ITALY n LONDON

Finally find some time to post for my 10 days trip to Italy and London. Italy was one of my main priority for places to visit in Europe. Good thing its done, too bad for Greece and Turkey...maybe in 5-10 years time... :P.

Italy, as we all know, is like the haven for arts and all the cultural artsy fartsy things you can ever imagine, not forgetting all the ancient ruins from the times of the Roman Empire. There is really alot of things to see in this land of Pizzas and Pasta. Oh...in fact, its also the land of Gelato....crap....imagine for the 1st few days in Italy, I never failed to have at least one Gelato a day...that somehow became the minimum requirement. But who could resist the soft creamy cooling and high quality ice cream at around $1-1.50 EUROS per cone in that somewhat...hotter than Sweden environment, not forgetting the constant peer pressure surrounding me...tempting me to get one whenever we walk past a Gelataria. And yes, I probably had the most expensive ice cream for my entire life during this...erm...hunt for the PINEAPLLE GELATO stint.... it left me around $13SGD poorer...hoho. We were pretty thrifty for the entire trip and not alot was spent in Italy actually. Before I rattle on...here's some pictures from the trip in Italy.

VENICE



what I saw before the plane landed....the ride sux I tell u..













Piazza San Marco, definitely the most visited place in Venice








a parting shot



FLORENCE

we ended the day with a night in the attic..hoho.


PISA







yes..the ever so..erm..tilted..Tower of Pisa







as usual..another group shot right on top of Pisa Tower



ROME - The Eternal City

the dome is really big I tell you...pictures can't do justice to its humogous size..

A photo we took making use of the reflection cast on the tinted glass found right at the top of the dome...there's actually some kind guard behind this panel and he was sure laughing like mad when we were trying to take this photo...oh yes, did i tell you that it took us more than 400 steps of stairs to reach this crazily huge dome....everyone was gasping for air when we finally reached the top...it was like $4EUROS for 15 minutes worth of non-stop stair climbing action...:S

It was only when we were on our way out of Vatican City that Weicheng's Dad called him and broke him the news about the Metro crash in Rome earlier this morning. Yes, it was on the same day and the exact same line we took to Vatican City. Had we been like 1 hour later, hmmz...well...it pays to be early this time. Later in the day, the rest of the mums and dads called to check us out...mine too of course.

Vittoriale was supposed to be a memorial for the unknown warriors who fought for either Rome or the recent Italian republic...not too sure..but I managed to take this interesting shot (above), not photoshop one hor...the cloud really was like that..so i tried to fit a frame to get this picture..hiakz

a tribute to our ever so familiar, Constantine

Below, probably the most symbolic representation of Rome, The Colosseum

Look who we spotted outside the Colosseum, Titus and his 'Ka-gia'? Apparently a photo with them cost $10EUROS..so I have to make do with a zoom shot from afar..haha

another aki pilgrimage completed..The Pantheon..actually..quite boring..haha

The forum...another huge plot of ancient Roman Ruins...its quite amazing just to think how the Romans led their lives in the past just by looking at the ruins. Talk about ruins....its not all about history and tourist attraction. We actually came across this particular ruins, which actually is a home for abandoned cats. The cats roam the ruins as if it was their playground. Interesting concept, you can adopt one from the authorities as well.

this was the place but I can't remember its name...so..bleah..doesn't matter

the once great and glorious Circus Maximus is nothing but a barren piece of land now..

The Trevi Fountain is said to bring you back to Rome in future if you toss a coin over your shoulder into the fountain. Well, I did it for the sake of..erm..doing it..WRONGLY somemore..hoho...you are supposed to back-faced it but I simply threw the coin with myself staring into the fountain...oh well..guess I won't be back in Italy anytime soon..seriously...I don't want to as well..:P The place seems not very Asian friendly....:P

Another group shot which took us 6 seconds worth of 'ZERO' movements in order to achieve the desired lighting conditions of the background. There's more to come later..haha :P

Our trip in Italy ended with Weicheng having to go back earlier than the rest of us due to his time table constraints.

Due to a certain airline, we constantly had to transit in London's Stansted Airport, apparently by Lord Foster again, so we thought we might as well give London a go and stay for a few days and catch that ever so alluring EPL match at Stamford Bridge..hoho.... that short-changed me about almost $200SGD...not forgetting 'Les Miserables' we watched...which was another $70SGD, but it was well worth the money for that I must say..hoho...PLUS...this EVIL EVIL PLACE call Lillywhites, which apparently sells the cheapest soccer jerseys in town...there...the amount spent is best left untold...hoho..but I got myself an England current season jersey at a really good bargain. I also bought a Juventus current season jersey...and ALMOST bought my beloved Liverpool one...unfortunately..or I should say FORTUNATELY...they ran out of unprinted jerseys...if not..well..bleah... Oh...did I mention that YSL(Yves Saint Laurent) is selling like dirt cheap in this EVIL LillyWhites place? What happened next guess I don't have to tell you..hoho...BURN BABY BURN...my pocket that is...my trip to Eastern Europe is biting dust..Kiruna's in jeopardy...:S..anyway, pics from London. Enjoy.

LONDON

Trafalgar Square, apparently, Lord Foster had a hand in the place as well..crap...he's like everywhere in London...

this guy is sure enjoying himself busking in the sun



another Foster thing....



time for a change, Herzog and De Meuron's Tate Modern


another of those 6 seconds ZERO movement shots..haha

yup, another Davinci Code shooting location..never went in...it was raining and I was like walking around on my own on the last day to finally shoot some photos...sucky weather...totally spoil my mood... all the pictures that follow are shot on the last day of our 3 days in London, within like..erm..2-3 hours? bleah....crap...

traces of Foster as usual..



his good friend Richard left some traces just opposite as well..

Here's another 6 sec ZERO movement shot. This time together with Juliana's friend, Edwin. It was thanks to him that we managed to get a place to stay for the 3 nights. He also made us breakfast during one of the morning as well as bringing us around London. We also met up with some other Singaporeans living in the same apartment studying in Imperial College. Apparently, there are alot of Singaporeans in London. In Imperial College alone, there are like 15% of Singaporeans in the faculty Edwin's in. Not to mention that the top students are usually Singaporeans. :P

If you must be wondering I'm forgetting something from the trip..... nope I didn't. Here's one for the soccer fanatics...haha..nothing much actually but I'm sure it was the closest I could get to these superstar players. It was raining a little before the match and the sky wasn't at its best...so some photos are really blur...:S

CHELSEA vs PORTSMOUTH




the most expensive piece of paper I ever bought...



Stamford Bridge



the view I had for that $200SGD



during a typical soccer match, you will see this...



this of course...



pretty often you will get this...



the players might get this.....



or sometimes end up like this....



but ONLY during a typical Chelsea match, you will see this...



The fans...I'm not one of them :P



THE PLAYERS

tried my best to take individual shots of them as much as I could..so really blur but..well..you can still make out who they are :P

The stars...



Sol vs Shevi

Overall, the trip was definitely not the worst so far, but it could have been better. It will be quite some time before my next trip. That is to Madrid and Barcelona, and then the final destination Kiruna, hopefully to see the Aurora. Till then, I hope I find time to update my blog occasionally...time to do some work. :P