Rome - iQ Hotel Roma

iQ Hotel Roma:
via Firenza, 8 Roma

Termini station to iQ Hotel Roma:

After a comfortable first class ride from Florence to Rome's main train station (Termini), we looked at the map at the station.  It was approximate 10-15 minutes walk from termini to the hotel.  I googled map it the night before, so it wasn't too hard to find (must not repeat the "lost in Venice" incident again).

Lots of drinks to pick from...cheap too :)

General comments about hotel:
- hotel room was quite small

- the two beds were movable

- bathroom was very clean

- very nice terrace upstairs, must spend a night there chilling with snack and wine, play some fuse balls

- vending machines upstairs

- very good location, easy/moderate walk from hotel to Colosseum, Pantheon and Trevi fountain

- we pretty much walked to everywhere from hotel...even to spanish steps...etc....  

  - easy walk to metro

  - highly recommended ! :)

Florence - Pisa & The mall outlet

Day trip to Pisa:

We first walked to the train station, and there was this big board displaying the train schedules, yet the ticket machine was confusing.  There were several stations in Pisa and we weren't sure which station to get off at.  We finally got someone to ask about it.  So we took the regional train from firenze to Pisa Central.  There was no need to pre-book the tickets, you could just buy it at the train station.  The trains came quite frequently; it was about 7 Euro per person, one way.  The regional train sucks, there was no AC and it stunk.  The ride was LONG cuz the train was quite slow.  It was more than 1 hour (you can almost reach Rome within 2 hours with the high speed train).  There was no one checking the validity of our tickets on our way to Pisa Centrale.

very small station…half an hour walk to the leaning tower... 

We weren't sure where to get off, once we saw the sign "Pisa", we basically just followed the crowd.  We walked to the map and figured our way to the leaning tower.  The map looked simple and the tower didn't look that far away; so we just walked.  It was kinda too hot and sunny to walk there, it was a nice and quiet walk.  It took us approximately half an hour to walk there.

So I would recommend you to walk to the leaning tower and then bus back…bus ride was only 10 minutes.. The fare was only 1,50 - 2 Euro.

We saw some abandoned ruins on our way there

Duomo 

Famous Leaning tower…..I guess it doesn't look that leaning in this photo

 ok..One check off the checklist, I don't think I would come back again……

So after our lunch at mcdonald, we took a bus (10 minutes ride) back to the train station.  We didn't check the schedule this time, and we just hopped on to the earliest train that could get us back to Florence.  As the train came, yes, we just hopped on and we forgot to buy tickets……oh on….so this time, there was someone who came to check tickets, and we didn't have tickets.  She asked us to buy the train tickets from her.  Alright.  24 Euro for two people, not bad!!! Then later I looked at the receipt, she charged us 10 Euro for penalty (5 Euro per person).  Honestly, that was quite cheap for penalizing someone who didn't pay for the train fare, (not that I encouraged it), but i rather pay the extra fee than missing the train.

Anyway, this time the train took even LONGER to get back to Florence.  Different trains stop at different stations, though the longer it took.  It was almost 1.5 hour….

Mall Outlet: Prada, Miu miu, other high end Italian brands outlet:

So Pisa and the outlet are very far from each other.  Once we got off the train from pisa, we needed to take this shuttle bus to the Outlet.  It took us a long time to locate this bus station around the train station area.  It was quite hidden, and nobody was able to give you the direction.

The shuttle comes every hour, we were running back and forth to look for the station because we didn't want to miss it.  The outlet closes at 7, while we were trying to catch the 4pm bus.  After half an hour of searching, we could finally find it.  The round trip costed 10 Euro per person.  The ride was approximately one hour, it was seriously out of no where.

But it worth the trip if you love brand names products, their Prada stuff were quite cheap compared to retail prices  A regular Prada wallet (Long one), retail price is 350 Euro, it was 220 Euro.  Purse that was 1200 Euro in retail price, it was 450 Euro there.  So if you love shopping, you might not want to miss it.  Again, this is an outlet, so you might not get the popular stuff that you see at the retail stores.

Tax return:
You can file the tax return there, please do it because you get almost 11% back.  There's a tax return office there.  Line up and DO IT.

Last bus back to the city:
one bus leaves at 7, one bus leaves at 7:30pm.  Make sure you don't miss the last bus, cabbing back would be very $$$.

Note:
It took us a whole day to go to Pisa and the outlet.  So much commute, it was worth it though :)  Do some research if you want to go to the outlet, because there are more other outlets as well.

Honeymoon in Europe - Easter 2014

So I got a request to plan a honeymoon trip for the newlyweds.  It is my pleasure to ... :)

They had the following request:

   - preferably during the two weeks of their Easter holidays

   - both just reached their 30s and they just want to chill during their holidays 

   - cruise is preferable

   - Paris must be included

   - must travel between Apr 12, 2014 - Apr 27, 2014 (2 weeks of Easter holidays)

First of all, I think April is a pretty good month to travel in.  The weather is quite nice and usually it is not as busy and crowded as summer time.  Yet, it could be more busy during the Easter holidays :)

The cruise options during that two weeks are kind of limited.  A lot of the "nicer routes" don't really fit into that two weeks time frame.  Since Paris is usually not included in the cruise's route, I suggested it might be better to take a shorter cruise and then spend 5-7 days in Paris.

so .... 7 - 9 days of Mediterranean cruise + 5-7 days in Paris.

So I searched through expedia.ca for the possible cruises during April 2014:

4 Cruise options that I suggested:

7-Night Mediterranean Europe Cruise - Costa Cruises

#1: from Savona to Savona

Costa Serena

2014 Departures:

Apr: 13, 20, 27

Ports of Call:

Savona, Italy - La Spezia, Italy - Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy -Naples, Italy - At Sea - Barcelona, Spain - Marseille, France -Savona, Italy

#2: from Venice to Venice

Costa Fascinosa  

2014 Departures:

Apr: 7, 14, 21, 28

Ports of Call:

Venice, Italy - Bari, Italy - Kerkyra (Corfu), Greece - Mykonos, Greece - Santorini, Greece - At Sea - Dubrovnik, Croatia - Venice, Italy

#3: from Civitavecchia (Rome) to Civitavecchia (Rome)

Costa Favolosa

2014 Departures:

Apr: 20, 27

Ports of Call:

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy - Savona, Italy - Barcelona, Spain -Barcelona, Spain - Palma de Mallorca, Spain - At Sea - Malta (Valetta), Malta - Palermo, Italy - Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

#4: from Savona to Savona

Costa Pacifica

2014 Departures:

Apr: 5, 12

Ports of Call:

Savona, Italy - Marseille, France - Barcelona, Spain - Palma de Mallorca, Spain - At Sea - Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy - Livorno, Italy - Savona, Italy

I personally would prefer Costa Fascinosa as I've never been to Greece and Croatia, and they are beautiful and romantic.  Due to travel advisories and warnings in Greece and Turkey, a lot of people would concern travelling to these two places.  I just think Costa Fascinosa included quite a few beautiful beaches:

Costa Favolosa might be a little too late to come back by Apr 27, 14.  It doesn't fit well into the two weeks time frame.

Costa Pacifica and Costa Serena both included the ports: Barcelona, "Rome" and Marseille.  I would prefer Costa Pacifica as Livomo is close to Florence & Pisa.  I really like Florence, it's somewhere I would love to chill at again.

Savona, Italy:
Savona is one of the popular ports where Costa cruises start and end at.  It's about 30 - 45 minutes drive from Genoa (Airport) to Savona.  Once you arrive to the Genoa's airport, you can train/bus/shuttle to Savona.  You can always ask the information desk, I'm sure the staff should be very familiar with the transfer from airport to Savona.  Make sure you spare extra time to check in.

Suggested Itinerary for the newlyweds:
(2 weeks)

     Home --> Genoa, Italy (GOA)                   (via flight)

     Genoa -> Savona                                       (via Shuttle/train/bus)

     Savona -> Savona (7 days cruise)

     Savona -> Genoa (Airport)                        (via Shuttle/train/bus)

     Genoa (GOA) --> Paris (CDG)                  (via flight - 1.5hour)

     Paris ( 5 - 6 days)

     Paris --> Home                                             (via flight)

Paris - 3 days in Paris

Highlights of Paris:

First of all, when I was typing these blogs for Paris, I needed to listen to some French music to get me into the mood.  And I found this on youtube:

French Cafe Music: A Stroll in Paris

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJWn8_HQ4hw&list=PLFAD477EF0F5FC085

- super soothing.....Try playing this as background when you read my blog :)

My 3 days Highlights of Paris:

Day 1:

      - Arrived to Paris, took lots of deep breath of the French air :p

      - 4 hours walking tour along the Seine River

      - Pedi-cab to Arc de Triomphe

      - Laduree & Berthillon

Day 2:

      - day trip to Versailles

      - Des Invalides (Napolean's tomb)

      - 3 hours dinner 

      - strolling in Paris

      - Eiffel Tower

Day 3:

      - Lourve 

      - St. Germain

      - Love-Lock bridge

      - food food food

      - more strolling in Paris

London - 2 days in London

Day time highlights:

Tripadvisor is a very good tool for trip planning, especially for HOTEL selections and tips for getting around the main attractions.

Transportations & Sightseeing:
   You could take one of those Hop-in-Hop-off Tour Bus (Day Pass)                 
           - very convenient, most of them have 8 stops at the most popular tourist attraction                     
           - but you could get stuck in traffic at rush hours

   You could take the local bus #9 - self-guided sightseeing tour bus  (cheaper)
           - you will pass by many tourist attractions as Harrods, Big Ben, St. Paul Cathedral, Tower of London and Kensington Palace 

                       

Metro system - London's metro system is very convenient
                                   - Their metro staffs are very nice and helpful (unlike Paris)

Walk - If you really want to feel the city, scrolling around London is not a bad idea, the top attractions were pretty far apart though

Cruise - Take a River Thames cruise/city cruise from London Eye to the Tower of London
             - Or take a River cruise from the Tate Modern to Tate Britain 
                                                   (Tate to Tate Boat ~£5.50 single, £11 return)

Taxi - We had bad experience taking taxi back to hotel from the downtown area.  We showed the taxi driver our hotel address, we showed him the map and the GPS directions from Iphone.  He still took us to the wrong area, and we ended up walking 30 minutes back to hotel.  Unless you book the taxi ahead of time, avoid taking taxi as a tourist.

 

I only had two days in London, here was the original plan for the two days:

Day 1:
 - Westminster Abbey (opening hours: 9:30am - 2:30pm (for sat))
 - walk through St. Jame's Park
 - Buckingham Palace 
            - watch Changing the Guard (make sure you check the schedule ahead of time)
 - House of Parliament, Big Ben
 - Tate Gallery
 - Thames River Cruise to Tower of London
 - Tower of London
 - Tower Bridge

(optional): St. Paul Catherdral + Millennium Bridge
                 Trafalgar Square + Covent Garden (Department Mall at the West End)

 

Day 2:
 - breakfast at Hotel
 - Victoria + Albert Museum (free admission)
 - Harrods (Knightbridge) - Afternoon tea at Georgian Restaurant - Book ahead
 - Shopping around at Mayfair
 - London Eye (enjoy the sunset view or the night view)

Our hotel's sunset view from the Lounge :)

Our actual 2 days:
  We were tired from the flight on our first day, we had a very chill first day.  Touring around the main attractions via a private car, shopped around at Regent Street, lunch, back to hotel and spa.  
  Second day was a power walking tour: walking to all the main attractions: Big Ben, Westminster Abbeys, Buckingham Palace, St. Jame's Park, south bank, London eye, Olympics sites, Millennium Bridge, Tower of London, Mayfair...etc etc......It tells you that all the main attractions could be visited in one day (a little congested but it was manageable :)