The Challenge: 20 Things to do in Italy

Last year I managed to head to Europe (yet again) for a short adventure. An opportunity came up 6 weeks before the travels and it didn't take me long to decide to go on the trip. I did the maths and sums, and could even afford a business class trip on the way home with my American Express Membership Rewards. Sweet! So a trip to Berlin, Italy and Paris was planned for a short 18 days. An andante pace trip it was not – hectic yet completely optimised amazing racing it turned out to be.

Prior to heading to Italy, I stumbled across this article whilst doing my trip planning and research:

20 Things Everyone should do in Italy. I read it and thought it would be novel to do it, but completely forgot about it when I went full steam ahead mapping out the itinerary and doing flight & train & hotel bookings. Whilst searching for other travel emails in my inbox recently, I found this link again, so thought it would be worthwhile to assess and review my amateur 11 day trip to an Italy-travel expert!

1. Take a night ride on the #1 vaporetto in Venice - Yes...and No

Did I take a ride on the vaporetto? Yes! I didn’t do it at night though and I didn’t sit on it for a full trip but it’s the experience that counts right? I did take an evening sunset ride on a Gondola with my travel partner along with 2 Japanese Tourists on a honeymoon though! I don't think they minded us crashing their romantic holiday (I hope?). One way to save on the pricey EU80 Gondola Ride is to just find other travellers that are willing to share the cost with you. As cheesy as it sounds, a ride on the Venice waters on a gondola is a must if you only plan to see Venice once.

2. Spend 15 minutes with “The Last Supper” in Milan – No to Last Supper. Yes to Milan

By the time I decided to take this trip, I would have been on the waiting list to see 'The Last Supper' in time for maybe Christmas. I did however go to Milan for half a day and saw the stunningly gorgeous Gothic Duomo. It’s incredible to see it as you surface from the metro station. I wandered around the Milanese streets in search of lunch and hit quite a few cool spots, and took snapshots of cool ‘design things’ I spotted. Milan is after all the design capital of Italy. I did see drafts and copies of da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’ whilst in Venice though - there was an exhibition dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings at the Academia - 'The Universal Man', so I saw at least conceptual drawings and sketches of ‘The Last Supper’. The best part of my Milan visiting was actually the opportunity to meet up with my parents for an hour or so to have tea at the stunning Park Hyatt Milan where they were staying for a few nights.

3. Overdose on Renaissance art at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence - Yes!

I think I overdosed before I even entered Uffizi! The queues for the Uffizi were unlike anything I have seen. And under that strong Tuscan sun in early October (I can only imagine how the summer would have felt), it’s not the best place to be standing in Florence. Even with pre-purchased tickets, we had to queue at our allocated time slot to get inside the museum. Actually, just be prepared to queue in Florence wherever you go if it is not winter. I LOVE art museums, but I can’t say Uffizi was my favourite museum I have visited in the world. But a mighty collection of Renaissance art it is - all the big names can be found here - Michaelangelo, da Vinci, Botticelli etc. Where else to better understand and appreciate this art style which pioneered western paintings but in the Renaissance birthplace of Florence. And in an old Medici palace! My favourite painting in the entire Uffizi would have to be Botticelli’s ‘The Birth of Venus’ - something captivating about the long wavy blonde hair and the curves of a woman’s figure!

The queue to get in!

4. Get a guided tour of the Vatican Museums - Yes...and No

I did go to the Vatican Museum not on a guided tour but with an audio guide. I would highly recommend pre-purchasing tickets to the Vatican Museum to ensure you get in on the day you would like to visit. I’m sure a guided tour would have been fantastic had I remembered to book it prior to going on holidays. The audio guide is still a good alternative and worth your money. The Sistine Chapel was definitely the highlight, so make that your last stop so you can fully appreciate everything in this museum. There are multiple tour groups that are on a tight schedule and race through this museum just to get to Michaelangelo's masterpiece, and unfortunately race out again. My advice is to take your time to appreciate the incredible detail in Michaelangelo's art (and not to lose your travel partner in the crowds!). You cannot take photos inside the Sistine Chapel so you may as well take it all in.

The beautiful spiral staircase inside Vatican Museum

5. Climb Florence’s Duomo - No...but

I didn’t climb it, but certainly did enjoy a view of the Duomo from my accommodation. My first Airbnb experience was pretty awesome. And I didn’t even know the apartment had a view at the time of my booking! Bonus! To be honest, I didn't even walk into the Duomo during my 2 nights in Florence. Refer to point 3 regarding crowds and queuing in Florence. I did take in a sunset view of Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo - stunning!

Yep, that was the view!

6. Eat pizza in Naples – Yes!

Naples is the birthplace of the world famous pizza. Not many people actually put Naples on their itinerary if they are on a 11 day trip of Italy. I did out of necessity to connect us to essential travel points (airports). The Naples I saw was rather grungy and dirty, and frankly dirtier than places I’ve visited in parts of Asia! However the pizza I ate in Naples was the best ever. Full stop. Head to Pizzeria Starita for a meal you will remember forever! By sheer luck we managed to get a table immediately even though there was a queue!

Four Days in Provence

Head to 'Taking to the Open Road' to read my first ever guest post - Four Days in Provence!

Read about my travel tips and experiences exploring the gorgeous villages and towns in Provence - Avignon, Les Baux de Provence, Rousillon amongst others!

Rousillon

Les Baux de Provence

Provence, Purple, Lavender...trip planning!

Traveled June 2012

The decision to travel to the sunny, warm, French countryside was made at the bookshop whilst my travel partner and I were flicking through French travel guide books. Conflicted with the array of options and choices - Lyon? Normandy Coastline? Mont St Michel? The Champagne region? Loire Valley? Once we saw photo spreads of Lavender fields, we both decided that there was no other choice, we had to head to Provence!

Beautiful Lavender fields

Months and many after-work long nights were spent researching the best options to tour Provence. Bus trips? Private Tour? Self-drive? Trains? There is an abundance of information and resources in books, web pages, travel forums, blogs dedicated to ‘Provence’ that it was all a bit overwhelming! I actually spent weeks researching all the private tour operators, since it is meant to be a ‘holiday’ and I didn’t want to plan out each day and stress myself out with driving…on the other side of the road! However, the price-point for a private tour just proved a bit too expensive for us (approx EU350-450 per day), so we went with the self-drive option to cut costs down. In hindsight, I can say the self-drive option worked out very well – it definitely added an element of adventure to the holiday - moments of cursing the GPS; accidentally setting the speed limit to 50km/h on the German hybrid Mercedes C-Class hired car; driving 6 different ways from Avignon to our B&B; taking the backroads of Provence and almost driving through private driveways. After conquering the hills and windy roads of the Alpilles region (why is the GPS showing trees? omg we are driving up the little alps!) I can now say with confidence I am able to drive on the other side of the road. Win!

Archi-tour of Spain: Part 3 | Barcelona

Visited: June 2012

I’ve been fortunate to see quite a bit of this world through my travels, but one city that always eluded me all these years and one that I've been super keen to visit - Barcelona.

Almost every visitor of Barcelona that I have spoken to sings praises of this city. The culture, architecture, food, shopping, weather, shopping, eating, shopping, eating (one can just rotate on shopping and eating) – everything about it seems to enchant its visitors. Little did I know this city was going to completely blow me away!

I’ve already given you all a taste of Barcelona through my Food Safari post, and if you are a foodie, please make it a mission to visit this amazing food capital! To me, the most stunning aspect of Barcelona would have to be its architecture. Whilst Gaudi’s buildings are stamped all over Barcelona, and I do love Gaudi’s incredible mind, imagination and willingness to experiment and push the boundaries in modern architecture, but it is actually the component of its small parts that make Barcelona shine. 

Now onto the photographs so one can see why Barcelona is such a cool place to visit!

Centuries old buildings that are still standing strong!

No building looks the same in Barcelona!

The mansions on Prasseig de Gracia

The Chimney Tops (or we liked to call them 'ice-cream cones') from Palau Guell are incredible works of art. They are imaginative, distinctive, colourful, fun and just plain unusual! Really appreciated and admired the creative efforts of artisans of the time, and of course thank you Gaudi for having such a vivid imagination.

I actually thought another cool feature of Guell Palace was being able to checkout the Barcelonean rooftops, which was such a contrast from the colourful, imaginative chimney tops!

Archi-tour of Spain: Part 2 | Segovia

Segovia is a relatively easy day-trip away from the hustle and bustle of Central Madrid. We took the RENFE high speed rail train from the Chamartin Station, (can I stress here how much I LOVE fast moving trains that are modern and clean), and a bus into this quaint historic town.

Upon our arrival, Segovia greeted us with its most impressive sight - the ancient Roman Aqueduct.

As you can see above, it is simply a brilliant piece of architecture and civil engineering. The arches are perfectly balanced and in proportion, which is where I see the beauty in the design. The aqueduct was allegedly built during the first century to supply the city with water, using just blocks of granite stone. No concrete or mortar were used at all, and this is evident when you look at the aqueduct up close. I'm still in awe as I post these photos.

Archi-tour of Spain: Part 1 | Madrid

As a keen observer and appreciator of the built-environment, I can only imagine that Spain must be a dream destination for architects. From the whimsical and magical creations of the ingenious Gaudi, the jaw-dropping aqueduct in Segovia, to the grand Catholic cathedrals with traces of Islamic arts embedded in the design, the few days I had in Spain to admire these creations left me wanting to linger in Spain for far more than I had planned to. Spain has had a colourful history, and the architecture which stands now and continues to evolve demonstrates this vividly. Travel is not only about ticking off sights seen, foods eaten, and racing to beat everyone to it, travel is also about understanding history, culture, people and society today, at least that is how I see it. What better way to see a country than through centuries of architecture!

As I present my archi-tour snapshots, I hope you will all come to appreciate the beauty and ingenious of the built environment.

Part 1: Madrid, Spain

Wandering through the old streets of Madrid - such colours and details!

Exploring  the grandeur of the Royal Palace of Madrid. The official residence of the Royal Family of Spain, although they physically live elsewhere. 

Almudena Cathedral behind and built on an old Islamic mosque and site. Love this picture below as it reflects the changing status of religion and history in this city. Surprisingly, this Cathedral is fairly modern as construction only began in 1868 and was only officially declared complete in 1993.

Food Safari Spain

I visited Spain this year from June 2nd - June 9th and had a great time eating my way through Madrid and Barcelona. We didn't research any places to eat during our trip, so everything we ate in this country was something we 'stumbled' into, or only looked into it upon arrival. I have to say Spain is a great country for stumbling into food joints!

I had high expectations for Tapas in Madrid, given it is supposed to be THE CAPITAL for Tapas. I would say we hit some great food joints on some nights with the most mouthwatering offerings, and other nights it was more random, in other words, not the most amazing food. Unfortunately I only took tapas photos of places where there was decent light - most tapas joints we walked into were high on atmosphere and low on light!

Pictorials of the Food tastings in Madrid:

Chocolatería San Ginés - Churros & Chocolate!

Stumbling into food joints in Madrid

6 Oct - 7 Oct | Land of Fairytales | Bavaria, Germany

You always feel a bit sad when a holiday is reaching its end, yet there's a sense of relief to find yourself on the return journey too. I have to say, the 3 of us were looking forward to returning to Munich. According to my dad, it was 'back to cilivisation' for him. I think he meant German efficiency and precision. And really, you do feel the difference when you travel from the affluent Germany & Austria to the developing Hungary and Czech. 

Well the Prague-Munich rail trip was by far the longest train ride of our trip! More than 6 hours on a train! I can't say we did a great deal but sleep or read our books. It was still great to enjoy the at times mountainous scenery and the autumn scenery always makes me feel so happy.

Scenes from the longest train journey all trip:

On the way back to Germany from Prague

The sun almost breaking through

My sneaky Dad took this pic hahaha
We sat on a Czech train, still way more comfy than Aussie trains!

By the time we got back to Munich, there really wasn't much time to do anything else but enjoy a good meal. My parents were desperate for a non-western meal, so luckily for us we found a great Indian restaurant near the hotel. I have to say, it was as good as the Indian meal I had in London 4 years ago!

Family meal...Indian food in Munich, pretty awesome actually!

The next morning I commenced my final day of Bavaria super early (it was still black outside when I left the hotel), as I booked myself on the popular Castles Tour. I was finally going to see Neuschwanstein Castle!! The castle that inspired Walt Disney, the one built by the 'mad' King Ludwig II. After experiencing several days of grey skies, I was filled with joy to see a blue sunny day in Bavaria!! Oh how I missed the sunshine and blue skies!

First stop: Linderhof Castle - Built by King Ludwig II as a hunting lodge, in the French Rococo style

Look at that! No clouds in the sky

Who doesn't like nice romantic walks in this setting?

The beautiful Linderhof Castle

4 Oct - 5 Oct | City of a Hundred Spires | Prague, Czech Republic

The magical lure of old-Bohemia draws millions of tourists each year to see these lands, often topping peoples ‘must see’ destination lists. The train ride from Vienna to Prague was another scenic, colourful and romantic one, which was in stark contrast to the flat and lacklustre countryside on the Vienna-Budapest journey. I will stress again that the beauty of rail travel is just witnessing the gorgeous scenery passing by, something that is lost in the modern age of air travel.

Prague Castle in a distance...

This was my second visit to Prague. Four years ago Prague left a good impression on me. A city where one can still imagine how Bohemian life may have been, old castles, churches and cobbled stone paths. Second time round I have to say, the glamour and magic had diminished slightly, so it was time to ‘discover’ Prague again by getting lost in those old cobble-street alleys (and thankfully, we did). Last time we took a guided tour of the city, this time we had our own itinerary. One cannot go to Prague and not revisit Prague Castle & Charles Bridge. So that is exactly what we did, both by day and by night.

Prague Castle & Charles Bridge
(if only I had a blue sky day!)

Charles Bridge is definitely the most densely populated touristy part of the city, but at least this time we were onlookers to a bridal photo-shoot. Behaving exactly as paparazzi tourists do, I made sure I captured a photo of the newlyweds. Once we passed Charles Bridge, we were onto giving ourselves a good workout by walking all the way up to Prague Castle. The parents may have complained the walk was too long and steep, but I think they were secretly proud of actually completing the walk to the top, as the views above were amazing! Perhaps a bit museum-ed out from the Vienna visit, we didn’t really check out the Prague Castle museum, preferring to wonder around the castle grounds and eventually walking down to the main town.

Photo shoot!! The crowds weren't moving for a while, this is why!

Entertainer on Charles Bridge

Exiting Charles Bridge

1 Oct - 2 Oct | Grand City of Lights | Budapest, Hungary

Budapest was once a great Romantic City of Eastern Europe, and the remnants of that period in history are obvious. Unlike Vienna where it still is the cultural heartbeat of Central Europe, Budapest appears to be lost in its hey day. That is until you see Budapest light up gloriously at night.

We stayed at the elegant Le Meridien Hotel where we were served by the most welcoming staff all trip. Luckily for us the hotel had a special Friday night Hungarian folk dance performance coupled by an excellent buffet dinner meal. I really wish I had more space to stomach ALL the fantastic desserts. (Yes, greedy!)

The elegant Le Meridien Hotel Room

Hungarian quartet that entertained us all evening

I loved the chandeliers and lights at the hotel restaurant!

28 Sep - 30 Sep | Wien Take 3 | Vienna, Austria

Some people only visit a city once, especially if they have to travel more than 20 hours to get there. Well this was my third visit to Vienna! It is now ranked as highly as Paris as my most frequented overseas destination outside of Asia. I've always been fond of Vienna. It has a certain charm, elegance and beauty surrounding it. It was afterall, the capital of the Habsburg Empire that ruled over vast parts of Europe for centuries.  It's not a mega city on the scale of London or Tokyo, but it is a city that certainly offers everything those big cities offer as well.

A wet Viennese day...interesting lamp post though! Pinocchio?

Hotel Bristol - A classic hotel that we stayed at.

Vienna State Opera House by Night. Just brilliant!

Vienna Concert House (I think)

26 Sep - 28 Sep | Music Sensation | Salzburg, Austria

Salzburg is affectionately known as the City of Mozart - Austria’s beloved musicians’ birth place. There is no shortage of Mozart in this city – one will find him from gardens, to universities to chocolate souvenir pieces. Salzburg’s reign as a world music capital has only been strengthened by the powers of Hollywood. If you know the Sound of Music then you have probably seen Salzburg! As a city with a population of merely 210,000 residents, it has certainly done well to promote itself and become one of the top tourist destinations in the world with more than 5 million visitors per year!

Mozart Chocolates

Universitat Mozarteum

25 Sep - 26 Sep | Snow Capped Mountains | Innsbruck, Austria

The train journey from Munich to Innsbruck was as beauitful and pictureque as the European brochures promote them to be! As it was only day 2 Europe, I went a little snap crazy and took a bit too many blury pictures of the Germany/Austria countryside. Rail travel in Europe must be one of the best ways to see the region(s). It is comfortable, speedy, convenient plus you can get great window views.

One of the better photos from the blurry picture series I have on the cameras

Group photo for the suitcases and bags!

The last time I came to Innsbruck waas 20 years ago, and of course being a kid at the time on a Hong Kong organised tour, I don't remember much. (Lack of Cantonese listening skills at the time being the main factor) So it was as if I came here for the first time! The most striking feature of Innsbruck was seeing the beauty of the Austrian Alps! The snow capped mountains, where clouds decide how it may reveal the beauty of the mountains to you on a daily basis. Thankfully a booking with the Hilton Innsbruck hotel ensured we had a view of this incredible sight from sunrise to sunset. We spent the afternoon meandering the small Tyrolean city centre, visiting the Golden Leaf museum (blitzing it is probably a better word), walking around the gardens, and breathing fresh air, drinking tasty water and eating some nice fresh apples! The simple Austrian country life.

24 Sep - 25 Sep | Bavarian Central | Munich, Germany

My first new destination of 2010 - Munich! Needless to say, I was ecstatic about pinning this new destination down on my 'where i've been to' map! And buzzing with excitement about exploring a new city! Perhaps it's because I walk past the Lowenbrau restaurant on a daily basis, or because one of my most memorable birthdays of recent years was at the Bavarian Beer Cafe, or just the fact that, I've heard great things about Munich (probably just that). The July issue of Monocle magazine also ranked Munich as the No 1 Best Place to Live in 2010, so naturally that added to my curiosity. Munich, the mysterious city...I was about to find out!

After what seemed like a flight never-ending flight, Mum and I finally arrived at Munich approx 6am in the morning to reunite with my Dad. It was the start of the 3/4 family trip, my brother got left out of this leg. And if memory serves me correctly, the last time only the 3 of us traveled together was when I was about 2 years old, ever since then it's been all sorts of family combinations.

Actually the first thing I was excited about was eating German bread. Yes, bread. After months of obsessing with the German bakery near my office, I was excited to be eating German bread in Germany!!! Ahh, genuine German bread, so tasty and fresh :) After a huge breakfast at the Kempinski Airport Hotel (an excellent 5 star hotel right at the airport, too bad I was only there for 3 hours to enjoy the bed and breakfast), we left the airport and went into town for some exploration.

Genuine German Bread!!

At the Kempinski Airport Hotel