On the July 6, 2013, a group of friends and
I visited the country Italy for 6 days 5 nights. The whole trip was eventful and dramatic, we have
our stories to tell almost everyday. The places we going to explore was the
smaller cities of Italy, which was Pisa, Siena and Cinque Terra.
Day 1: Pisa
Our
flight was in the evening. After waving goodbye to Michelle, who was excited
for us about the trip to Italy, we took the cab and left to the airport from
Clifton, Nottingham. After arriving East Midlands airport, we chilled in a café
before boarding on Ryanair airplane. After approximately 3 hours of flight, we
have arrived Pisa, Italy. It was all dark as Italy was 10:15p.m, and we have to
figure our way out to the accommodation we booked for. Fortunately, it was not too
hard to find, as it was just walking distance from the airport we have landed.
We met
the owner of the accommodation who is an Italian, he was the alone standing
beside the street waiting for us. When he saw us, he greeted us with their
local language “Ciao!”. He showed us to the place we going to stay, and explain
some of the things in the hotel with us in Italian mix English languages. He
was friendly too as he tried hard to communicate with us, asking about where we
came from and what we are doing and stuff. After awhile, he left us and
everybody started to visit around the place, everybody liked the place. The place is
vintage and look old. The furnitures remind me a lot about the Disney
cartoon Beauty and the Beast. It
looks alike. After admiring around the accommodation, we left to the
restaurant nearby for our late dinner.
We have
went to the pizzerias called Rostlcceria, we can see it a lot of pizzeria in Italy. I have ordered their Carbonara, and somehow
none of us thought of ordering the pizza, in a pizza shop. I was expecting
the creamy Carbonara, but it turned out the dry type with egg. You can try
imagining maggi goreng in Malaysia, which tasted exactly the same.
Day 2: Pisa & Siena
We woke
up early in the morning to visit around Pisa by walking. By looking at the map,
we passed by a few tourist attractions. Pisa area was quite dodgy and rundown;
the weather there was as hot as Malaysia, or even hotter. Our main destination
was The Leaning Tower of Pisa. The tower was mind-blowing, I was glad that I
get to see it at least once in my lifetime. The tower is leaning because of an
accident. It was some problem during construction; the foundation on ground
wasn’t strong enough to hold the building so it tilts to one side. Italian
thought it was quite cool so they have decided to keep it like this.
After having a
long consideration about what pose should I do with the tower, this is the
coolest pose to do, LOL!
After
posing a lot with the tower, we left the tower to have our lunch. We stopped by
a restaurant nearby the tower of Pisa, and I ordered their famous pizza with
seafood. It turned out very nice, and I couldn’t finish their whole pizza on my
own (everyone has one pizza). We also tried the restaurant’s Tiramisu and it
was so good. I find Italian food very nice and suitable for our taste.
After
the lunch, we left and continue our journey to next stop in Italy, Siena. We
took a train from Pisa to Siena, cannot remember how long it took. We have
arrived Siena and we need to find our way to our accommodation. It was still
bright when we were looking around, and we found the place smoothly. The
accommodation was really nice and we feel like just staying in the house. It is
a farmhouse with gardens, and it is vintage, looks like
an art gallery or a museum. At first, we can get lost in the building itself
when we cannot recognise the way, as it is quite big. We took pictures around
the house and then left to a restaurant nearby for dinner. The restaurant
environment was nice and it served very good beef, we all was really satisfied
with the food. I always heard Italy beef is good, and it is true.
We also
continued to drink when we got back to our accommodation, the white wine made
by the farmhouse. While drinking, we also sat in the balcony to watch the
stars, and fortunately, I saw my first shooting star in my life. I got no time
to react to it at all. The time I actually realised it was shooting star, it
vanished away. The feeling was amazing.
Our shutter speed attempt to capture the stars in the balcony.
Day 3: Siena
We went
to Siena’s town by taking bus from our accommodation. It was a beautiful town
with amazing architectures. It was also a tourist spot where everybody sitting
around to enjoy the bright nice day. Today we had tried Italy famous Risotto;
it is something like porridge with some ingredient. I have tried their Seafood
Risotto and I liked it a lot.
Then, in the hot weather, we had our Gelato, the
ice-cream famous in Italy. It was not as good as expected, maybe we didn’t
visit the right shop. After a whole day of sight seeing, we went to a
restaurant and had something like fine dining for dinner. The food portion was small, but
then it was very fine and surprisingly filling too. I had ordered pasta tomatoes
sauce recommended by the chef, it was a common dish and it tasted good. Before
the day get dark, we got in the bus and head back to our accommodation. Same as
yesterday, we enjoyed the other red wine from the farmhouse and watch the stars
in the balcony. I would like my life to be like this, how simple and
satisfying. But I know there is always no short-cut, I have to work hard for
this.
Something
big happened today as well, Diana, one of my travel buddies has dropped her
camera inside the deep long drain. She stayed positive and asked around for
help. The Italians was helpful enough to get her a long stick. Diana also daring enough to borrow a walking stick from an old man nearby, who was resting, and he was
willing to lend it to us. In the end, Diana took her camera successfully by using the long stick and walking stick, the
small crowd behind us started to clap hands and cheer for us. It was dramatic and
funny. Then, to thank them, Diana bought thankful cards to the old man and also
the bookstore staff who got her the long stick. The old man was so cute, he asked for a picture with his stick. What a day!
Day 4: Cinque Terra
Today we
checked out from the nice farmhouse and took whole day to travel from Siena to
La Spezia. Today was not a smooth day as we get troubles a lot. At first,
we didn’t get our train ticket change right, and it was 5 euro less. We also
almost get down from the wrong station. Fortunately, an Italian was kind enough
tell us it was a wrong station. Actually, we kept on meeting good people along the way.
When we finally arrived the correct train station, I found that I have lost my wallet. We were
also waited in the wrong place where it supposed to meet up with our hostel
owner. Everything was in a mess. After settled down in the hostel, we wanted to
go out for a good dinner, but it turned out to be a worst restaurant ever. Our
day could not be worst on that day. And we wish for a better day on the next
day.
Day 5: Cinque Terra
Fortunately,
after the bad day yesterday, the nice view consoled our mind. Cinque Terra (The
five lands) was such a beauty. The view was exactly like a painting. We were
excited and visited some places and also did an hour hiking to see the full
view from the top. It was all worth it. Perhaps the place was too nice and we
enjoyed too much, we have missed our shuttle van to go back to the
accommodation. Because of this incident, it brought us a chance to meet two
Singaporean who stayed in the same hostel. They had no place to stay for the night, so we asked them to sneak in our hostel and stay for a night. We have forgotten to take a picture for memory, but it was fun to meet somebody.
This is the view from the top of one of the five lands.
Day 6:
We have
half day today in Italy. So we went back one of the five lands to have our
brunch, and then take a train from there to travel back to Pisa. There goes our
Italy trip, which filled with stories, laughter, tears, up and down, good food…
It was super fun. I <3 italy.="" o:p="">
