ITALIA
It was my dream trip and I never thought I would ever visit the Colloseum or the leaning tower of Pisa in my life. It's a dream come true. Italy fever started in early October when there was a cheap flight ticket sale to many destinations in Europe from Helsinki. I still remember how I got my tickets standing in the queue for more than 5 hours from 6 AM till 11 AM, on a weekday (almost bunked some office hours) :)
It was me and my friend Samanta (unfortunately not a gal) toured Italy for a week. My plan was to fly to Milan from Helsinki by Finnair and start my journey in the roman land. I planned the whole trip a month back and it was very clear to me what to do next so I did not have a problem exploring the new city.
First Day in Milan: The joy started when I boarded the flight and after an couple of hours, I was looking at the beautiful white Alps and passing over Swiss. First and foremost thing came into my mind was 'where are the Italian chicks' :) ha ha just kidding.. As I reached the airport I had to take a bus all the way to reach the city center. It was a 45 min journey to city center, I walked down the streets and flea markets ina nd around Milan (Called Milano). I managed to buy a ticket for the whole day for local commutation. It was a bright sunny day and I felt the suns ray touching my skin after 2 months, but then it was too windy that I cannot resist myself wearing my jerkin. It was freaking cold and windy and wind was blowing at 36 Kph (which is something unusual).
I did not anticipate so much of crowd in Milan, since it was Xmas many people were outside, but to my surprise there were lots of tourists walking around. I visited Duomo, a cathedral which is an amazing piece of architecture and art. Read more about this wonderful monument from this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duomo_di_Milano. It was the symbol of Milan. For 1 week my cuisine was completely Italian, and friends let me tell you something.. Italian pizza's are the best in the world and not even Dominos or Pizza hut can beat this local Italian pizza. It tastes delicious an yummy :).... I thought Italy being predominantly a Christian Majority, the roads would be empty. On the contrary there were lots of people and cars on street much like a bigger city and so unlike Helsinki. I went and had a Cappucho (Cappuchino) and a Brioche (Chocolato). Of course I had to say Ciao and Gracie and Ciao again. Quite Funny, Ciao goes for both Hi and Bye and then throw in some 'Prego'(Its Ok, You are welcome) everywhere and you can speak perfect Italiano.Then I visited the castle and opera house. That night i had to take a flight to Rome from Milan, i booked a cheap flight Ryan air. Milan airport are quiet far from the city and I remember the name Bergamo from I had catch this flight. I had to rush hard to reach the airport and when I reached there, the timetable reads Ryan air to Rome is delayed by 1 hour. Very sad... Ore bad words :) My friend, Sudipta joined me this time and he had to miss first day in Milan, as his flight was schedule that day evening. And from here, we started together to Rome.
We reached Rome late in the night and somehow managed to get into the hostel. We had faced a hard time at Ciampino airport to get into the city. The hostel staffs were very kind and we did not have any problem here. The next day 24th dec morning, we marched towards the Colloseum(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colosseum), and what a wonder, I was speechless, I could not find any words in dictionary to describe this monument. I was in cloud nine. The whole structure still remains in my eyes. We visited the platino and other important places. I had a map in hand which was triple the time of a normal A4 sheet and it was marked with streets and monuments and my target was to visit as much as places possible and I did it, late in the night when I went back to Hostel, I thought it would so lively, there were a dozen of new faces in front of me and everyone was eager to celebrate the Christmas at Vatican city.
Hostel gave me a chance to blend with so many people almost every one whom I met were students from all parts of Europe, Brazil and US. we formed a big gang and spent the whole night wondering in the streets of Rome. Finally we reached Vatican city (Another country, or the worlds smallest country) where the pope was addressing the mass gathering and giving speech (Christians call 'mass'). The city was crowded and everyone started celebrating the Christmas as the clock ticks 12:00 Midnight, fireworks and wishes everywhere. We spent the whole night chatting with each other, play station games, cooking pasta, etc etc :)
Rome day 3 Our journey to explore Rome continued the next day, and we visited the Vatican City and entered the world largest Basilica ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Peter%27s_Basilica) where we saw the pope and other disciples where chanting and conducting some Christian rituals. I wasn't sure what was he doing but I was amazed to see the big basilica and the tall dome. Every structure and a piece of art were huge and grand, I wonder if the ancient roman people did ever know the meaning of small :) Then we walked along the street of Vatican and almost covered most of the important monuments and structures. Since it was Christmas, there was no public transport and we had a difficulties reaching station to catch continue our journey to Venice. We booked a night train to Venice and we had to stay in the station for at least 2 hrs and once we entered, I feel asleep and got up early morning and landed up at Florence, from where we will have to catch another train to Venice.
Venice day 4http://picasaweb.google.com/haloamar/ItaliaPicturesDay4# Venice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venice) turned out to be an awful experience in the whole trip. The place was beautiful, scenic and different from any other cities in the world. But it was our bad time; our hostel was far far far away from the mainland, we did not get down at the correct station were we are suppose to and the weather was very very cold (though the sun was shinning bright). We manage to get into a bus and the driver got us down at the wrong stop and we had to walk 8KM to reach the hostel... Oh no! I was hoping, not to experience such thing again in my life in a new place like this. After we reached the hostel, things seems to have settled, we refreshed ourselves and took a bus (by this time we became expert in buses) to the mainland and walked in the streets of Venice. The streets are so small and people like me should think before entering the narrow streets, it was good. The waterways are the only mode of transportation in Venice. The gondola ride (we haven't taken this), the churches and small canals were the major point of attraction in Venice. We met a guy here, who also stayed along with us in the hostel, at Rome. We walked together chatting on different topics, doing window shopping, you will also find lots of mask shops (Venice is famous for mask) and what not !
It was a pleasant evening and outing ended after we departed him in the station and headed back to the hostel. Luckily we had a shuttle service back to the hostel which took 20 mins to reach there.The next day we planned to visit Florence and Pisa and we had to rush to the station early morning to catch the train. The bad time continued early in the morning and I would not like bring those bad moments into my mind again. Somehow we managed to reach the Florence/ Firenze.
Pisa and Florence Day 5 http://picasaweb.google.com/haloamar/ItaliaPicturesDay5# I had decided to go to Pisa (Home to Enrico Fermi, Galileo and Fibonacci among others)) this day to see the famous Leaning tower or Torre Pendente (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaning_Tower_of_Pisa) . So I took a train from Firenze to Pisa, which takes only about an hour, and took a bus towards the tower. There is nothing much to do in Pisa except the tower and the Basilica next to it and the other museums nearby in the same place. It costs quite a lot of money (15€) to go up to top of the tower, but what's the fun in not going to the top after being there. So I had to do it just for the heck of it. It was a very nice experience climbing the winding stairs which goes around this leaning tower and when you climb can actually feel the lean on one side. It was a great view from the tower. Then I went inside and saw the cathedral nearby. That's it, I had to go and buy some mementos and souvenirs from the nearby open market.
After that I took the train back to Firenze and roamed the streets, Flea markets, The Duomo, locating some of the Museums and some galleries. After the gallery visit, I went to see the Duomo. It was undergoing some restoration on one side. But we were allowed to enter the Duomo. Late in the evening, I walked to the other side of River Arne along the famous Ponte Vecchio, Florence's oldest surviving bridge has Jewellery shops on both sides of the street. It is open only for pedestrian walking. It connects the Old Medici Florenti Palazzo(Palace) Vecchio to the New Florentine Palazzo Pitti. I crossed the River Arne towards Palazzo Pitti and found that it was closed and I started marching to Piazza Michael Angelo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_statue) to get a night view of the whole Firenze city from there and also saw the Bronze copy of David by Michael Angelo which adorns the Piazza. The night life at Firenze was again a wonderful experience, we again formed a gang of 8 and few among us started boozing like anything. There was one beautiful girl from Spain (originally from Brazil) in our gang and I can't stop myself flirting with her... Oh man.. She was amazing and cool; we were together had a nice time (you can see her in my pictures).
There was a cool chap Felipe, who offered us the Christmas wine/tequila, and the for the first time I had peak alcohol effect. It made me go crazy :) It was 1 AM in the night and we decided to walk in streets to go to a nightclub, we were walking and speaking some rubbish things and all of us had a good time. Unfortunately the night club was about to close in an hour so we decided not to go in and spend the night in the streets shouting and yelling some bad jokes, every one sharing their experience and i was telling them about my work (it was 28th dec, i completed 3 yrs in TCS), about my culture, about India and Finland, about my family and etc etc :). That night ended at 5 AM in the morning and I did not wanted to sleep but thought of taking a short nap to energize my self, to complete my lastlag of the whole trip. I had to wake up at 8 AM, to catch our train to Milan.
Hostel gave me a chance to blend with so many people almost every one whom I met were students from all parts of Europe, Brazil and US. we formed a big gang and spent the whole night wondering in the streets of Rome. Finally we reached Vatican city (Another country, or the worlds smallest country) where the pope was addressing the mass gathering and giving speech (Christians call 'mass'). The city was crowded and everyone started celebrating the Christmas as the clock ticks 12:00 Midnight, fireworks and wishes everywhere. We spent the whole night chatting with each other, play station games, cooking pasta, etc etc :)
Rome day 3
Venice day 4http://picasaweb.google.com/haloamar/ItaliaPicturesDay4# Venice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venice) turned out to be an awful experience in the whole trip. The place was beautiful, scenic and different from any other cities in the world. But it was our bad time; our hostel was far far far away from the mainland, we did not get down at the correct station were we are suppose to and the weather was very very cold (though the sun was shinning bright). We manage to get into a bus and the driver got us down at the wrong stop and we had to walk 8KM to reach the hostel... Oh no! I was hoping, not to experience such thing again in my life in a new place like this. After we reached the hostel, things seems to have settled, we refreshed ourselves and took a bus (by this time we became expert in buses) to the mainland and walked in the streets of Venice. The streets are so small and people like me should think before entering the narrow streets, it was good. The waterways are the only mode of transportation in Venice. The gondola ride (we haven't taken this), the churches and small canals were the major point of attraction in Venice. We met a guy here, who also stayed along with us in the hostel, at Rome. We walked together chatting on different topics, doing window shopping, you will also find lots of mask shops (Venice is famous for mask) and what not !
It was a pleasant evening and outing ended after we departed him in the station and headed back to the hostel. Luckily we had a shuttle service back to the hostel which took 20 mins to reach there.The next day we planned to visit Florence and Pisa and we had to rush to the station early morning to catch the train. The bad time continued early in the morning and I would not like bring those bad moments into my mind again. Somehow we managed to reach the Florence/ Firenze.
Pisa and Florence Day 5 http://picasaweb.google.com/haloamar/ItaliaPicturesDay5# I had decided to go to Pisa (Home to Enrico Fermi, Galileo and Fibonacci among others)) this day to see the famous Leaning tower or Torre Pendente (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaning_Tower_of_Pisa) . So I took a train from Firenze to Pisa, which takes only about an hour, and took a bus towards the tower. There is nothing much to do in Pisa except the tower and the Basilica next to it and the other museums nearby in the same place. It costs quite a lot of money (15€) to go up to top of the tower, but what's the fun in not going to the top after being there. So I had to do it just for the heck of it. It was a very nice experience climbing the winding stairs which goes around this leaning tower and when you climb can actually feel the lean on one side. It was a great view from the tower. Then I went inside and saw the cathedral nearby. That's it, I had to go and buy some mementos and souvenirs from the nearby open market.
After that I took the train back to Firenze and roamed the streets, Flea markets, The Duomo, locating some of the Museums and some galleries. After the gallery visit, I went to see the Duomo. It was undergoing some restoration on one side. But we were allowed to enter the Duomo. Late in the evening, I walked to the other side of River Arne along the famous Ponte Vecchio, Florence's oldest surviving bridge has Jewellery shops on both sides of the street. It is open only for pedestrian walking. It connects the Old Medici Florenti Palazzo(Palace) Vecchio to the New Florentine Palazzo Pitti. I crossed the River Arne towards Palazzo Pitti and found that it was closed and I started marching to Piazza Michael Angelo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_statue) to get a night view of the whole Firenze city from there and also saw the Bronze copy of David by Michael Angelo which adorns the Piazza. The night life at Firenze was again a wonderful experience, we again formed a gang of 8 and few among us started boozing like anything. There was one beautiful girl from Spain (originally from Brazil) in our gang and I can't stop myself flirting with her... Oh man.. She was amazing and cool; we were together had a nice time (you can see her in my pictures).
There was a cool chap Felipe, who offered us the Christmas wine/tequila, and the for the first time I had peak alcohol effect. It made me go crazy :) It was 1 AM in the night and we decided to walk in streets to go to a nightclub, we were walking and speaking some rubbish things and all of us had a good time. Unfortunately the night club was about to close in an hour so we decided not to go in and spend the night in the streets shouting and yelling some bad jokes, every one sharing their experience and i was telling them about my work (it was 28th dec, i completed 3 yrs in TCS), about my culture, about India and Finland, about my family and etc etc :). That night ended at 5 AM in the morning and I did not wanted to sleep but thought of taking a short nap to energize my self, to complete my lastlag of the whole trip. I had to wake up at 8 AM, to catch our train to Milan.
Day 6 - The Thriller
Our trip has reached the climax, but as in every Indian movies, we find lots of twist and interesting things happeining in climax. Yes ! the same happenend to us. First is, we missed the train in which we are supposed to board. At last decided to board a Euro star (and "without a ticket") :) from Florence to Milan, which turned out to a real thril. It was basically, the ticket collector's mistake who did not produce the ticket when we requested for and told us to wait until he completes his checking. But the person did not turn up :). By that time we reached Bologna, another tourist spot, where the trian stopped for the first time after it departed from Florence. We rushed down, without turning back and came out of the station :) Just stayed here for couple of hours as our next train to Milan was late. It was an express train to Milan !
It was my second Milan visit, as I have to catch the flight from here to helsinki. I roamed the city again and as the dawn begun, our bad time also started. Our flight to Helsinki was at 19:00 hrs and we reached the airport at 18:10 hrs, by the time we spoted Finnair boarding point for check-in, the counter was closed. As it took a long time for us to spot the counter (and later we were told that, boarding closed). Tensions started creeping on my head, but did not panic, made myself cool and was confident that we would board the flight today. I went pass the security check in without boarding pass. The Italian security gurads was so stupid, they did not even bother to ask for a passport or the boarding pass. I should say they are not only stupid but it was our luck and by this time the clock reads 18:40 hrs. We were running as though a mad bull was chasing us. Finally we reached Finnair gates and luckily managed to get a boarding pass on the spot. Woof! We entered the flight at 18:55 and cheering ourselves. Late in the night we reached Helsinki and the outside temperature was some -1 deg and we walked out the airport and took taxi and way back home.Wow.. Awesome... That's all I've got to say about the whole trip. I was so in awe that I really don't have better words for describing my feeling. Another amazing adventure and experience in a whole new world!!!
It was my second Milan visit, as I have to catch the flight from here to helsinki. I roamed the city again and as the dawn begun, our bad time also started. Our flight to Helsinki was at 19:00 hrs and we reached the airport at 18:10 hrs, by the time we spoted Finnair boarding point for check-in, the counter was closed. As it took a long time for us to spot the counter (and later we were told that, boarding closed). Tensions started creeping on my head, but did not panic, made myself cool and was confident that we would board the flight today. I went pass the security check in without boarding pass. The Italian security gurads was so stupid, they did not even bother to ask for a passport or the boarding pass. I should say they are not only stupid but it was our luck and by this time the clock reads 18:40 hrs. We were running as though a mad bull was chasing us. Finally we reached Finnair gates and luckily managed to get a boarding pass on the spot. Woof! We entered the flight at 18:55 and cheering ourselves. Late in the night we reached Helsinki and the outside temperature was some -1 deg and we walked out the airport and took taxi and way back home.Wow.. Awesome... That's all I've got to say about the whole trip. I was so in awe that I really don't have better words for describing my feeling. Another amazing adventure and experience in a whole new world!!!
