Italy Trip

It's been some time since I've blogged. I was in Italy over the weekend and was stuck with my assignment for Flemish Art due on 9th Nov when I'm only back from my trip on Tuesday. I have to say I was uptight about everything during that time, but well, it's all over now. I'm still tired coz I can't really sleep, dunno why juz can't sleep well.

So how was Italy?

Seriously? I didn't really enjoy it except for Rome, because the Vatican City was a good experience. Rome was our first stop, we took Ryanair (budget flight) so Xuan & I stayed over the airport upon leaving & arriving Belgium coz there were no buses and trains back to Leuven. That's what you have to go through for being cheapskate. I'd rather pay more for comfort. Anyway, it was very very cold in Italy, super windy. Our second day in Rome, we had to wake up super early juz to queue to go into the Vatican City. We reached at about 9am and got in at about 11 plus - it was a super long queue, but it was worth it. Sistine Chapel was beautiful though over-rated, I preferred the Michaelangelo & Rafael room though - CLASSIC!!! Everyone shld go to the Vatican City. There's also a Vatican post inside & I posted a postcard back home with the stamps from the Vatican. Then we visited the St. Peter's Basilica - the largest church in the world. That night itself, both of us took an overnight train to Venice.

Guess what??? We overslept & missed out supposed connection, thank God Xuan woke up suddenly; we quickly got off to check when the next connection, luckily we didn't have to pay more for another connection. Phew!!! haha...but it was funny, we juz laughed at how this could happen to us especially when we told ourselves before our trip that we have to keep check of time since all our connections were so tight. hee hee hee. Upon reaching Venice, we got lost finding our hostel coz the street that our hostel was at - Calle del Forna - there were 5 of them in Venice. Finally we found it! There wasn't much in Venice, we finished walking it in like 4 hours and I dun find Venice that beautiful; it's been overrated or maybe my expectations were too high, but but that biscotti is great over there.

Venice was only one night then we were off to Milan to catch our plane back. Milan was expected - city-like, uptown, so unless you're there for the shopping, there's really nothing much. Milan is the place that I felt most insecure about, the vibe that I had wasn't pleasant at all. Upon reaching the train station, then to take the Metro to get to the main square, we met 3 young girls at the Metro while we're buying the tickets. They were like teenagers asking if we spoke English, we pretended we didn't but stoopid me took money out from my pockets, & I noticed her eyeing my pocket when I did that. When I shifted to another machine to get my ticket, one pushed the other towards me, but I siam-ed coz I saw that (I shld have kicked her man!!!). They left us after the failed attempt to pickpocket me & we left to meet Eugene (he's doing exchange in Milan). We felt much better after seeing Eugene, relieved. Went to makan lunch and catch up, then went to the gelato shop that we were recommend coz it was supposedly the BEST gelato shop. It's named Chocolat and I have to say it's the best gelato I had, better than the one I had in Rome. The chocolate gelato was superb man!!! Now I'm craving for it....
Then we juz walked around abit before heading to the airport to catch our plane back. That was Italy for us.

Conclusion: Italy isn't a place with friendly people that most people think it is. They are people who offers bad service (or no service at all). The worst was the Italians at the train ticket counters - a bloody lot!!! Then they are very nationalistic coz most can't speak English & they dun bother to entertain you if they can't understand you. It's an expensive place where their restaurants or even juz eateries have hidden costs, you have to check what's their service charge coz eating-in & taking-out have different prices & the difference is drastic. I always have a feeling of being cheated when I'm in Italy. Expensive everywhere, unfriendly ppl (though not all of them), over-rated, but they are quite a good-looking bunch. Anyway, do your research & know abit of their language if you wanna go to Italy.