in another land: Trip to Italy and nice - An unforgettable experience (Under construction)

Monday, January 21, 2008

Trip to Italy and nice - An unforgettable experience (Under construction)

The next morning, we traveled to Nice in an Italian train, we had the whole cabin to ourselves. Lost some time in traveling, by the time we reached nice, it was late afternoon.. we had some difficulty in finding the hostel in Nice, luckily, guillaume found a helpful French who offered to help us check out the location of the hostel using his gps in his car! Fancy us needing such a high technology to find a hostel.. Cool, we got to our hostel with no sweat at all, this is the hostel which I will recommend to everyone, cos there is free breakfast with 12 cereals to choose from and free internet terminals, and the staff are dedicated. Nice is a really nice city. hmm.. but it is too touristy it lacks a flavor.. it is not very French, there are so many tourists the place is like a little cosmopolitan town. It is also very clean, and the air is fresher compared to italy. Time for dinner, after much search, we decided on having mussels and fries again!.. there was one restaurant which we wanted to go to, as recommended by yz, but it was closed then, so we decided to go the next day… but we arrived around 2pm, and the owner just told us “tanpis, too bad, it is our break time, I am sorry but we are open again during dinner time, please come back later for dinner”. Yes, this is the French culture, to enjoy food at the right times! So we didn’t get to try the food here…

Tuck in fellows!

The second day, we went to Monaco, where all the rich people go to, where all the plastic faces, expensive cars, coconut trees and branded goods are to be found. Most importantly, their casino is the highlight. We didn’t enter the casino for financial reason, but we got to visit their toilets, and it had an automatic cleaning device for the toilet bowl seats. As the sun sets early, our plans to go to cap d’ail was pushed forward to the next morning…on the way back, met a group of travelers who were also going to the same hostel as us. They weren’t sure of which tram stop to alight. Cap d’ail is basically the seaside with an enchanting view. As it wasn’t the peak season, there was no one else there. There were also some old houses at the side, which seemed like an abadonned house.. I was just about to comment this when suddenly I saw the door close on its own… totally shocked, I think yz saw it too, but it was broad daylight! Was feeling jittery for awhile, then we realized there were people inside afterall.. phew.. For lunch, Guillaume ordered the same carbonara pasta as mine, but mine tasted aweful. We managed to convince the lady to change a new set for me, guillaume got a new set as well, and this time the cook made sure he did it well. It was the last day, and we were all sad to leave. In fact, there are more places to visit in Nice, which we didn’t have a chance to.. we were slowly taking our own sweet time looking at stuff, then we realized that we would be late for our train back to grenoble. The staff at the hostel then drove us to the train station, but the traffic was very heavy.. fortunately for her fast and good driving skills, we were able to reach there on time and safely board our train… but this ride made us lost some unnecessary money..

Another end to a long vacation, and it was sad .. the next day, sin n I had to deal with module bidding and upcoming tests!.. But the trip was fruitful and has added to another of my traveling experience.

After Napoli, We jet off to Milan, where we met up with our friend on exchange in Lyon, Yunzhi. No problem in locating him at all. In fact, as soon as we alight the bus in Milan, yz was already there, feeling jittery about the eerie hostel which had a very old elevator and classical decorations. Indeed, our room was located in the highest floor, standing alone at the top most floor, leading from an old creeky staircase. Haha, still rmbed that yz was so scared he didn’t dare to take a shower till we met.. the hostel is a budget hotel, but actually it was not that bad, the facilities are clean and in good condition, and the staff are friendly, the interior of the hotel is beautifully classical, traditional and authentic, we just need to not look at it from the eerie view.. clean towels were also provided for us… That night was new year’s eve, and we had a sumptuous dinner in an Italian restaurant with Chinese chefs.. the food was not bad.. then when midnight struck, the italians lighted the firecrackers and cheered.. it was a very lively atmosphere.. unfortunately, one girl got her eyes hurt by the firecrackers and she went back crying.. it was terrible.. strange enough, the streets were quite dead… there was absolutely no one around, probably that street near our hostel wasn’t the main street for celebration.

After i came back to Singapore, I am always bombarded with the same question: Sooo which is your favorite city in Europe?... and my first thought will be Napoli. In fact, I like all my travels so far, but Italy certainly gives me a most different feeling from the rest of the european countries, and naples (or napoli) will be my greatest recommendation, followed by venice, rome and florence. The sad thing was we only spent 2 n 1/2 days in napoli, which is certainly not enough to cover the beauty of this city.

A brief account of our trip to napoli:
A very " anything" place, the locals hang their clothes on the pathetic looking clothes lines just outside the apartment... kids of teenage age riding on scooters at high speeds pass narrow walkways...carefree and worry free childhood...

friendly locals, just give a wave or say Ciao, and they will wave back...while waiting for the train in an open air train station, sin started waving to a local standing in her balcony facing the train station, cos this woman was carrying a cute baby in her arms... the woman actually saw her waving and surprisingly she waved back. She then went back in and a minute later, her husband came out and started waving at us.. then he went back in.. seconds later, their parents i tink, appeared and waved back to us again... haha this went on for quite awhile till our train arrived and we left this bunch of amusing italians. Ciao!

great place to experience the real Italian culture and definitely less touristy compared to Rome n Venice... kill 2 birds with one stone- one can see both roman and greek structures just by going to napoli... not advisable to move around blindly cos of theft in italy and there are dangerous zones marked out where we were not encouraged to step into..

there are ancient underground secret tunnels everywhere, the remains from history, and it is necessary to know how to get to the entrance. We visited one such underground catacombs, haha, i thought they had skeletons and corpses inside, but no, it was a guided trip into the past aqueduct. Back in the past, water was stored in these underground tunnels. The water needs to be kept clean, so they would send a short man down into the tunnel for the job. The man has to be short cos the ceiling was very low. This short man would use a rope to lower himself into the tunnel, and walk along the tunnel on an elevated stone walkway lining the waterway, with a flame on one hand and a net on the other. The net was used to clean the dirt in the water, while the flame was to provide light since it was very dark inside... mmm actually i dun tink the net would help much though... well, there are no exits halfway, so this poor guy would have to finish walking on this narrow walkway till the end before he can get out.. which means he can have no toilet breaks... ! Slaves were also brought into this underground to do labor work, piling up stones etc... cant imagine how these people live in the past... During the tour, we walked through long tunnels which would occasionally open up into a large space, the tour was educational and enlightening...there were some walkways where we had to squeeze through with a candle as there wasnt any light... at the end of the tour, guillaume had his coat stained with candle wax haha..

Our hostel in Napoli was different, unlike other hostels, we stayed in a real italian apartment rented out by a big-hearted man, Giovanni, and his hostel name, naturally is Giovanni' s home.The first day when we arrived, he treated us to his own-cooked authentic italian pasta with olives, complemented with his treasured red wine, and he even entertained us with his italian songs and guitar... there were a few other people staying for the lunch as well and he invited us to sing along with him... it was a really great lunch... his songs left a great impact on us, one particular song is so catchy we sing it now and then till the last day in Nice when we end our vacation.. It goes something like: oui oui oui oui or we we we we... when i know the name of this catchy tune, i will check it out :)

Not only the lodging is good, the food here is good and cheap as well. For a pizza 3x as big as pizza hut' s personal pizza, it costs only 3euro, or sgd$6, this is considered very cheap for an authentic pizza. We had this in a little cafeteria where many locals frequent, and indeed, it was fantastic. From giovanni' s recommendations, we also went to try out pizza in another famous restaurant, which is surprisingly cheap, but the queue was so long we waited for almost an hour to get a place in the eatery.. we even had to take a queue number... talking about food, there are many sweet goodies in napoli worth trying... we had some of these sweet pastries for breakfast which were sold in one little shop near giovanni' s home, these lasted us till lunch around 3pm.. also, one can never miss gelato in italy... despite the cold, sin n i shared a gelato..

Main sights covered in Naples: Pompeii and Mount Vesuvio

One reason why Napoli made such a great impression on me is Pompeii, ancient ruins which are very well preserved.. it was so large we would need a day to cover all, in fact, we went there for half a day, and a pity we couldnt cover every part of Pompeii, but what we have seen was enough to get a glimpse of the life of the people then...

To make the full use of our stay in Napoli, we tried to get to the volcano, Mount vesuvio,.. just by finding our way there by public transport takes us the whole morning, in the end, we opted to go there by an agency, which wasnt very kind to us. They drove us up to the volcano, then we made our way up the cold to the mouth... it was awesome, but the downside was the very cold and strong wind, it would probably be better to go there in spring...

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After weeks of tedious planning and buying stressful online tickets, our trip was finalised. The 3 of us (sin, tutu n me) would meet at rome, then take a train to naples, followed by a flight to Milan for the new year, and at Milan, we would meet up with yunzhi, and travel to nice together, while at nice, we are to make a side trip to monarco, then our trip will end L

Great, our plan went off smoothly.. with jus a few hiccups here and there, starting off with the first one when we did not see guillaume at the hostel (where we were supposed to meet) in rome. Failed to contact him via his phone, due to some connection problems. Fortunately he sent us a message to say that his flight was delayed, yes, it was easyjet again! I was not surprised … phew, wad a relief to c him.

The next morning we woke up early for breakfast, to make full use of this day in rome. Met a girl in the same room as us, and her name is lynn! She is from hongkong and studying in London now, a very pleasant and independent girl, came traveling by herself all alone, in italy some more! Full of admiration for her…

Rome, as beautiful as ever, i had been there once last year, but this time, it still retained its flavor. Rome is still considered as one of my favorite cities, second to Napoli though. We covered the colossea, the ancient roman ruins, the Vatican city and the cathedrale, the Spanish steps, the trevi fountain, all in one day, yet it was not rushed and we took our time in everything. It was a fruitful day. By then, sin n I were in good health and ever ready to eat! Our appetite finally returned. The night ended with Chinese food in Italy, the service was horrible but the soup was not bad. Sin n guillaume tasted the wanton soup. Somehow a little regret cos I didn’t make a wish at trevi fountain, they say that each time you go to the trevi fountain, u throw a coin and make a wish, and the next time you will return back to roma… do I have a chance to go back to the trevi fountain and roma?