Milan - Video

April 10/08 - Milan, aaahh the fashion capital of Italy. We felt so out of place among those finely dressed Italians. Having only about 6 hrs, we took the metro directly to the Duomo. It was a bad rainy day. The Duomo and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuelle II are magnificent. The interior of the Duomo is huge and the stain glass very beautiful.
Not having money to go shopping, we went up the Duomo roof. Well worth the climb, the roof is made of marble slabs with lots of fine statuary.



Mark Twain spoke of the Duomo - "What a wonder it is! So grand, so solemn, so vast! And yet so delicate, so airy, so graceful! A very world of solid weight, and yet it seems ...a delusion of frostwork that might vanish with a breath!..."

Murano, Venice - Video

April 9/08 - We took a vaporetto to Murano. Toured glass factories and bought souvenirs. Then on the way back to venice, we hopped off at the cemetery on a man-made island. Visiting cemetery may not be a good holiday idea but it was beautiful and well, different. The place was well-kept and peaceful with sounds of birds chirping. There are bungalow lots for the rich and apartments for the rest, we guessed it must be expensive to own a resting place here. Then for the super rich, there are the mausoleums reserved for family members. Plastic flowers were on every grave - looked well visited, not neglected by the living family members. The children burial place was sad, all the lovely babies and kids... Enough already, we headed back to Venice.

Venice - Video

April 8/08 - Venice, Venezia. Arrived at the Santa Lucia station at 7 pm after about 2 hours ride on the Eurostar from Florence. It was dark, gloomy, cold and rainy. Leaving the train station for Hotel Ai Tolentini at Santa Croce directly across the Canal Grande, we discovered that the bridge Ponte degli Scalzi proved to be a challenge - the bridge looks like a hill of staircase, a daunting task to pull our luggage across. Next time if we come again, we would book a hotel on the same side as the train station.
The hotel was difficult to find eventhough it was just a short distance because Venice is like a maze. When we made it to the hotel which looked more like an inn, we found the innkeeper rude. Anyway, we told ourselves that we are here to see Venice, not to spend time in the hotel room. Looking for food was difficult, most places were closed. Fortunately we found "Brek", a self service cafeteria near the train station.

April 9/08 - Next morning, we woke up fresh and excited to explore this decaying heritage site. Walked over to the Vaporetto stop outside Santa Lucia and bought 12 hr ticket for Euro 14.00. Then we made our way on foot to the Rialto Bridge and explored the market first. This is a very colourful market - vegetables, fruits, seafood, etc. We loved the strawberries (as big as your fist) and tomatoes. Then we took the Vaporetto (water bus) from Rialto to San Marco. The buildings facing the Grand Canal are magnificent. This canal is like a busy street. Vehicles are not allowed in Venice, so water is the only means of transport.


It was unfortunate for us that some of the famous sights were in scaffolding - Santa Maria della Salute, the Casino and part of the St Mark's Basilica. We deposited our bags at the left luggage and toured the basilica (free entrance)- it is magnificent - the mosaics and architecture. After that, we chased pigeons on the square (lots of pigeons and tourists - very noisy, one of us got bombed by a pigeon!!), then souvenir hunting. We bought brooches and fridge magnets of the Carnavale masks. Some of us wanted to buy the glass pendants so we decided to go to Murano (check out the Murano video).
Later in the evening, we went back to the Piazza San Marco to see the square at night. It was devoid of tourist and the buildings looked very different lit up, no wonder Napoleon called it the finest drawing room in Europe. We were tempted to dance in the square but it was drizzling.
April 10/08 - we woke up early for the 7.45 train to Milan.

Pisa - Video

April 8/08 - Pisa. We walked from the train station to the leaning tower with a stopover at, what else?? - the local market. Had some sandwiches for breakfast. At the Piazza of Miracles, tourists were posing for photographs either pushing the tower up or down. Climbing up the tower was a challenge. Because of its lean, we were walking like drunks.
If you really, really, desperately need to go up the tower, you can book tickets at its website.
Not a good day - raining, so pictures did not turn out good.