Travel Archives - Page 2 of 3

Msclak May 12, 2016

My Sydney Incentive trip

I am very lucky to be part of a company that brings their employees for yearly incentive trip. This year we went Sydney! That was also partly dued to the fact that we did really well last year and our big boss fought to have us travel a little further.

We did a red eye flight into Sydney and arrived the next morning. I would not bore you with the details but lots of photos. Touching a little at the interesting places we went.

Day 1 was basically letting our body get use to the time zone, there was only 2 hours difference but the fact that we did not rest well on board made us all zombies on the first day. We took things light and lunch at Darling Harbour. Lunch was at Nick’s seafood. I love their calamaris.. Ok I love any calamari. Nothing too fanciful but you know when you are half zombie, you do not really bother about the food.

We went to the Opera House and took lots of photos. More like I took alot of photos for my colleagues.. So here is the only one that someone else took for me.

We had dinner at Aqua hosted by our Sydney’s colleagues. The dinner was fantastic. Really really good and I heard it wasnt cheap too. Really good food. But my camera was flat so I did not get any photos of the dinner. Worth a try if you are in Sydney.

Day 2.

We went for the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb. I was half hearted on this itienary because of my acrophobia. I am the type who cant even look over the shopping centre railing so when I heard that the bridge climb is going to be climbing all the way to the top. I almost fainted. You know you cannot really reject your boss’ proposal so I gritted my teeth and went ahead with the rest. I found out that the climb was very costly at AUD$278 per person. Woah…. The experience was scary but I was really proud of myself that I overcame my fear and climbed all the way. Some tips for those who are keen to try. You CAN bring your sunglasses along so dont listen to people who tell you that you cant. You will be given a strap to hold the sunglasses. No cameras, no phone actually nothing except sunglasses and emergency medications are allowed. Wear shoes with shoelaces and comfortable attire. (You will be given an overall to wear) Here are some photos taken by the crew.

Day 3

We went to the beautiful Blue Mountain! The name Blue Mountains is derived from the blue tinge the range takes on when viewed from a distance. It took us 2 hours ride on a coach from central Sydney to reach Blue Mountain. We visited the 3 Sisters; the Blue Mountain’s most spectacular landmark; an unusual rock formation representing three sisters who according to Aboriginal legend were turned to stone. Strolled along the amazing bushwalking tracks in the reserve and also had lunch at the breathtaking Echo Point. We spent half the day and left for our Sailing experience from Darling Harbour. I took motion sickness pills before the ride and it really helped. I truly loved the sailing experience and of course all the photos onboard were fantastic!! We even got to steer the boat! Although not as steady but with all the encouragements and guidance, I was seriously considering to continue on a boat trip back in Singapore.

Day 4

Hunter Valley and horse riding day. Ok when they mentioned horse riding, I thought was those in Singapore Zoo where someone will lead the horse and you ride slowly. I was shocked when they placed me onto the horse, told me 4 simple instructions on how to Go, Stop, Left and Right. Then I was off to go with Charlie (my horse) into the wild, yes wild as in out in the field where you can see Kangaroo jumping beside you and a hare popping out from the tall grass in the middle of your path. Honestly it was not easy at all. My horse was always hungry, he would stopped and eat as and when we walked pass any grass patch. He would walked right into bushes and tress and all the branches would swept all over me and I had to scream for help. Charlie would gallopped when he realized he was too slow and needed to catch up. Ok the gallopping was scary. Firstly I felt as though I was going to fall off. Next my bum was super sore from the slamming when Charlie gallopped. (Now I understand why Jockey has to stand when they are riding). Finally after a 45 min or so of riding, we got back to the stable. One of my colleagues fell off her horse because another colleague’s horse went to irritate her horse. Omg… she got a cut on her arm and face. But even so… everyone agreed that this horse riding was a fun experience.

Last day

Sydney Fish Market. For really really fresh seafood breakfast!! Lots of Sashimi and Oysters( I dont take Oysters). Then we headed to Paddey’s market nearby before going Home Sweet Home…

Time to work hard to look forward to next year incentive trip!

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Msclak October 21, 2015

Italy- Milan Aug 2015

Our last sector. Milan to me is very much like any cosmopolitan city. Modernized and busy. Architectures are also very similar to many big cites in the world. Probably we were also homesicked, we did not explore much in Milan.

Milan is more a place where we looked for the things we could not get earlier in other cities of Italy.

We stayed at M Gallery Milano Centrale. Newly opened and a very high tech hotel. There were buttons everywhere in the room till I did not even know what were each buttons for. Who bothers about buttons or switches in the room when you only have 2 nights in Milan. Ok, the room were truly 5 stars standard, if you are looking for clean and modern looking rooms, then you will love M Gallery. It is also very convenient as it is located 5min away from Centrale Metro station and the main railway station.

Taking the metro is very easy in Milan. We bought the day ticket at €1.50 each. Do check that the ticket machine has change given for notes as most machine will indicate the maximum amount of change it can give. We took a train to Montenapoleone, the main shopping street. Every big brand you know are located here. It was a Saturday and most shops will be close on Sunday thus we quickly got whatever we needed and walked to Piazza Del Duomo.

Piazza Del Duomo is the main city square of Milan. A place where you need to visit if you are in Milan. We went there to look for a decent place for dinner as I got lazy this sector and did not do any research on where to eat. Kel searched on his phone and it led us to Cracco. 10 Mins walked from Piazza Del Duomo. We did not know it was a fine dinning place and we were very casually dressed.

Cracco is a 2 stars Michelin celebrity chef restaurant. Obviously we were not dressed for such a place but we wanted to try since the reviews are all raves. We asked if we were able to make a reservation for the next day but unfortunately they are close on Sunday. The staffs were very welcoming and told us it was ok even we were in shorts and berms.

They arranged a table for us and everyone in the restaurant were very well dressed. Omg… We were so embarrassed that we tried to even minimized our visits to the restroom so to avoid others noticing that we were in shorts and bermudas.

There was a 12 courses tasting menu, we gave that a miss as there were quite a few dishes on the menu that we were not keen in, eg Raw Deer, Bone Marrow and Veal heart.

We went for Ala Carte. We each ordred a starter and a Main. That was the best choice made as we ended up with a 7 courses dinner as the restaurant served us complimentary appetisers and desserts. Look at how many complimentary dishes were served.

Complimentary fried veg

Complimentary mini sandwiches

Complimentary tomato puree

Complimentary oyster

Finally, our ordered starter. 🙂

Kel’s roasted pork cheek

My lightly seared purple prawns

Kel’s Main course. Spit Roasted Lamb

Ravioli with Baby calamari. My main. 🙂

Complimentary desserts…. So many of them..

We saw a couple next to us having the tasting menu and overheard them complaining they were so full that they could not enjoy the dinner.

The dinner cost us less than €200. We were really happy that we had a lot of raved about food this trip.

Day 2.

We set off for Lake Como. Lake Como is about an hour by train from Milan. A return ticket cost around €13 per pax. Please get the return ticket as the ticket office at Lake Como closes at 4pm. Worst scenario you can always buy the ticket from the conductor where they are going around checking tickets.

We wanted to go to Bellagio. It is right in the middle of Lake Como. Take a train from Milan Centrale to Varenna. Follow the signage when you alight to get to the jetty. They do sell tickets for different towns in Lake Como but if you do not have much time, just go to Bellagio like what we did, it is a very attractive town. Get the return ferry tickets and do take note of the ferry and train timing back to Milan. The train runs every hour so if you miss it, you will have to wait at a boring café for 1 hour for the next train.

The ferry to & fro Varenna and Bellagio.

Beautiful scenic view of Lake Como on ferry

I sat indoor to avoid the sun. 😛

Arriving at Bellagio

We spent 3 hours in Bellagio. Many tourists and souvenir stores. You can also get a decent meal at the Terrazza Metropole, located within Hotel Metropole. They served very nice pasta. I ordered a Seafood Linguine (not on the menu but I requested for it) and it turned out to be very yummy. Tasted like our Seafood Hokkien Noodle. Hahaha, maybe I missed Singapore food too much.

You can visit the church and the villas, they are open to public and those were one of the attractions in Bellagio.

We returned to Milan at almost 7pm. We had a drink at the rooftop bar of our hotel and watched sunset amid the tall buildings of Milan. For dinner, the hotel staffs recommended a restaurant right next to our hotel. Decent meal, super huge portion. Please do not order a pizza and pasta at the same time unless you are a big eater as we struggled to finish.

We went back to pack our luggage as we need to leave early the next morning. I planned to reach airport 3 hours before flight as I have heard horror stories about the VAT refund queue.

Day 3

Going home!!!! After a long 16 days holiday, we are finally heading home to our babies!!!

Taking a taxi from Milan central to Malpensa airport cost around 100. We headed straight for the VAT refund office once we were at the airport. I have never seen a longer queue at any other airport. I have to admit that they have improved the overall system. You just have to ensure that the items you are claiming refund for are with you as the officer may require you to show them before they are agreeable to refund. You can choose to have credit card refund or cash. We opted for cash (in euros) refund. They will stamped the forms and mailed it back for you. For items that were already refunded like those we got at The Mall, the officer will stamped and you have to mail it back at the postbox right beside. You can politely check if they can help you to mail it back as I did that and my officer agreed but Kel’s officer rejected him and asked him to mail it himself.

There were 3 different offices. This was the headache part. Most of the items we had were under Global Blue but we also had items from Premier Tax (Chanel and Saint Laurent uses Premier Tax). We had to queue twice. We actually split up to queue at the 2 offices. We also had refund forms from our UK purchases where we needed the custom officer to stamp and we had to mail back. There were no clear instruction given. Finally when I reached the Premier Tax office, they told me I needed to go to another area to let the custom officer stamped those Non Italy refund forms before I can mail the UK refund forms. I was like “C’mon, I am not queuing again, my flight is departing in an hour.” The officer allowed to me return to her once I got the stamp from the other custom office.

So….. I went to the other side. The custom officer made me show him my purchases!!!! I was controlling myself not to lose it with the custom officer. I got 3 full luggages and I had to look for my UK purchases. Lucky the night before I anticipated such a scenario and I packed my stuffed properly. The irritating part is when I returned, the officer did not even looked up. He just stamped my forms! Arrrghhhhh…

I then rushed back to Premier Tax counter and got the staff to help me to stamp and mail the forms back.

Kel was still in the line at Global Blue counter when I was done with Premier. Global Blue’s line was at least 5 times longer than Premier. When it was almost our turn, we saw the Singapore Airline ground staff coming to check if anyone was on our flight. He told us we needed to do our check in immediately. We were panicking like mad. Then the irritating part came again. The Global Blue told us that we need to get custom stamp for the Hermes Clic Clack bangle. Only that item. I then rushed to the custom again….. I went to another officer this time because I remembered the unpleasant experience I had with the other officer earlier on. The other officer was nicer but the sad part was she told me she needed me to bring the bangle through the immigration as they needed to make sure I will be bringing that item out if I am going to claim a refund for that. I seriously do not know why only that item. It was not the most expensive item. No choice, I dug out the bangle and quickly went to check in. The ground staff reminded us repeatedly to go straight to the aircraft. We had 40min to departure. We went past immigration and searched for the refund office inside. Kel requested me to get some stuffs at duty free for his friend while he is getting the refund.

For Kel, there was again a lonnnnngggg queue. After queuing for awhile, he realized he was really running out of time. he politely asked a Philippino couple infront of the queue if he could go first because of our flight time. The couple was very obliging and wanted to let him go first. The Chinese lady behind the couple then insisted Kel could not. He tried explaining to her but she insisted she was also rushing for flight. So Kel ended up queuing again. For myself, the queue at the duty free was pretty long too. Once done with payment, I rushed to the gate. At that point I thought I was at most 10 min away from my gate. I was shocked when I realized there was another immigration area that needed to be cleared. The queue was long and before it was my turn, I was 3 min away from my departure time. I called Kel and asked him if he had reached the gate and if so please get the staff to wait for me. I was really thankful because the ground staff came over to the counter and asked to let me be cleared first. Both the ground staff and myself were sprinting to the gate. Honestly at 1 point during the sprint, I wanted to give up but the ground staff kept turning around and pushed me “Ms Sim, just a little more in front.”

I reached the gate pale like a ghost. I was glad I took Singapore Airline where the service from air to ground was impeccable. I believed I would have been left behind if it was other Airlines. I know it was our fault to be not mindful of the time but Singapore Airlines definitely lives up to her standard of going the extra miles for passenger.

Moral of the story: Go to the airport 4 hours before flight. Malpensa Airport tax refund has one of the craziest queues. Packed your luggages so you will know where to locate the item if you are unlucky enough to be asked to show the items.

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Msclak October 6, 2015

Italy- Cinque Terre Aug 2015

Cinque Terre which means Five Lands, comprise the 5 small villages of Romaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso located in the Italian region of Liguria. They are listed on the UNESCO World Heritage site.

All the towns slope down to sea-level except for Corniglia, which is perched on top of a tall cliff. Four of the towns possess an old-world charm (from north to south: Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, Riomaggiore). The northern-most town, Monterosso, is completely different. It is very beachy-resorty, with not much to see beyond the boardwalk apart from modern apartment blocks and hotels—nothing like the narrow, crooked streets of the other towns, lined with colourful old houses stacked haphazardly on top of each other.

View of Manarola

We decided to stay in Manarola. Our hotel (more like a B&B), La Toretta, were booked 4 months in advance. We had a superb stay at La Toretta. The service was impeccable, our room was very cozy and the view was breathe-taking. La Toretta is located further up the slope so please do call the front desk when you arrive at Manarola station so they will pick you up with a buggy. We were glad there was such service because we left Florence with 3 luggages. It was really no joke travelling with 3 sardines packed luggages. The train station had no lift and we had to carry the luggages down and up long flight of stairs. Poor hubby, he carried the 2 heavier luggages.

View from our room

Relaxing at the terrace and taking a breather after the hectic journey

There are WiFi at the lobby but if you need connection from the room you can purchase the WiFi card from the front desk. We were very lucky to get the room directly above the front desk. Our WiFi connections were strong throughout our stay. The room had free minibar, it was stocked with a good selections of soft drinks for our consumption. We were also given a bottle of champagne in the room.

We settled down before heading for our hike. In Cinque Terre, it’s all about walking. Hiking to Romaggiore only takes 20min and the path was the easiest as it was paved and wide. It is also called Lover’s walk as along the way, passers-by have the opportunity to write their names on the walls of a gallery. Visitors should not scratch their names on trees or cactuses as this is damaging to the plants. Mid-way down the path, you will come across ‘The Lover’s Lock’ which is a place to seal your eternal love. This custom follows the italian fad that was started by the film Tre Metri Sopra il Cielo. At this point there is a ‘love seat’ in the shape of a male and female locked in a kiss, where many couples pose.

You will only take about 20min to hike from Manarola to Romaggiore but we decided to leave the other villages for the next day as we wanted to keep Day 1 exploring the village we were staying in. You do need comfortable walking shoes. I went with a pair of slippers and tried to hike. It was hard as the grip of my footwear was not good and I had to put in more effort to walk up and down the slope. The sun was also not in my favour. 🙁 It was easily 34 degree Celsius. Piercing sun burning my skin.. We reached the middle part of the hill and I requested not to continue vertically but horizontally.

Along the hike, the terrain were full of small vineyards and villagers planting their herbs and vegetables.

We only conquered the Manarola portion as we do not want to miss the sunset at Nessun Dorma. We had been told that Nessun Dorma has the nicest view of Manarola and we wanted to go there as our 2nd night had been booked for Billy’s. (The highly raved restaurant in Manarola)

Coming down the hill was harder than going up as my slippers was very slippery. After a scary walk down hill, we arrived at the main arena of Manarola.

Manarola was charming, I fell in love with the place even though I am the cosmopolitan girl. I felt that I was in some filming location as the place felt so surreal. Too beautiful to be true. We tried to find our way to Nessun Dorma, it was not that hard as Manarola was a small village. Along the way, we saw quite a few nice restaurants and we were debating which one we would try that night.

You will passed the bay along the way to Nessun Dorma. As it was summer, we saw many people jumping into the bay for a swim. Honestly both of us were tempted to jump it. We were like “if you want to swim then I will do it with you”… Obviously we gave up on the idea and continued to Nessun.

The view at Nessun Dorma was truly stunning. We were greeted with unblocked view of the Mediterranean Sea and the best view of Manarola. We spent a good 3 hours there chatting and laughing over silly jokes. We even discussed why we were each other’s best travelmate.

We watched sunset at Nessun before taking a slow walk down for dinner.

We had dinner at Il Porticciolo. Seafood was their main highlight but we were disappointed with the freshness of the seafood. Taste wise was decent just that our shrimps were not very fresh.

We walked back to our hotel and brought our bottle of welcome champagne down and sat at the terrace. We drank and chatted again. This place brought both of us even closer.

Day 2.

We woke up later than we needed to. Must be due to the champagne the previous night. The breakfast spread at the hotel was pretty decent. I had a hearty breakfast to make sure I had the energy to conquer the remaining 4 villages.

We booked the ferry service as we read that although taking ferry was not the fastest way but it was probably the most scenic way. The ferry ticket cost €20 per person and we could take unlimited no of times through the villages. The ferry only took us to Romaggiore, Vernazza, Monterosso and back to Manarola. It runs all villages except Coniglia which you need to reach there via train or by foot.

We saw a 1 star Michelin restaurant near the pier, Marina Picola, and we had an early lunch before boarding the ferry. It was the most decent priced Michelin restaurant.

We waited at the pier after lunch for the ferry.

The ferry ride to Vernazza took only 20min. Vernazza was very much like Manarola except that it was much more crowded and a little rundown. Vernazza had 2 clock towers and a small beach where many holiday goers were seen sun tanning. If you do not plan to hike, you can easily conquer Vernazza in less than 1 hour.

Going to Vernazza

We took a train from Vernazza to Monterosso as the timing for the next ferry was too long. The fastest way to get between the villages is by train. You can get a unlimited pass for €12 at the information centre at any of the 5 villages but since already bought the ferry ride, we just got the single ride ticket to Monterosso for €5.

Monterosso is built to accommodate many tourists in large, modern apartments and hotels. It doesn’t have quite the same charm as the other towns, but it does have a quite a large sandy beach with lots of colourful umbrellas, and of course, beach-side restaurants and cafes. The backstreets of Monterosso are not as interesting as in the other towns. Not to be missed at the end of the beach is a big statue holding a terrace. We spent the least time at Monterosso as we wanted to catch the 2nd last ferry to Romaggiore.

Romaggiore is the southern most of the 5- Terre. Most of the action in Riomaggiore is on the main street, Via Colombo, where there is an assortment of cafes, bars, restaurants, and of course, gelaterie. There are also alimentari shops selling the typical yummy Italian fare: fresh fruit (strawberries, cherries, and nespole), an assortment of salumi (salami, mortadella and the like), cheeses, olives, etc. We walked around the main street and headed back to Manarola.

Dinner reservation was made at Da Billy. We had probably the best seats in the restaurant. Food was very good and coupled with the extraordinary sunset view. It was a romantic night for us.

I told Kel that Cinque Terre made our bonding stronger. It brought back the “pak tor” feeling for us.

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Msclak October 1, 2015

Italy-Florence Aug 2015

The best way to travel around Italy is by train. I prebooked all my train tickets through Trenitalia website before the trip. Although reserved seats are a much preferred choice. I realized along the trip that majority of the travellers sat wherever it was convenient. For us, going to Florence was still 2 luggages. We went to our assigned seats on this sector. (Later on, we hopped on to any seats that were near to the door or area where we could chucked our luggages)

The journey from Rome to Florence took around 1 hour 30 min. As our tickets were prebooked with assigned seat. We do not have to validate the ticket. If not please do remember to validate the ticket or you will get a fine from the conductor going around.

We walked from Florence station to our hotel, Mercure Florence. The hotel is newly opened and ideally located. We were just 5 min walk from Florence Santa Maria Novella station and 15 min walks to the heart of Florence.

Our room was huge!! That was because we got upgraded to a bigger room because of Mr Lim. 🙂 We walked to the city centre and had lunch at Ristorante Caffe Giotto right in front of the Duomo cathedral. Honestly I always find eateries that are located near famous places not fantastic but the place that we went served pretty decent pizza and they have one of the nicest pistachio gelato we had in Italy. The waiter was very friendly and accommodating to us, assisting us with a change of table as we were seated right under the hot sun.

We spent the day walking around the city and exploring all the small shops.

We were supposed to go for a dinner at Michelin starred Il Palagio inside 4 Seasons hotel Florence. But…. we got abit lazy to walk there and we cancelled the reservation and ended up having dinner somewhere near our hotel. Florence’s restaurants are all to my liking so far. The street where our hotel were located were really lively, lots of restaurants and street performers. We had dinner at a small restaurant serving simple menu of pastas and pizzas. I had Aglio Olio and it was amazing. Much better than the one I had in Rome.

Day 2

Its shopping day!!!! Actually we planned to go to Prada Space early in the morning then from Prada Space to THE MALL. Unfortunately we woke up late and we were afraid we might not have enough time to cover both thus we decided to go to THE MALL first and Prada the next day. There are direct bus to and fro THE MALL from Florence bus terminal. (5 min walk from train station) It cost €5 per way and the journey there is about 50min.

You can find many designer brands at 70% off. We went to GUCCI straight and I got myself a nice bag at €870 ( The same bag in Singapore cost $2480 but in different colour) I bought a few scarfs, a cap and a passport holder. Our shopping king got himself a GUCCI suit, a few ties and t shirt. Inside Gucci, you just have to inform the SA the items you want to buy and they will issue you a card with the number on it. You just have to bring all the cards to the cashier at the end of the day and they will bring out all the items that you had selected. You can still change your mind then.

We then hopped over to Prada across the street. The concept of shopping at Prada is almost the same like at Gucci. We were given a no at the entrance. Quote your no to the SA whenever you are buying something and they will tag the item to your no. At the end of the day, all the items will be there at the cashier. We did not get much as we were supposed to go to the Prada Space the next day thus we wanted to keep our Prada purchase till then. I wanted to get a handbag for my mum but I could not get the one I like in black.

Wanted to get this handbag for my mum in black.

The Saint Laurent store also had good selections of Tribtoos and Tributes. They had quite a few clutches but do check the stocks as most do have some scratches. Sad to say there wasn’t Sac De Jour in smaller sizes. Thus I will have to get my Sac De Jour when I hit Milan.

Some other stores worth visiting are the Alexandra McQueen where you can get nice shoes at €100. The TODS store are also well stocked and the price ranges from €195 to €350. I went to probably 90% of the stores at THE MALL. You can forget about getting rockstuds at the Valentino there, only saw the rockstud Havaianas slipper but there wasn’t my size. 🙁 Actually the price there was not as good as the one I saw on Inbeast.com

I was a little disappointed as I wanted to get a few items at Bicester Village in London but I told myself that I should wait for THE MALL due to the currency. The items that I wanted to buy in Bicester Village were not stocked in THE MALL. Balenciaga at THE MALL did not have the scarf that I saw in Bicester, the Saint Laurent also did not have the shoes in my size. 🙁 The price in Bicester is also around the same. Should have just get it in London.

There is a global blue office in THE MALL, you can get your tax refund there in cash. Do note that you still have to get the form stamped before you leave the country if not your credit card will be charged. You need to leave EU within 21 days of collecting the tax refund. Thus if you still have a long stay, I will probably think that getting the tax refund at the airport might be a safer alternative. Kel got charged for his purchases in London, I guess the custom forms took too long to reach London.

We had lunch at Gucci Café located on the upp level of Gucci Boutique. The café was tastefully decorated. Food were decently priced. Taste wise.. There were no better restaurant inside THE MALL so just had to make do with this.

We spent the entire day in THE MALL and took the 7pm bus back to Florence. We went to the train station to get the train tickets for tomorrow Prada’s trip in case it got sold out again like today.

We found a nice restaurant that served aluminium foil wrapped seafood linguine. I gave it 10/10 and even told Kel that I wanted to return the next day to eat again. The restaurant only had 2 staffs but they were very patient and good with recommending food and wine to us.

Day 3

We woke up earlier and headed to the station for our ride to Montevarchi, the station of the Prada Space Outlet. When we asked the customer service if we got the right tickets, he straight away said “Prada Prada Prada” when he saw we are going to Montevarchi.. Do note that it is not a direct train from Florence to Montevarch. Montevarchi is just one of the stop along the journey. So you have to take note when to alight. The journey took us 50 min and cost €5.90 per pax.

Once you are at Montevarchi station, head to the exit and you will see taxi service to Prada Space. There is a guy by the name of Stefano. He does this service for many years and each trip to Prada Space without sharing is €12. If you are lucky and there are other commuters, you only need to pay the share rate. We had 6 others to share with us thus we only pay €3 per person. Stefano’s taxi is a Mercedes Maxi Cab. It can take up to 8 pax. Do take his name card so that you can get the Prada staff to call for him to pick you up at the outlet when you are done. Stefano also does ferry customers from Prada Space to THE MALL and it will cost €60. Alternatively, just go back to Montevarchi and take a train to Rignano Sull’Arno. From Rignano Sull’Arno take a 5 min taxi ride to THE MALL. It will cost probably around €20 to €25. If you are in a bigger group then it will probably make more sense to book Stefano’s service.

We reached Prada Space at 10am and there were already a queue forming outside. (Store opens at 10.30am) You need to get a number stub from a ticket machine located outside the entrance. The same concept as the Prada store we visited at THE MALL.

It was a fruitful trip for me to Prada space. I was very happy because I bought a very nice Prada handbag for my mum ( the exact one I saw yesterday at THE MALL but in black) and a nice Miu Miu tote bag for Granny (hahah ya Granny… ) The Miu Miu tote bag was €€320. There were more selection of bags and shoes here compare to THE MALL. I ended up with 4 bags, 4 shoes, belt and accessories. Most of the bag are between €500 to €700. I am talking about the leather bags not the canvas thus it was pretty decent price for a branded bag.

We knew we were in deep shit when the staffs handed over our shopping bags. I told them to remove all the boxes for the bags.

While waiting for Stefano to pick us up, we stood outside Prada, repacking the items. We threw away all the shoe boxes and squeeze all into 2 bags.

We managed to reached Florence by 3pm and decided to do a walk around the city to look for another luggage as we were out of luggage space. We saw Mandarina Duck having 50 % sale and bought a luggage for €130. We left the luggage in the store and went on walking around.

We walked to Ponte Vecchio, (“Old Bridge”) a arch bridge over the Arno River. It was noted for still having shops built along it, as was once common. Butchers initially occupied the shops; the present tenants are jewellers, art dealers and souvenir sellers. There was a place for you to make a wish. I wished to come back to this beautiful city again. 🙂

Our initial plan was to keep Day 3 for our touristy stuff but because of all the shopping we were left with little time.

So I will say it was a pity that we missed out on the nice places to visit in Florence. We will definitely come back again.

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Msclak September 21, 2015

Italy- Rome Aug 2015

Day 1

We arrived in Rome on a Friday night. The flight from London to Rome took longer than usual due to high traffic coming into Rome. Rome unlike London is truly Summer! At 7pm, the sky was still bright.

We arranged for a hotel transport and it cost us €70. A normal taxi ride from FCO airport to downtown hotel will be around €48. We paid a little more as we were afraid of the safety initially.

We stayed a M Gallery La Griffe. The hotel was 5 min walk from Roma Termini station. It will be easy for us when we are heading to Florence. La Griffe is located along Via Nazionale. Walking distance to quite a few famous monuments. Travelling with Kel definitely got a higher chance of upgrade as he is always a gold member at most of the hotel groups. La Griffe upgraded us to a Junior Suite. We were excited till we saw the room. Hahaha, it was a duplex. Luckily there were not much shopping in London so we could still manage to bring our luggages up to the loft.

We then asked the hotel for some nice restaurant nearby. They recommended Ristorante Rinaldi al Quirinale located 5 streets down the road. It wasnt cheap but we enjoyed the meal. I had Calamari, Linguine Vongole and Kel had his Ravioli. The wine recommended was also pretty good. We then realized they have reasonable collection of wines. They even have the only gold wine in Rome (not sure if it was Rome or entire Italy). We spen9t €100+ for our dinner (We realized it was consider pricey as our meals later on are all very decent priced). The restaurant requested if we can write a review from them on tripadvisor as most of Italy’s retaurant are super into reviews by tripadvisor. Honestly, I have not sit down to write them a review yet.

Day 2

I booked the Vatican City tour through Viator. Time for the touristy stuffs. It is officially Vatican City State, is a walled enclave within the city of Rome. With a population of 842 in an area of approimately 44 hectares, it is the smallest internationally recognized independent state in the world by both area and population.

Within Vatican City are St Peter’s Basillica, Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museum. I will highly recommend anyone who plans to go to Vatican City to go through this tour with Viator. Things to note are, please make sure your dress code is appropriate as they will require you to cover up your shoulder and not exposing any parts above the knees. Skipping the long line is good enough to justify why this tour is a must. Our guide, Francesca also did an excellent job to go through everything with us. You can really tell that she loves her job. Francesca brought us through the special entrance where we skipped the queue. Inside Vatican, she explained everything in details. We saw other tour guide just going through the motion of bringing the guests around while Francesca delightfully went through the history of the place. We spent a good 20min outside Sistine Chapel where Francesca told us the story behind and I understand the history and Michelangelo better after her session.

Francesca also brought us to Raphael’s Rooms and after the Sistine Chapel, where we were not allowed to talk and no photographs allowed.

Beautiful ceiling inside Vatican museum

Enchanted by the workmanship

Raphael’s room

Raphael’s work

Going to Sistine Chapel

Walking to St Peter Basilica

We were led to the amazing St Peter’s Basillica. I cant describe the “awe” feeling I had when I stepped in. Whether you are Catholic or not, it is very hard to disagree that St Peter’s Basillica is an amazing piece of architecture. It is very very detailed in every corner, the ceilings, the walls, the floors. It was built by Michelangelo and is regarded as one of the holiest Catholic shrines. We wanted to climb the Dome, after Kel heard it is going to be a 491 steps exercise, he smartly suggested going to another attraction. Hahaha. I have read that there are certain parts that it is so narrow that they could not build a railing and have to use rope. I also agreed I might have to skip as I have very bad Acrophobia.

St Peter’s basilica

The only signed Michelangelo’s work

Call me Aunty if you want. This umbrella was my BFF for the entire trip.

We planned to go spanish step next. Taking the hop on & off bus will be ideal as the bus will bring you to most of the must see places.

Gelato is the best option in this sunny weather

Once you leave Vatican City, you will see many guys selling the ticket for the Hop on & off buses. You can either get it there or go further up where the bus stops are. There were 4 companies doing the routes. The most popular ones were the Gray Line (Pink buses) and the CitySightseeing (Red Bus). There were 2 more companies but I will advise against them. The Pink and red buses run tills 11pm. So you have more time to do your sight seeing. We took the City Roma but at 7pm, they had a break till 9pm. We got no choice but to wait and do our night sightseeing.

To go to Spanish Steps, you will drop at stop 1 and take a 5 to 10 min walk to the top of the steps. There is nothing much to do other than it is a flight of steps for you to take your picture. We took our selfies and moved on to all the shops.

Spanish steps is where all the luxury brands are. I headed for Hermes. My mission for my Lindy. 🙂 We asked the 1st sales person if there is a Lindy. Obviously the answer we got was “NO”. I suspected something as before he replied, he looked to an older guy for confirmation before replying. Kel then bought a few ties and got me a Black and Gold Clic. While paying, we saw 2 Asians walking in and asked for another bag. Again the sales person looked to that older guy. After leaving the boutique, I told Kel I suspected they are selecting who they want to sell the bags to and related the 2 inicidents to him. He told me to wait for him and he went back into the boutique. He came out and told me that they do have 1 Lindy 34 in Prune. It was reserved and if by 6pm the customer does not pick up, they will let us have the bag. I was estatic. Kel asked me to think carefully as it was not the size that I wanted and we might have to carry it all the way along our holiday. We then went to a 2nd Hermes store, there we saw another Lindy 34 in Flamingo. The sales person suggested other bags as that Lindy was a display and they are not allowed to sell Display. (The Lindy in the 1st store was also a Display but the Manager agreed to let us have it) We went back to the 1st Hermes store at 6pm. The manager honoured his words and brought the Lindy for me. I then made the gravest mistake, I told him “NO” after trying as I find size 34 too oversized for me. Obviously after that, I never get to meet another store who is willing to sell me the display. Moral of the story, take the bag even if it is not really your colour or size cause you will not know when is the next time you can get it.

We took a stroll to the Trevi Fountain and were to disappointed to know that it is under some restoration process. We still threw coins in with our wishes and took some photos.

We headed back to the CityRoma bus stop and realized that it was the last bus for the day. They will start the night sightseeing tour at 9pm. We had more than 2 hours thus we decided to go back to our hotel for a rest. M Gallery has one of the nicest rooftop view. We stayed for the beautiful sunset.

Lovely sunset

Creative Kel took this while on the way for our night tour

Night sightseeing are nothing to rave about. I personally prefer Rome during the day.

Upp deck of the bus is only possible at night.

St Peter Basilica at night

We dropped at Piazza Navona and went for our dinner at Da Francesco (Piazza del Fico, 29, 00186 Rome, Italy ). I highly recommend this small restaurant as their pizza and pasta were one of the best we had during the entire Italy trip. The food were reasonably priced. The pizza and pasta were below €15. This is definitely must try.

Day 3

Another touristy day, I booked the Colosseum tour. It is no joke doing any tour under a scorching hot sun. The weather in Rome during mid Aug is sunny, around 34 degree Celsius and not humid like Singapore. The feeling is like piercing sun on your skin. We spent 4 hours on this tour under hot sun. You can actually do this tour on your own. With a guide you probably find out more about the history but nowadays you can google anything so it is individual preference. The one fact that I remembered clearly about the tour was that Colosseum was built in 8 years! It was such a great architecture and to be completed in 8 years was amazing. We are talking about 73 A.D where there wasn’t much technology then. (St Peter’s Basilica took 120 years to complete)

We went on to the Roman Forum after the Colosseum. Maybe was due to the extreme weather, I could not really pay attention to our guide. I was constantly looking for a shadier place.

We went to a nearby place for lunch. La Taverna Dei Quaranta (Add: Via Claudia 24. 12.30pm – 3.30pm, 7.30pm- midnight)Decent and reasonably priced. Not our best Italian food but you know eateries near famous monuments are usually not that great. For those who wants a decent lunch place near Colosseum, this will be the place to go to.

Kel’s Chicken with vegetables

Carbonara

After lunch, we took a cab to Pantheon. According to Tripadvisor, Pantheon is the no. 1 place to visit in Rome. Pantheon has the biggest dome in the world. (St Peter’s Basilica has the 2nd biggest dome). It is free entry to all. Do observe the dress code as it is a basilica. No exposing of shoulders and knees.

Pantheon is near to Piazza Navona where you can find all the street stalls selling handmade jewellery and art pieces. There are a lot of nice restaurant around the square where you can sit down and people watch. We spent a long time having our beer and ice cream at one of the shop with very strong WiFi.

We then WALKed back to our hotel. I was surprised Kel was agreeable as it was quite a distant. My lovely hubby really bent backwards to accommodate me. 🙂

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