how the 'walls' slants..
after a good 300 over steps....
we made it to the top!
we were up there!
BASILICA DI SAN PIETRO (St. Peter's Basilica)
This is amazingly huge.. and magnificant.. you'll really need a few minutes to catch your breadth. Incredibly beautiful...... *sigh*
another gorgeous dome ceiling...
(sprawled on the floor... how unglam i looked trying to catch this shot)
it's massive.....
the sheer opulence...
we left the Vatican City in awe.......
Lunch: A nice cosy restaurant in Vatican City. We shared a primi and each had a secondi.. and me, a tiramisu which was good! Total bill: Euro 26. SGD 55 for just a normal lunch.. tsk tsk. Its amazing how the italians can stay in shape with the amount of food they partake. For primi (starters), they can have like a plate of pasta, Secondi (main), another plate of beef steak.
We spent what's left of the afternoon in search for Via Del Corso - SHOPPING!
We took the metro and arrived at some place we know not..
it has an obelisk so has to have some name..
along the street........
he drew this with chalk.. free hand with just a photo. Talk about talent.
VIA DEL CORSO - the main artery of ROMAN SHOPPING!
wooohoooo...!!!!!!
Akin to Singapore's Orchard Rd, here is where you see tons of italian youths. Italians are gorgeous! The guys are breathtaking (custom officer at the airport).. seriously.. and the chicks HOT! Most are tan-skinned, with really exotic looks. Of crse not ALL italians are good-looking.
Let's talk about SHOPPING IN ROME.
If you are looking for bargains, look elsewhere. Everything is in euros so don't expect much. What we saw in Rome, we see them in Singapore as well. Fashion wise? Hard to compare as it was autumn and we see many coats and autum wear. I wasn't shopping for clothes (zack) so wasn't paying too much attention. However, the Italians sure love their Zara. The Zara boutiques we went to were huge (2 storeys high), always packed (no sale).. cashier queues long. And guess what???!!!
I BOUGHT A ZARA COAT FOR EURO40!!!!!
It was my best buy *grins* It's long and black.. just what i was looking for! I had to tussle abit with zack for it.. but i bought it at the next Zara boutique we saw :P Overall, the variety in Zara is way better than Singapore's boutiques. Prices wise.. slightly cheaper. Eg. Zack's coat was retailing for SGD399, it was going for SGD369 in Rome.
Other than shopping, Via Del Corso was also the place to meet friends for the locals. As said above, just like Orchard Rd. After walking the long street, we decided to enjoy hot cappucino at a cafe along the street and people-watch. Big mistake....
I'm not going into deets cos it's too painful.. this was when my handphone got stolen by gypsy kids. 3 of them, 5-6 yrs old.. *sigh*
Along with my handphone, our innocence got stolen. We got more vigilant and the stories we heard back home, became real to us. Theft in Rome was so rampant that the police were rather nonchalent about it. Very first thing the policeman asked us (in a drawl) when we filed for a report was.."So.. what have you lost?" While we were writing the report, 2 americans came in. Apparently one of them (a big burly guy) got mugged on the bus. Amazing. *sigh* It was a painful lesson for me.
Well, zack and i were not about to let this spoil our honeymoon. No blardee way. Instead of wallowing in self-pity and get angry (him at me which he didnt and i'm grateful for :)) and fight over it, we said screw it and went for a nice romantic dinner.. haha. Yeah we really did that. Food wasnt anything to rave about it but it was a nice place.. and we had a lovely time :)
We walked on and went to Trevi Fountain..
it sure looks prettier at night ya.
(And the very next day (we read it in the papers on 22 Oct), some idiot added red paint to the water and the whole fountain looked like it was bathed in blood. People can be such assholes.)
Zack asked me if i wanna flip a coin into the fountain to ensure my return to Rome.. and he will take a shot for me. I replied... "no, i dun wanna come back to Rome.." hahahha...
Tired and in fact wary, we took a taxi back to our hotel...
...and had our 1st experience driving on cobblestones.
You know how it's like playing Daytona? It was exactly like it! Fast and furious.. the speed, the bumpiness.. and yes, the thrill! Other than a good set of suspensions for yr car, an iron-cast stomach, you also need the skill to drive on cobblestones, it sure aint easy. And my.... taxi-driver - dashing. Too bad he cant speak english.
Day 3: 21 Oct (Sunday)
(Pappe's birthday!)
It must be my broken heart, i didnt take a single photo that day!
We were pretty done with all the sight-seeing.. and covered most of the places we wanna see. It was mostly free and easy that day for us. We decided on some DESIGNER OUTLET SHOPPING!
Transport will be picking us up at 12.30pm so that left us with a few hours in the morning. We found a Hard Rock Cafe brochure at the hotel lobby so off we went in search for it!
It was cold that morning i remember, we donned on our coats.
Hard Rock Cafe aint too difficult to find and zack sure was excited. He got a couple of teeshirts and a guitar pin for fu. And just when we were leaving, a fight broke out infront of our very eyes! Jeez, i had to fly across the world just to witness my first fight.. haha. Pity it wasnt a full fledged fight with punches in the face and all. Just some shoving.
Arrived back at our hotel in time for the pick up.
CASTEL ROMANO: A designer outlet with 100+ stores offering products from past seasons at 30% - 70% reduction.
We were afraid it will be another of those tourist 'traps' but were pleasantly surprised to find mostly locals there! So this is where italians do their shopping... haha. Spent our afternoon there. Our spoil? Just CK underwear.. hahahha.
We had some authentic italian food at a pizza eatery in Castel Romano. For primi, we couldnt read italian (no english words) so we just picked something that looked interesting. And a pizza to share. What arrived as our primi were 2 slices of bread with this black paste on it. It tasted ... weird with a tangy taste to it. Zack couldnt stand not knowing what he was eating and asked the guy sitting at the next table what it was. He said it was olive paste :S hahahhaa. Be adventurous! :D The pizza was GOOOOOOD!
Our last night in Rome: We had dinner at Pizzeria where we had our first meal. Hearty meal we had and decided on an early night cos we will be travelling off to Florence in the morning!
In a nutshell...
Rome is a beautiful city.. rich in history and gorgeous people. But it's still very much a city, with its grime and roaches. I regret to say the theft incident did color my view of this beautiful city. Will we go back there again? Probably not.. Zack and i both thought we are pretty done with Rome. It's really hard to fully enjoy yrself when you have to keep an eye out for suspicious characters all the time and there were plenty in Rome sadly. Moroccan / Romanian looking people leaning on walls, staring at bypassers. Even if you exercise urban caution, you can still be a target of mugging. A pity. After 3 days in Rome.. we were ready to move on..... to FLORENCE!
Watch this space for: Zack and Ju in Florence!
After a long 15 hour flight (transit in London - i smelt the London air! it was blardee 4 degrees!) and 6 hour time difference, we arrived the Eternal City.. 10am!
Took the Leonardo Express train from Fiumicino airport to Termini
Train Station. Ticket was Euro9.50 per person.. *ouch*. Comfy and quick so not complaining. As our Rome hotel - Gioberti was a short walk from the train station (100m), we found it quick. Room wouldnt be ready til 2pm so we left our luggage at the conceige and went for a meal. First meal we had in Rome and it was pretty good! A nearby trattoria called Pizzeria. (I took some pics with my hp.. but it was gone *sigh*) Zack said we must eat something nice for our first meal in Rome.. turned out we eat 'something nice' for most of our meals! Rome was rather packed and somehow we didnt feel very much at ease. You'd notice i hardly took any pics on our way to the hotel or around train stations. Dangerous.When we went back to our hotel at 1.30pm, we were pleased to find our room ready and luggage sent up. Room exceeded my expectations actually. Rather spacious and my, there was a LCD TV! And a wireless keyboard which allows you to surf the net on the tv. We settled down, unpacked some stuff then hit the streets!
We are not structured travellers with everything all planned out and panic if we dont know where we will be at 11.30am on the 3rd day. All i did was pick out the must-see sites and a see-if-we-got-time sites. Hitting all the attractions is not on our plan. It's our honeymoon so we wanna look at places, walk, smell the air, kiss, walk, drink cappucino at a nice cafe, then on to next location. In short.. be flexible and enjoy the place!
So on our 1st afternoon in Rome... we just walked and walked.. and armed with a map, decided to find the Colosseum.
This is the first church we saw in Rome. It was a christian church. We found that out from the gelato vendor outside. We took some pics, filmed, ate gelato.. then moved on.
This must be some ancient stairs. We don't know. We were merrily walking when we saw this flight of stairs and wondered where it led to - some cathedral. Was some climb.. showed how unconditioned we were.. haha. This stairway looked ancient.. big steps and uneven. Anyway, this is a rather nice shot of zack too :P
THE COLOSSEUM
where gladiators fought in the early medieval era.. while blood thirsty spectators watched by. Construction started in AD70 - 72.. and can seat 50,000.
A Cross in the Colosseum? what irony!
Inside the colosseum. I wonder... its not a flat piece of land.. then how did the gladiators fought? Hide and seek?
Horses carriages.... for suckers. I am one, unfortunately zack is not. He said it stinks and its europe, price is gonna be ridiculous. So i can only take pictures beside it and not on it *pout* i love horses. They are so gentle with the prettiest eyes :)
THE ARCH OF CONSTANTINE
Us at the Colosseum
Italy's ambulance.. Zack sure was excited to see them. We heard sirens like every 15mins...
It was already dusk when we are done at the Colosseum. Tired after all the walking and jetlag. We then tried finding our way back to our hotel.. turned out to be a long long walk as we detoured quite abit. That is probably the fun part... just walking without anywhere in mind.. enjoying the cool air.. :)
For dinner: Went to an eatery just couple of shops away from our hotel for some takeaway pizza. Food was pretty lousy *grimace* We didnt find too many good food places in Rome unfortunately.
Day 2: 20 October (Saturday)
Half-day city tour (3 hours)
We walked quite a fair bit and along the way to Trevi Fountain, we passed some street vendors getting ready for the day and had a glimpse of the everyday life of the Italians.
fruits and vegetable seller
a cheese shop - sells meat too.
interesting fact: fromage = cheese (french)
Supermarket
FONTANA DEI TREVI (Trevi Fountain)
not a good idea to go in the late morning.. doesn't make a good shot. No worries, we went back again at night and got a decent shot. You'll see later.
Legend: It is said that if you throw a coin over your right (or left) shoulder into the Trevi fountain, it will ensure your return passage back to Rome.
walking along a roman street...
we are lagging behind the group again.. haha..
not good tour travellers i must say..
cos we are always taking shots...
....and filming
The PANTHEON
The name comes from two Greek words pan, "everything" and teon "divine".
ST. PETER'S SQ AND VATICAN CITY
We are here!!!
This is one of the world's most famous squares, designed by Bernini in the 1630s. The gateway to the largest church in the world.
We were taught how to cut queue by our guide.. haha. Here is where our tour ends. Decided to go way up to the top of St. Peter's Basilica.. The CUPOLA!
climbing up the cupola
notice how the 'walls' slants..
after a good 300 over steps....
we made it to the top!
we were up there!
BASILICA DI SAN PIETRO (St. Peter's Basilica)
This is amazingly huge.. and magnificant.. you'll really need a few minutes to catch your breadth. Incredibly beautiful...... *sigh*
another gorgeous dome ceiling...
(sprawled on the floor... how unglam i looked trying to catch this shot)
it's massive.....
the sheer opulence...
we left the Vatican City in awe.......
Lunch: A nice cosy restaurant in Vatican City. We shared a primi and each had a secondi.. and me, a tiramisu which was good! Total bill: Euro 26. SGD 55 for just a normal lunch.. tsk tsk. Its amazing how the italians can stay in shape with the amount of food they partake. For primi (starters), they can have like a plate of pasta, Secondi (main), another plate of beef steak.
We spent what's left of the afternoon in search for Via Del Corso - SHOPPING!
We took the metro and arrived at some place we know not..
it has an obelisk so has to have some name..
along the street........
he drew this with chalk.. free hand with just a photo. Talk about talent.
VIA DEL CORSO - the main artery of ROMAN SHOPPING!
wooohoooo...!!!!!!
Akin to Singapore's Orchard Rd, here is where you see tons of italian youths. Italians are gorgeous! The guys are breathtaking (custom officer at the airport).. seriously.. and the chicks HOT! Most are tan-skinned, with really exotic looks. Of crse not ALL italians are good-looking.
Let's talk about SHOPPING IN ROME.
If you are looking for bargains, look elsewhere. Everything is in euros so don't expect much. What we saw in Rome, we see them in Singapore as well. Fashion wise? Hard to compare as it was autumn and we see many coats and autum wear. I wasn't shopping for clothes (zack) so wasn't paying too much attention. However, the Italians sure love their Zara. The Zara boutiques we went to were huge (2 storeys high), always packed (no sale).. cashier queues long. And guess what???!!!
I BOUGHT A ZARA COAT FOR EURO40!!!!!
It was my best buy *grins* It's long and black.. just what i was looking for! I had to tussle abit with zack for it.. but i bought it at the next Zara boutique we saw :P Overall, the variety in Zara is way better than Singapore's boutiques. Prices wise.. slightly cheaper. Eg. Zack's coat was retailing for SGD399, it was going for SGD369 in Rome.
Other than shopping, Via Del Corso was also the place to meet friends for the locals. As said above, just like Orchard Rd. After walking the long street, we decided to enjoy hot cappucino at a cafe along the street and people-watch. Big mistake....
I'm not going into deets cos it's too painful.. this was when my handphone got stolen by gypsy kids. 3 of them, 5-6 yrs old.. *sigh*
Along with my handphone, our innocence got stolen. We got more vigilant and the stories we heard back home, became real to us. Theft in Rome was so rampant that the police were rather nonchalent about it. Very first thing the policeman asked us (in a drawl) when we filed for a report was.."So.. what have you lost?" While we were writing the report, 2 americans came in. Apparently one of them (a big burly guy) got mugged on the bus. Amazing. *sigh* It was a painful lesson for me.
Well, zack and i were not about to let this spoil our honeymoon. No blardee way. Instead of wallowing in self-pity and get angry (him at me which he didnt and i'm grateful for :)) and fight over it, we said screw it and went for a nice romantic dinner.. haha. Yeah we really did that. Food wasnt anything to rave about it but it was a nice place.. and we had a lovely time :)
We walked on and went to Trevi Fountain..
it sure looks prettier at night ya.
(And the very next day (we read it in the papers on 22 Oct), some idiot added red paint to the water and the whole fountain looked like it was bathed in blood. People can be such assholes.)
Zack asked me if i wanna flip a coin into the fountain to ensure my return to Rome.. and he will take a shot for me. I replied... "no, i dun wanna come back to Rome.." hahahha...
Tired and in fact wary, we took a taxi back to our hotel...
...and had our 1st experience driving on cobblestones.
You know how it's like playing Daytona? It was exactly like it! Fast and furious.. the speed, the bumpiness.. and yes, the thrill! Other than a good set of suspensions for yr car, an iron-cast stomach, you also need the skill to drive on cobblestones, it sure aint easy. And my.... taxi-driver - dashing. Too bad he cant speak english.
Day 3: 21 Oct (Sunday)
(Pappe's birthday!)
It must be my broken heart, i didnt take a single photo that day!
We were pretty done with all the sight-seeing.. and covered most of the places we wanna see. It was mostly free and easy that day for us. We decided on some DESIGNER OUTLET SHOPPING!
Transport will be picking us up at 12.30pm so that left us with a few hours in the morning. We found a Hard Rock Cafe brochure at the hotel lobby so off we went in search for it!
It was cold that morning i remember, we donned on our coats.
Hard Rock Cafe aint too difficult to find and zack sure was excited. He got a couple of teeshirts and a guitar pin for fu. And just when we were leaving, a fight broke out infront of our very eyes! Jeez, i had to fly across the world just to witness my first fight.. haha. Pity it wasnt a full fledged fight with punches in the face and all. Just some shoving.
Arrived back at our hotel in time for the pick up.
CASTEL ROMANO: A designer outlet with 100+ stores offering products from past seasons at 30% - 70% reduction.
We were afraid it will be another of those tourist 'traps' but were pleasantly surprised to find mostly locals there! So this is where italians do their shopping... haha. Spent our afternoon there. Our spoil? Just CK underwear.. hahahha.
We had some authentic italian food at a pizza eatery in Castel Romano. For primi, we couldnt read italian (no english words) so we just picked something that looked interesting. And a pizza to share. What arrived as our primi were 2 slices of bread with this black paste on it. It tasted ... weird with a tangy taste to it. Zack couldnt stand not knowing what he was eating and asked the guy sitting at the next table what it was. He said it was olive paste :S hahahhaa. Be adventurous! :D The pizza was GOOOOOOD!
Our last night in Rome: We had dinner at Pizzeria where we had our first meal. Hearty meal we had and decided on an early night cos we will be travelling off to Florence in the morning!
In a nutshell...
Rome is a beautiful city.. rich in history and gorgeous people. But it's still very much a city, with its grime and roaches. I regret to say the theft incident did color my view of this beautiful city. Will we go back there again? Probably not.. Zack and i both thought we are pretty done with Rome. It's really hard to fully enjoy yrself when you have to keep an eye out for suspicious characters all the time and there were plenty in Rome sadly. Moroccan / Romanian looking people leaning on walls, staring at bypassers. Even if you exercise urban caution, you can still be a target of mugging. A pity. After 3 days in Rome.. we were ready to move on..... to FLORENCE!
Watch this space for: Zack and Ju in Florence!
