Italy

We had to leave St Moritz by late morning in order for us to reach Florence at night to collect our car. After we checked out of our hotel, we proceeded to the train station, this time, to take a bus. The bus we took was called a Palm Bus and would take us to Lugano train station. Lugano, though sounds like Italian, is actually part of Switzerland. We notice something very interesting. While we still in Switzerland, towns at the border near Italy actually had a lot of places named in Italian. I will talk about this more later at another article.

On the way to Bus Station

Bus Station

Our Bus Ride - Lugano Palm Express

The Bus Ride - I smell Spring

The Bus Ride - Lake Silvaplanersee and the snow capped mountain

The Bus Ride - At least someone is having fun in the sun!

From Lugano, we needed to take another train into Florence SMN (train station). We already booked a car from Europcar and needed to collect it from its 24 hr outlet since it was a Sunday night. From station, we flagged a taxi. I had heard of stories before regarding taking taxi in Italy, for example, they purposely take the longer route in order to earn more. However, we were glad to have met with an honest driver. How did I know? It was because I had my GPS on during the journey.

After we were done with the administration, it was time to drive to Poggio Al Sole B&B. Our car was manual gearbox, I had to get accustomed to left hand drive, plus it was at night and we were in a very very unfamiliar place. It was really a challenge that I won't forget. Sounds scary? Yes, at first I was also nervous, but after a while I sort of got used to it. After we got into our B&B, there was really nothing much for us to do. We had cup noodles for supper and turned in for the night.

Our breakfast at the B&B was a simple meal. Mr and Mrs Giovanni (owners of the B&B) had baked some breads and cakes using their own ingredients. Although Italy was already in Spring, we felt pretty cold when we woke up but the fireplace at the breakfast area really warmed us up as we got prepared for our journey. This day, we had planned to visit The Leaning Tower of Pisa and Mr Giovanni recommended us to go Lucca which was an hour drive from Pisa.

Simple breakfast at our B&B. Probably one of the best breakfast as everything was made by the mistress of our B&B and used all the ingredients from the farms in the area. The honeycake in the centre (round one) is probably the best I ever had.

While driving in Italy, we had to take note of some restricted zones. These zones do not allowed cars without permission to enter and rest assured that rented cars definitely falls into this area. Another thing about these restricted zones, they are more than often found near places of attraction. In Pisa, we had nearly drove into these zones a few times, and had to reverse the car out just before we crossed the forbidden boundary. Thus we had to walked a little distance from where we parked our car to the leaning tower. And that was when we had a rather unpleasant encounter...

Driving in Italy - To Pisa

Ah.... The Leaning Tower of Pisa

The Leaning Tower and surrounding buildings

A police van at the Leaning Tower - Good effort by the authority to keep that place safe

Our lunch at Pisa - My wife thinks this is best pasta ever!

Lunch at Pisa - What is a trip to Italy without pizza???

Fuel price, just FYI lah....

Three ladies approached us when we were walking towards the leaning tower. We had already heard of robberies but we didn't expect they were so bold. The three ladies (one in 40s, another 20s and a little girl who is barely 10) holding a map and approached us, saying "Info Info!". They blocked our way and we were forced to stop. As the mother (they did look related) tried to distract us, the 20s-year old lady reached for my wife handbag that was positioned in front of her. Yes, they were trying to steal right UNDER OUR NOSES... We saw and quickly covered the bag with our hands and tried to walk away. They blocked us again and this time, it was the little girl who reached out her hand. I yelled at them, managed to get some attention from other nearby tourists and then they were only willing to back off. As we already somewhat expected this, we didn't lose our moods and was glad we were alert. An advice to my readers who are planning to go Italy, always walk the path where you can find other tourists and if you encounter something like what we had, shout, yell to get other people's attention and the robbers will likely to leave u alone.

If you asked me whether I will still recommend anyone to go Pisa, my answer is yes. The leaning tower is an amazing place! It looks like it can collapse anytime and yet, it remains standing there. At the leaning tower itself, there is a police van stationed there. I believe the Italian government is also aware that there might be some thieves and so they place policemen near the area. We also encountered another tourist (not sure of his nationality) who picked up a camera on the ground. He was asking if anyone had dropped this equipment. In the end, we remembered more happy moments than the unhappy ones. We also had our lunch there before we set off to Lucca.

Arriving in Lucca

What is so special about Lucca? Well, Lucca is actually a university town with a rich history behind it. We were very lucky as we coincided our visit with their annual carnival. There were many things for sale and we tried some of their local food. We also got to experience Italian Sakura with full flower blossom. So we felt Lucca was a really good romantic place for a young couple.

Lucca Annual Carnival - We were there just in time! 

Lucca Annual Carnival - Can you see the Sakura?

Lucca Annual Carnival - Many different types of food they are selling there

Lucca Annual Carnival - Lots of breads too!

Bought this to try. Potato on the outside, melted cheese and ham on the inside.

Merry-go-round out of nowhere in a corner

Lucca Square

We left Lucca when the sun was about to set. Driving along the highway, we stopped at some point to admired the sunsets and took some photos. When we reached the B&B, we seek Mr Giovanni's recommendation to try out a steak house near his BB. I must make a special mention to this place, it serves the best Grilled Beef Steak in my entire Europe trip. Even my wife, who is not exactly a fan of red meat, thinks their Grilled Lamb is fantastic! The name of this restaurant is "La Casa del Prosciutto". And given the portion of food we had, it was definitely one of our best dining places.


The next day was my wife's favourite day. We started the day going straight into shopping for bags. We drove to Prada Space Outlet and The Mall where we literally spent our whole day. Not really much to talk about except if you love those branded bags, these two places are the most popular and I must agree that the bags are sold at very attractive prices. The Mall has alot more selection of brands such as Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Fendi, Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, Burberry and many more all at one place.

A local playground

Bought this box of strawberries direct from a farmer selling from the roadside. It costs only 1 EURO!

Italian Highway. The sun was setting and getting dark

The best beef steak I ever had! 750 gram, lightly salted and grilled to bring out just its natural flavour!! There is no need for any sauce. So good that I can just eat it on its own!!! How I miss this delicacy now! 

Grilled Lamb Chop. My wife had this. She is not a red meat lover but she commented that this is definitely one of the best lamb she ever had.

Something healthier, BEER! Opps... I mean SALAD. Fresh vegetables from the nearby farm. A refreshing delight

I can't help but to post another picture of the beef steak. See - Slightly burnt on the outside, perfectly cooked moving inwards to pure red rare meat on the inside. 3 different feelings with every single bite. Anyone knows if I can this in Singapore???

If you are intend to go to both places, we recommend that you go Prada Space Outlet first in the morning, before the store opens. This is because they carry limited quantity and there was already a queue forming when we reached. Then spend more time in the afternoon at The Mall as there are many more brands there. I think we spent the most money this day in our entire Europe trip. We were so excited that we forgot to take photos of that place except when we took a break for our lunch.

American style burger and fries. A good welcome after much shopping.... Still I would like to have a steak

My wife needed to eat rice, haha. So she ordered this and felt bliss.

We returned to Fiesole after we done with all our shopping (actually it was my wife's shopping, seriously....). While walking around Fiesole, we met a friendly American who cycled all the way uphill. We chatted a while and he shared with us that he has 4 kids and they have been following him around the world due to his job nature. One of the best thing about his job is that he can travel around world to look for a good place to kiss. Hahaha.... As weird as he might sound, he told us that we could walk up to San Francesco Monastery at the top of Fiesole and we thanked him for it. This place offers the best of view of Tuscany and it is a really good place to you-know-what, lolz...

View from San Francesco Monastery - It was definitely worth the uphill walk

That's all about Tuscany for us. After breakfast, we returned our car at Florence and took a train to Venice. The train ride took about 2 hours and we arrived Venice in the evening. Our vacation in Venice can be described as "watery" for 2 reasons - first, Venice is surrounded by water, second, we encountered rain about 50% of the time. But that didn't dampen our spirit. Venice is city of the arts and we found ourselves infused with the artsy-fartsy atmosphere. Some of things that we did are to admire the art pieces, attended an orchestra (sorry no photo/video taking allowed) and took a gondola Another interesting thing to know is that there is no land transportation in Venice (other than the train that took us here). There are many river buses that bring tourists from place to place. The locals, however, prefer to walk as Venice is not very big and they know the shortcuts.

Arriving Venice by train

The river bus is the main transportation in Venice, otherwise just walk

River route

A common street in Venice

We ventured into their residential area

Back to the tourist area

Lots of shops selling artistic things like this one. In fact, this is probably the best place to buy the most unique souvenirs in Europe.

This is our concert hall where we enjoy the orchestra

Basilica di San Macro

San Macro Square

We took a gondola ride and the boatman was singing as he brought us around Venice. We even dropped by Cassanova's residence

Venice was the last place in Italy before we left for Munich, Germany. Consider we went to 6 countries in total, we spent the most number of days in Italy. Definitely missed this place... and of course, the steak!