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.

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 -> Florence

Goodbye Venice:

I booked our train tickets online, and the train was scheduled to leave at 8:40am.  I purposely booked that time because I wanted to have a nice full "included" breakfast at hotel before we leave.  That way we can save money for food later on.  The hotel's breakfast doesn't open until 7:30am.  So we pretty much waited to have breakfast right at 7:30am.  After a nice breakfast buffet, we walked to the boat station to take the #1 Vaporetto Boat to the train station.

Venice's main transportation -  Vaporetto ACTV

It took me a while to figure out how to use the ticket machine, I even went to ask a local how to buy tickets.  The local said it seems like the machine didn't work.  When the boat came, I still couldn't buy the tickets, so I asked the local lady to help translating our situation to the staff.  We got on to the boat anyway, and the staff said he couldn't take the money and he just closed the gate.  The boat started moving, so we got a free ride to the train station: Venezia Santa Lucia

Venice's main train station: Venice Santa Lucia

The train station was only 3 minutes walk from the Line 1 boat station.