The REAL Deal @ Florence - Day 3 Part 1

On this day, it was a very packed day with lots of places to go and plainly speaking, I must say that it was definitely one of the most exhausting days because of the long walks and steep slopes which were really energy sapping.

The first destination we went was the Santa Maria del. Fiore Duomo (Cathedral) but when we got there, it seemed that there was some procession going on and we were unable to enter the clock tower and the dome. It was only later which we realized that it was the Sunday of the easter weekend but we managed to enter the church itself and took some pretty nice photos!

S. Maria del. Fiore Duomo.


















Interior of the Dome.


















Inside the Cathedral.


















We were quite lucky in a way because after taking all these photos, the mass was about to begin and the tourists inside the church were all led out and were not allowed to enter. So after that, we went to the next nearest attraction, which was the Piazza della Repubblica (Republic Square) and it has a Victory Gate there, good for a nice shot.

Republic Square (Behind: Victory Gate)













The next stop for us was the Ponte (Bridge) Vecchio. It was said that in the past, the sides of the bridge were usually packed with butchers and clobbers and it looked like a slum. But after the Medici family took over the reins of the area, the place were filled with goldsmith shops which raised the value significantly and popularized the area. This bridge is near to the famous Uffizi Musuem and we would be there to visit on Day 4.

Ponte Vecchio (The beige top of the bridge is the corridor built by Giorgio Vasari to allow the Medici commute between the PalazzoVecchio to the Palazzo Pitti. The bottom layer of the bridge housed the many goldsmith shops till this day).









Pitti Palace.













After the bridge, the planned destination was to get to the Giardini di Boboli (Boboli Gardens) and this is famous for the fountain's central sculpture, a huge walking slope (that leads to the fountain), amphitheatre and a fantastic view from the garden's top!

The fountain.














The long walk up!


















Amphitheatre.














Top view at Boboli Gardens.

Milan-Florence-Siena-Florence - Day 2 Part 2

As we were slightly early to move-in, we left our bags at one room and got off to Siena by train, which took us about 1hr 30mins. Once we arrived at Siena, the train station was beside a small shopping mall with a supermarket called Pam. We were supposed to take a bus from the basement of this mall to Piazza del Campo (take bus 9 or 10 to Piazza Gramsci stop) at only E1.00. Look out for Palazzo Pubblico and Torre del Margia and another worthy place to tour is the Cathedral - they are listed as UNESCO Heritage Site.


Siena Train Station















Plazzo Pubblico



















Torre del Margio

Street of Siena

After touring the main attractions at Siena, we took the train at 6.18pm and we returned to Florence at 7.50pm to rest, chat and then, to sleep! Didn't manage to grab any food for dinner because we had some gelato and a slice of pizza at Siena and we were still full from it. =P

Milan-Florence-Siena-Florence - Day 2 Part 1

After a good night of uninterrupted sleep, I was relieved that I was not suffering from any serious jet lag! As were a little early for the hotel breakfast, we decided to take a walk outside on the street and have a feel of Italy's Spring morning. It was splendid - fresh air and Italian-style buildings emerged perfectly from the night! It was slightly cold at about 13 deg C but I was courageous enough to don on my short-sleeved collar shirt only. #love the cold


Street ouside Hotel Mennini.



















Just past 7am, we decided to head back to the hotel as it was having a slight drizzle outside and it was time for breakfast too! Considering the hotel was not EXACTLY like our Dubai hotel, we were not holding high hopes for the breakfast.. But my oh my, I was wrong! Though the variety was not much, it had the essentials like bread, ham, cheese, jams, cereals, milk, orange juice and water. We were totally satisfied with the breakfast. #ham #cheese #cereals


Breakfast @ Hotel Mennini.














Once we returned to our hotel room, somehow we saw it in a different light and we said to each other that considering it cost us only E70.00 (promp price on booking.com) for the room, it was absolutely value for money~



Bedroom.














Clean toilet.



















We were scheduled to take the Eurostar train to Florence at 9.15am at the Central Train Station. Frankly speaking, the architectural design was conventional ancient Rome style with sculptures and paintings. We were onboard onboard the train to Florence shortly after arriving and 2 hours was needed to travel from Milan to Florence.


Outside Central Train Station, Milan.
















Eurostar train.



















Soon enough, we reached Florence on the dot and what greeted us as we came out of the station was Santa Maria Novella Church and it looked amazing! We took a couple of shots and then we took out our map and started to locate our BnB hostel which was situated near the station. It was about 8-10 mins of walk to our hostel - Locanda Dei Poeti. There are a couple of reasons why we like this hostel - location, nice deco, (very) hospitable owner, clean toilet packed with toiletries, firm beds, complimentary mineral water and biscuits. The boss is a spirited fellow with huge enthusiasm when it comes to recommending the best places to eat and tour at Florence! This hostel is highly recommended! #Locanda dei Poeti


Games & Internet Room.




















Kitchen - You can boil water or have their biscuits & jam!


















Bedroom, with scent.

Dubai-Milan Flight and Hotel Stay - Day 1

To get to Milan (Malpensa), it took us 5 hours on plane from Dubai. It was already night time at roughly 8.20pm (Italy local time, 6 hours behind Singapore) and we took an airport bus called Airport 2000 (E7.50/pax for 50 min journey) and there's another more expensive option called Airport Express (E12.00 I think), but will only reach the Central Train Station by only 10 mins earlier.

At about 9.10pm (Italy time), we reached the Central Station and started to orientate ourselves on our printed Google map to see the direction of the hotel and fortunately, our alighting point was quite at the correct position and were on the right course soon.

It took us about 8-10 mins of walking to reach our hotel (Hotel Mennini - 3-star). Despite the 3-star rating, it really didn't seem to quite impress me at the door because it looked old and was inside a building itself. We were dead tired and so, we just wanted to finish the check-in asap so that we can start our night-time dreams. The lift was small and it shook quite a bit once it reached the floor and each level was lit up using movement sensor. Once we turned the knob, and entered the room, we thought it looked quite decent (although HH told me that she expected better because of the nicer photos posted on the online travel forum by travellers) and the bathroom was not bad! All the necessary stuff were all in place (except toothbrushes & toothpaste). After doing some unpacking and a good thorough bath, lights were out!


Hotel Mennini



















Lobby

Our Day on the Plane and Dubai - Day 1

The Emirates flight from Changi T1-Colombo, Sri Lanka-Dubai took about 9 hours in total, inclusive of a short stopover at Sri Lanka for about 1hr 20mins.

The experience was rather good with prompt service, good food and great in-flight entertainment system called ICE - Information Communication Entertainment, with a range of movies, documentaries, news and games channels for us to choose as we travel. Watched "The King's Speech", "Paranormal Activity 2" and "Narnia: The Dawn Treader" - #moviemarathon. Apart from the entertainment, meals were served twice on this 9-hour journey. We had Masala Chicken set with cheesecake shortly after we were onboard at Changi and after we left Colombo, I had the Egg Omelette set and Huang Hui opted for their local rice cake with curry breakfast set.

After we landed at Dubai airport, we were there first to process HH's visa in order to check-in to our hotel, with compliments from Emirates and it was quite a smooth one. So after we got out of the arrival gate, we waited for a while at the waiting lounge and hopped onto the hotel shuttle, Copthorne Millenia, an airport hotel. Upon checking in, we were given meal coupons for breakfast, lunch and tea, which really did surprise us! +++

At Dubai, we realized that the UAE people were quite obssessed with sail-like shape. I'll post the photos to support this statement. It was VERY hot, at about 37 deg C when we were out strolling and taking photos and their public bus stops were actually air conditioned!

So at about 6pm Singapore Time or 2pm Dubai Time, we packed off to the airport to catch our Milan plane and here I am writing this blog as we were waiting for the queue to board the plane to get shorter!

Will try to post the photos and blog once I have the chance to do so~ Milan, here we come!! =)


Millennium Airport Hotel Dubai.















Very generous meal coupons.



















Chappatti-like local bread and Turkish Chicken.















Taken outside of our Dubai Airport Hotel.

Flight Details

After a short period of sourcing for the best deal, it seemed that our money was in for Emirates. It was during late February which we decided to book for the tickets. All in all, we thought that Emirates had the most value in terms of ticket price ($1258/pax) and gave us the most pleasant surprise - a hotel stay at Copthorne, Dubai, when we mentioned to them that we were to transit for 9 hours plus and wanted to get out of the airport to have a short tour in Dubai.

So for this, I would strongly recommend Emirates for their generosity and hospitality.

I have attached our flight details here for your reference (Please click on image and magnify):

Cities which we are going!

Here's a sneak peek to the places we are planning to go:

Italy:

1. Florence
2. Rome
3. Milan
4. Pisa
5. Siena


Switzerland:

1. Interlaken
2. Jungfrau (Alps)
3. Grindelwald
4. Bellinzona
5. Lucerne
6. Montreux
7. Berne

Our Honeymoon Destinations - Italy & Switzerland!

Finally, the much-awaited day has arrived! Huang Hui and I would be embarking our honeymoon trip to Europe and we have made plans to visit many places in Italy and Switzerland~

As I write this blog entry, the excitement inside me is rapidly building up with incredible speed.


This blog was created so that it will record the entire 17 days of our honeymoon's thrills and spills and MOST probably, this blog will be updated on a daily basis (provided there's internet access & I ain't dead tired to even move my fingers). Nonetheless, I'll try my best to update it everyday to bring to you our honeymoon and countries' highlights in the shortest time possible!

Before I end, I wanna offer my greatest thanks to my loveliest laopo for planning the whole honeymoon trip, as I was playing the CFO role for this overseas tour. heehee

I might be able to update later our planned itinerary later so that all of you can have a glimpse of the intended places which we would be going.. So stay tuned!!

Walala peepz~

Switzerland

Italy