Day 1 - First Day in Rome

First day in Roma - part 1

Lasagna, Pizza, Beer and Italian orange soda

After checking in the hotel, we walked out and tried to look for food nearby.  We stopped by the Piazza della Repubblica.... and had our lunch there.... Nothing special, but the orange soda was quite refreshing.  So many birds will come to you when you eat at the outdoor terrace :)

After lunch, we basically just followed the map and walked to the Colosseum.  I researched on the underground tour for the colosseum online and talked to someone over the phone....I never got a proper reply back.  So we were heading there to see if we could book there.

Nope.  We couldn't book at the counter, we had to do it on the phone.  It was the most annoying thing ever to deal with that.  I wanted to book their official underground tour because they were the only tour that allowed their tourists to go to the "prohibited areas and the underground".  Apparently I had to call again to book.

It was about a 20 minutes walk....walking downhill?... We took a lot of photos there..just the outside of the colosseum.

When you thought the cobblestones were from ancient time...nope I just saw some were newly paved.. not sure about these ones

Tah dahhhh....finally arrived to the Colosseo ..... just going to take some photos from the outside for now

lots of ruins everywhere in Rome..

Just a day of exploring rome by following the tourist map :) we walked everywhere...

This auditorium looked like Colosseum

Some fountain in the middle of the road

Random Italian Restaurant in some back alley - Beef Carparcio 

Trevi Fountain finally :):) it looked bigger than I thought.  Night time wasn't crowded

Rome at night was quite peaceful :)

Florence - Piazzale Michelangelo

Piazzale Michelangelo:
When you come to Florence, you must come here for the panoramic view of Florence..especially come right before the sunset...

We walked to the main train station and took bus #12 to Piazzale Michelangelo…  We bought the bus tickets from the bus driver.  It was a nice ride; it took about 30 minutes to drive up the hill (some people suggested to take a hike up there)…

It was a magnificent view of Florence.  We were waiting for the sunset..I made a reservation at the restaurant up there at around 7 (just about the sunset time).  I thought we could sit at the terrace to enjoy the sunset, but unfortunately the terrace was closed.  I was a little disappointed, there was nobody inside as it was still a little early.

La Loggia del Piazzale Michelangelo 

We picked the table that was closest to the door…it was quite nice inside.  We ordered some wine and enjoyed a little of sunset :)

some salad to start with

Rabbit meat ….. it was quite moist… 

It was my first time tasting rabbit meat…….it was quite good..but it kinda tasted like chicken…..

Sea bass

The ambience of the restaurant was quite good.  The food was not bad and it wasn't very expensive.  I would recommend to try this when you want to have a comfortable meal at Piazzale Michelangelo.

After a nice dinner, we walked around and took some very nice night shots with tripod.

Bus ride back to town:
We thought we could take the same bus back to town, but the bus driver turned us away saying this was the last stop….We actually needed to take bus #13 which was across the road.  We waited for a while and when bus #13 finally came, we went up to the bus driver to buy the tickets…and he said he only had 1 ticket to sell…and he couldn't accept cash.  I asked him so what do i do? He told me to get off the bus to buy the bus tickets…he was pointing at the parking lot.  In the end we were running back and forth, trying to figure out what he was talking about….it took a good ten minutes before we could take the bus back to town.  Good that it was probably his break time, or else we would have to wait for another 30 minutes for the next bus to come.

Florence - brunch & parade

Brunch
We had a good sleep at the Best Western, we slept until we woke up naturally.  We had a refreshing morning; we first walked to a pizza place for some brunch.  We ordered two slices of pizza, cappuccino and water, quite cheap.  The pizza types in Italy are more simple than the ones we have in North America; it is not common to see "meat deluxe or hawaiian pizza" in Italy.  The italian pizza I saw in Italy usually have only 2 toppings.  I guess they only treat pizza as appetizer or a small meal??

stuff pizza and meat & mushroom pizza

While we were having brunch, we heard it was quite noisy outside the pizzeria.  There were some people with Roman and Medieval costumes that were marching on the street.  Quite interesting.

I booked the tickets for the Uffizi Gallery at 12:15pm.  We arrived early and there was some street artist painting on the ground with chalks.

Florence - late night strolling

Strolling in Florence is quite romantic at night....the streets are so quiet and the lighting is so soft.

Mix of new and old buildings....so chill to walk around.

Street performance with lots of audience around...the streets were so clean..

Ponte Vecchio aka The Old Bridge

late night snack

late night dessert....yummm :)

love these road signs...

Florence - First Dinner in Firenze

Our first dinner at Florence:

We walked around the Duomo and we decided to have an early dinner right behind the Duomo.  The waiter was waving us over, so we sat at the outdoor terrace.  We were the first guests there as I guess it was a little too early for the tourists and locals to have dinner; it was around 5:30 pm.

Pappardelle with mushroom

We got a bottle of white wine and some fresh bread to start with.  We ordered only two pasta dishes as we weren't that hungry, we just want to sit and chill.  This time we ordered a type of pasta we never tried: pappardelle.  This type of pasta is large and broad, similar to lasagna...I'm not a big fan of this.  I would probably prefer lasagna better.

Risotto with Lobster

I ordered this pasta dish: risotto with lobster.  It was pretty good, quite creamy but not very special.  Overall we were not super satisfied with the food quality, but the location was good.  It was quite a nice place to chill around the Duomo, aka: tourist trap.  It wasn't super expensive though, probably 15- 18 Euro per pasta dish.

Florence - Arrival

Train: Venice to Florence:
We took the first class train to Florence's Santa Maria Novella Station.  We arrived to Florence at 11am.  Once we arrived to the Florence train station, we went to the customers assistance to ask for directions to our hotel.  She said it was very close by, it should be only 5 - 10 minutes walk.

1 Euro per person to use the washroom
Both of us needed to go to washroom, so we went to the W.C., it costed 1 Euro per person to use the washroom.  They had gates to take money, just like how the gate takes money to enter the subway.  Most people had trouble figuring out how to exit (by pressing a button).

Awesome hotel location:
We looked at the big map in front of the train station to check where our hotel was.  After 7-10 minutes of walk, we found our hotel: Best Western Premier, it was probably the easiest hotel to find throughout our trip.  The hotel was super close to the Duomo and everything.  But it was too early to check in, we couldn't check in until 2pm.  So we walked towards the Duomo and we had lunch at the outdoor cafe with a nice view of the Duomo.


First lunch in Florence:

I ordered: Black Truffle Mushroom Ravioli

Lasagne

We ordered a big bottle of water (4 Euro) and some beer.  Alcohol is way cheaper in Europe than water.  I fell in love with black truffle during this trip.  The ravioli was quite good.  Lasagne was pretty good, simple but nothing special.  Pasta is usually not the main entree, that's why the portion is quite small.

Dessert time: Tiramisu & cappuccino

Finally, I got to try tiramisu in Italy....Yummm...along with a cup of cappuccino.  The texture of the tiramisu is very soft and creamy, taste of coffee/expresso was not that strong.  It was quite different from the ones I usually had in Canada.  The presentation didn't look that great either, but it still tasted good!

It was a nice day, weather was good.  Even though we were walking on the ancient cobblestone roads, the streets we were at were quite commercialized.  Brand name stores and shopping stores were everywhere.

Venice - Lunch under/beside the Rialto Bridge

Having lunch right beside the Grand Canal:

Lobster Linguine with nice view right beside the Rialto Bridge 

After our gondola ride, we found this restaurant right beside the Rialto Bridge.  We had a very nice view right beside the Grand Canal.  The water kept coming up the stairs, the table was two steps away from the water.

Restaurant right beside the Ponte di Rialto 

Tuna Carpaccio with mustard dressing

I heard Venice is well known for seafood, so I ordered Tuna Carpaccio for lunch.   The tuna was quite fresh, the texture was good.  The mustard dressing kind of blend in with the Tuna, but i think it took away the taste and freshness of the Tuna.

Lobster linguine

This dish of lobster linguine was quite good.  The price was a little overpriced (approximately 16-20 Euro/main course...to be honest, not so bad). :)  When we were in Venice, everything was quite expensive.  It is Venice, so I think it worth to pay a little extra for the view and the romantic ambience; just enjoy the moment.

Enjoying cappuccino and writing postcards :)

Cappuccino was about 4 Euro per cup; Expresso was about 2,90 Euro.  It was always good to enjoy a cup of cappuccino or expresso after a meal.  Again, having cappuccino after lunch? You must be a tourist.

Expresso in Venezia

Buying postcards was easy, but finding stamps to mail them out was quite hard.  It was hard to find the right store to get stamps.

A real post office box that doesn't look real

Finding post office boxes wasn't that hard; just that we first thought it was no longer in use.  

In the end, only two out of three postcards were received.

Venice - Italian Meal Structure

Hosteria al Vecio Bragosso: great view and romantic ambience

We came here for our first dinner in Venice, it was close to our hotel, to other shops and Macdonald.  It was nice to sit at the outdoor terrace, beautiful night with perfect ambience.

We weren't that hungry from the late lunch, so we just went to have some late snack.  We looked through different menus, and we decided to eat at this restaurant.  While we were waiting, there was a basket of different breads, buns and bread sticks.  There was this brand new pack of bread sticks, I opened the pack, which I later found it was charged 8 Euro for the bread. :S So next time, I learnt that it would be free to just eat the bread/buns in the basket, but if you open any packs of bread sticks, it will be charged on the bill.  Or it could just be cover charge, I don't know...but why cover charge?

Beef Carpaccio as secondo, along with Murano candle holder

In North America, beef carpaccio is usually the appetizer, but in Italy, beef carpaccio seems to be the second main entree.  So it usually is more expensive on the menu, especially its a dish with meats.

Italians enjoy eating well and therefore Italian dinners usually have many courses; here is a sample of the Meal structure for the traditional Italians:

    1). Aperitivo (Appetizer) : alcoholic/non-alcohlic drinks as wine, champagne, with small amounts of food: olives, crisps, nuts...etc

    2). Antipasto (heavier starter): heavier starter such as salami, cheese

    3). Primo (first entree): non-meat dishes (include pizza, risotto, pasta, lasagnas..etc)

    4). Secondo (second entree): usually the heaviest course (include different meats and types of fish (include turkey, sausage, pork, steak, salmon, lobster, lamb, chicken etc)

    5). Formaggi e Frutta (cheese and fruits)

    6). Dolce (desserts): my favourite is the homemade tiramisu, the style and texture of tiramisu is different from cities to cities

    7). Caffe (Coffee or expresso): Italians usually drink expresso after every meal.  The locals only drink beverages with milk in the morning, because they believe drinking milk later in the day is thought to be bad for the stomach.  If you order a cappuccino or caffe latte after your meal in dinner time, it would be a giveaway that you're a tourist :)

PS:  If you want a latte, make sure you order a caffe latte (meaning expresso with steam milk), otherwise you might just get a glass of milk, because latte in Italian means milk.

Venice - First (late) lunch

After checking in, we were starving! We didn't eat much since our breakfast in Paris.  So we were walking around our hotel's area to find something to eat; it was already 5pm.  Late lunch? or prehaps early dinner?  We took that as lunch!  First day in Italy, of course we had to find some classic Italian food:

Two glasses of Beer, Pizza & Linguine with Clams..anything tasted good by that time we ate.

We weren't just randomly looking for something to eat, we wanted to have some kinda nice view while having our first meal in Venice :)

Expresso after our meal......pretty strong..

The area was quite quiet.  We sat there for a while, and there weren't too many people walking around. I guess it was getting late, most tourists either head back to their hotels outside of the island or their cruises.

Venice was really small.  The streets sign were so small.  It was very easy to miss the street when we were following the map.