Forever Warm, Forever Autumn

Here it is… anyone care to hazard a guess what you think it is?

Reminder: click on photos for a larger view

I’ve decided the Vatican needs a post all its own. And it’s mostly photos anyway. Not all that much to say about it, we spent the entire day there from around opening to closing time. Being a weekday, the queues for tickets weren’t crazy and we got in comfortably after lining up for only about 10 minutes. If you’re wondering later on why there are no photos of my mum or MIL, that’s cos they weren’t particularly interested in museums and practically power-walked their way through all the exhibits, not making any use at all of the audio guides we paid for… They made their way very quickly to the Sistine Chapel probably within an hour  or 2 of entering the Vatican Museums (which is VERY FAST!)… only to be totally devastated that no photos were allowed in there.  We only found this out via a very expensive cell-phone call when we couldn’t find mothers anywhere… Kwang and I couldn’t believe they were finished already and we weren’t even a quarter of the way through the museum! They then spent over an hour lunching in the cafeteria before going to St Peters Square and the Basilica (after we called them to say we weren’t coming out anytime soon).

In any case, Kwang and I took our sweet time at the Vatican Museums and  made full use of the audio guide to learn more about certain exhibits that we’ve all but forgotten about by now. We spent a good 30 minutes in the Sistine Chapel listening to the audio guide telling us all sorts of stuff that once again I’ve forgotten all about. We met up with them (mum and MIL) at St Peters Square 4 - 5 hours later… (after the museum closing time) and went in to admire the Basilica as well. I didn’t ask what they did with all their spare time after they completed their speedy round of the museum without being able to back track… In any case… here are photos from our day at the Vatican.

We began at the Vatican’s vast Egyptian collection, which surprised me a little… The artifacts being at the Vatican that is…

view of the courtyard we’d be visiting very soon

These photos were not candid shots… =_=”

nearly blinded me to take a photo of himself… but at least you can’t see my sunscreen induced pimples…

Playing at being posers…

photos taken in the courtyard… if it wasn’t so hot that day, I would have liked to hang out a little more in this area

Kwang pretending to be a head on a pedestal

The hallways of the Vatican Museum were almost always made up of arches with richly decorated ceilings… I couldn’t get enough of them! But having said that… I have no idea where this is…

This place was called the “Map Room” and again I was mesmerised by the ceiling… of course the maps were amazing too… but I’ll save any pictures I have of the ancient maps for the photo album that I’ll set up sooner or later.

Kwang’s lesson on “The right way to fall down the stairs 101″

Stained glass feature of Madonna and Child near the exit of the Vatican Museum.

(click the photos!) a much loved feature (not only by us) at the Vatican Museum was this spiral staircase winding our way down to the exit. Photo ops had to be quick so as not to get in the way of someone else’s photo op… of course not all tourists were as gracious or considerate and took photo after photo for about 20 minutes! *grumbles*

St Peter’s remains are rumored to be under here…

The inside of St Peter’s basilica was absolutely breathtaking… my low quality photos and lousy shooting skills do it no justice… You really have to be there to know how it feels and see what I saw…

is it just me are does it look like them cherubs want us dead?

no one was available to hear his confessions

The Basilica was amazing and I didn’t want to leave but I was tired and hungry by that time so we figured it was time to go… go outside and meet mothers and take some final photos before trying to find dinner.

The Swiss Guard, the Vatican’s (and Pope’s) personal guard… elites of the Swiss army… you have to be Swiss (duh!) a very specific height and weight, and aged between 19 and 25 to qualify for the honor of wearing this clown uniform… oh and they often travel with the Pope too.

we DO have one photo of mum and MIL… taken when it was all over outside St Peter’s Square with a view of St Peter’s Basilica in the background

That’s that… and after a long long day at the Vatican (for us anyway) we figured to buy food home for dinner rather than eat out…

my take out dinner…

Reminder: click on photos for a larger view

It’s been over 2 weeks since I wrote my last post on Italy, and over a month since I was there! A thousand apologies for the late travel journal update, especially for those who are expecting to see photos! Very very sorry! Memories fade, other things happen and I am an excellent procrastinator! So if these final few posts (5 days in Rome and 2 in Milan) are a little vague, I’m truly sorry. But do enjoy the photos at least! As I keep saying, click on the pictures for a larger view, and also I promise to put up photo albums really soon!

ps. Rome travel journal is REALLY REALLY long (after all we were there 5 days!) with LOTS AND LOTS of photos so It will be split into several posts so as to make it easier on the eyes and on the scroll bar.

Day 1 in Rome

We arrived in Rome mid afternoon and made our way to the apartment (B&B) we’d rented for the next 5 days. It was a tad far from the city center but the place was very nice indeed. We had the apartment to ourselves, 2 bedrooms, full use of kitchen, living room and bathroom. It was all great. Because it was an apartment disguised as a B&Bm the owner provided us with coffee, sugar and other cooking amenities, also we had bread, biscuits, cakes, and a fridge stocked with lots of fruits, juices and milk. Pretty good We settled in to our rooms, unpacked a little and took turns having a shower before heading out. By that time it was late afternoon. We thought it might be nice to checkout the Fontana di Trevi (Trevi Fountain) so off we went…

I wanted a photo with some really nice and huge sandwiches at a cafe we passed on the way and was joined by one of the staff who wanted in on the picture Please excuse unsightly arm flaps! >_<

It’s said (tourist traps!!!) that if you stand with your back to the Trevi fountain and make a wish, then throw a coin in, the further your coin lands the more likely your wish will come true. Mum’s photo is a re-enactment, cos the little kid in green stood right in front of her as she threw the coin and got in the way of the photo…

We then wandered around a little, plenty of shops on the streets and some sight seeing to do. Tonight was going ot be an easy going night… Didn’t wanna stress out too much since we were here for 5 days. As it happens, we ended up coming to the Trevi fountain again several time during our say in Rome. But in the mean time.. more photos

There was a woman on the street doing some really amazing stuff with spray paint. It looks a right mess now… but the end results…

Amazing! for 10 Euro… I’d buy it if I could carry it. However, this performance was only “amazing” one time… after that, it’s pretty repetitive and her repertoire of scenes were more or less the same with slightly different colour combinations

After all that we got hungry and began looking for something to eat and settled for a nice looking pizza restaurant. The disadvantage of being a tourist is that you fall into the tourist traps. Restaurants with English menus are not real Italian food (or so we were told a little too late by one of Kwang’s friends we met up with on our last day… more on that later). In any case, the restaurant where we had our first meal in Rome wasn’t all bad after all. Pretty decent and definitely a better alternative to McDonalds!!!

there was a cool red-tiled pizza oven inside and the pizza chef was happy for me to snap his picture… although he doesn’t look it…

trying really hard to be in the picture mum was taking of our pizza

shiny happy people? They were just happy the food’s arrived I think… and the lady behind is admiring our pizza

After eating our fill, we explored a little bit more… since we were so close to the Pantheon at the time. We checked it out a little. There were many people hanging out there, just for the sake of hanging out. Street performers were about. There was a mime walking around imitating passers by and playing pranks on people, like taking their hats and stealing children. On the other side of the piazza, there was an opera singer. I didn’t get any pictures of this though. Doesn’t matter… we’d be back

one last look at the Pantheon at night before we went home for the night.

Next post… Day 2 in Rome… dedicated post for our day at the Vatican.

Sorry for the lack of updates. A lot has happened and at the same time not much has happened. Am I being ironic and contradicting myself? well… yes I’ll admit that. My house is empty once again… it’s just Gea and I. It’s quiet and I have a mild throbbing headache that’s threatening to get worse.

In short review (I will go into more detail of the whole thing in time)… My mum and Kwang’s mum (MIL) came to visit from NZ on July 9th. From July 11th to 22nd we were having a blast in Italy. I’ll finish writing my Italy travel journal soon, I promise, photos and all From July 23rd to 29th, Kwang and MIL were in the UK visiting friends and family while Mum and I got creative in the kitchen. August 1st was Swiss National Day celebrations, and we were invited over to join Mike and Sarah and their family for BBQ dinner and fireworks, which was great fun

We had some quiet time until August 7th when my cousin Monica, her husband Holger and daughter Rachel arrived from Hamburg. From Aug 7th to 10th I had a completely full house, 2 air beds (one for Kwang and I and one for Holger and Monica) in the living room and Rachel on the sofa. Gea was of course very excited to be surrounded by so many people, and everyone loved her to bits! My cousins were here for the annual buskers street music festival each evening from 7th to 9th August. On Friday evening MIL fell over on a low kerbside and sprained her foot and hit her head a little, resulting in a nasty limp and a bruised face. She spent the next 2 days at home and so was unable to send my cousins off on Sunday. But on Monday Kwang stayed working from home with Gea while I took Mum and MIL to Luzern… a last minute decision. Mum was a little upset at being made to go but that quickly cleared up when we got there and she bought heaps of souvenirs and took plenty of photos and went home a happy woman MIL’s foot was feeling much better and had no trouble walking the streets of Luzern’s old town but we didn’t get to do much sight seeing when it began raining.

Tuesday was spent packing and re-packing and buying some last minute souvenirs and chocolates for people, there was too much stuff to bring back, especially since they were first returning to Kuching, and ended up having to put stuff into boxes which I will have to post back to NZ sometime soon. Parcel post is ridiculously expensive here but they insist on doing this so it will be done… as soon as I figure out how to fill all the forms given to me by the lady in the post shop. Mothers left last night, we went to Zürich early, walked a little around town and headed off to the airport at about 5:30pm to check in for their flight at 10pm. Kwang came to meet us after work at 8:30pm… because mum and MIL were paranoid I’d get mugged on the train ride home… which was unlikely but oh well… We don’t want them leaving Switzerland in a huff now do we?

Kwang and I went back to Zürich after they left at about 9pm and walked around the lake for a little bit before catching our train back to bern, arriving about midnight and half dead (me). Today will be spent washing laundry and cleaning house. Gea’s very very quiet once again, i suppose it’s lonely… and she misses everyone terribly. I don’t particularly miss everyone yet, but it does feel weird to have the whole place to myself again. Anyway, off to work… many many chores to get done… and a kitchen full of food to eat up (or throw out!)!

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We spent 2 nights in Florence… Not particularly enjoyable. The main tourist attractions were terribly unorganised and we didn’t get to see much. But overall Florence wasn’t too shabby. It was an experience

Night 1 in Florence

We arrived late in the evening and made our way to our Bed & Breakfast which was only 5 mins walk from the train station, but wasn’t too flash. But it was a place to rest nonetheless. After a nice quick shower and settling in a little we decided to go out and look for some food places that might still be open after 11pm. Searching high and low for a place that didn’t close at 10pm was hard work and we ended up in a McDonald’s that was running out of half of their things! No nuggets, no curly fries, no fish burgers… and goodness knows what else! We settled for some chicken wings, and burgers and a big mac or some such that I can’t remember anymore… and as we got large menu options we got some free promotion Coca-cola glasses! Available in many colours (blue, red, purple, yellow and green) but these guys only had blue. Was very pleased with that, even though the McD’s tasted awful!

Day 1 in Florence

We had a late start to our first day in Florence and headed first for Piazza del Duomo (Cathedral square)… took one look at the queue to go in and just about died!

Duomo… it’s so big I couldn’t get a picture of the entire thing…

Taken about halfway around the side of the Duomo, the queue you can see stretches out of sigh to the right and left of the photo

the elusive city sightseeing bus that we failed to catch twice…

We were just about to give up when we saw a tourist sight seeing bus go by and thought it might be really fun to ride in it until the lines subside a little. So what we did was split up and waited, Kwang waited in line for the Duomo and I waited with the mothers for the bus. Turns out the bus runs in 2 directions, and we were at a stop where the bus only comes by once an hour! (but we didn’t know that!) *grumbles* Ended up going into the Duomo after all. Lovely cathedral, breathtaking… and we loved the candles.

After the Duomo, we waited again for the bus that didn’t arrive. Getting very pissed off we walked off towards the Uffizi… Italy’s greatest art gallery. We were warned that it’s advisable to call ahead and reserve your ticket, but we dismissed that and were totally taken aback at the crowd when we arrived there. There were 2 queues… 1 Super Duper long queue for visitors with no reservations, and another about half the length but also ridiculously long for those with a reservation! None of the queues moved an inch in the 10 mins or so that we stood there gawking and wondering if we had the right place (but of course we did!). We didn’t bother to join the wait… we could queue all day and still not get in by closing time. Nevertheless there were other things to look at around that area…

like David (from David and Goliath)… and yes I’m doing whatever you think it looks like I’m doing

mum had a brief encounter with Cupid, who made lots of very annoying kissy noises (for a small fee).

(left) someone killing a centaur. (right) some naked girl being kidnapped? Really I have no knowledge of these things but the details in these sculptures are amazing!

Once we were done amusing ourselves over sculptures of naked people we figured we’d try again to ride that elusive tour bus we kept seeing go past but never succeeded in getting on. After another frustrating 30 minute wait, we were ready to give up and leave when the bus arrived. We got on, found some seats on the open roof-top and got some free headphones with our fare (ticket was valid for 24 hrs). The audio guide is pretty thorough and informative and I learned a whole lot of stuff that we drove bast that I’ve long since forgotten by now. The bus look us a little out of the city to the countryside where the views were breathtaking and the air fresher.

on the bus

view from the bus

Happy mummies

group photo

Mum and MIL

We took the bus most of the way around and got off at the Palazzo Pitti, a palace that was built by a very rich banker guy (damn bankers!!!) and is now turned into a museum. There are 2 kinds of tickets you can buy there, each allowing you access to very specific exhibits. We took the package that allowed us into the palace gardens, and didn’t regret it

Mum, MIL and I outside Palazzo Pitti. MIL is trying to look “natural”

A statue that looks to be depicting some “guy love”

The central courtyard

Fooling around, pretending to be Medusa… good impersonation?

sorry… I got in the way of this nice photo…

mum and I relaxing by the fountain… and Kwang being mean to a pigeon

Posing at some terrace garden (still at Palazzo Pitti) with a magnificent view of the valley…

Just doing what everyone else has been doing for years… rubbing this headless bronze guy’s butt cheeks and peepee until they’re shiny (they were already shiny when I got there!!!)

After the gardens we went through many other exhibits where photography was forbidden… the Science and Medicine museum, Procelain museum, and the Costumes museum… there was supposed to be a Silverware museum too but we couldn’t find it before closing time.

We hopped back onto the tour bus and headed back to the main train station where we begrudgingly opted for another quick and unsatisfying McDonald’s dinner and headed back to our B&B to clean up and rest, but not before trying at the train station to change our train tickets for the next day. We’d found out that our train leaves at 11:30am, which was a real bummer because that meant we didn’t even have half a day left in Florence. We waited in line at the ticket desk with a lot of other irritated people. Ticket desk closed at 9pm and we were there at 8:45pm… what really pissed us (and the other people) off was that they literally shut the counters in our faces at 9pm sharp! *GRRRR* Not even the courtesy to close off the line and finish dealing with the remaining 6 customers?! Lousy service! After showering back at the B&B, mothers opted for an early night while Kwang and I went back out for a little bit of a walk and some gelato and finally retired for the night.

Day 2 in Florence

Kwang got up early to go to the train station again and try to change our tickets but they were unable to change our train ticket (tickets booked in Switzerland have to be changed IN Switzerland… WTF?!?!) and so we were forced to take the 11:30am train to Rome. We checked out early, and left our luggage at the train station. Mothers went shopping a little, and Kwang and I tried to visit a castle nearby - Castello San Angelo - that we’d seen from the tour bus, but couldn’t find an entrance anywhere.

We hung out by the castle a little before heading back slowly toward the station. Did some shopping and bought some new clothes. Met up with mothers for the train. But the lousy train station was so disorganised that we didn’t which platform to go to until 11:30 when the train pulled into the station!!! as soon as the platform number flipped out onto the sign-board, there was a mad rush for the platform in question as all the passengers heading for Rome scrambled to get on the train, afraid it would not wait. There was an elderly couple who got on the wrong train too… They tried to get us out of our seats, saying that we were in their seats, and adamantly denying that they were on the wrong train. after about 20 minutes one of the train ticket officers came to sort things out but a lot of people were stuck in the aisle with their suitcases being very irritated because the elderly couple wouldn’t budge, being so insistent that they were in the right.

It was such a relief when it was all over… and we were finally properly on our way… Goodbye Florence… Goodbye to the Tuscan countryside… Hello Rome!