Let's not talk about the weather cos everywhere in Italy is excruciatingly hot now, I figured (heading to Cinque Terre after this, but I guess it's gonna be the same). But the crowd is insane; and the queue to every single attraction is even more crazy: the lines can/must be calculated in kilometers. As we had no intention of going into any of them (not even sure if I can see anything with the pool of tourists; we wanted to climb the Giotto bell tower, but we have up), we literally just watch everyone else burn (cos the sun is really punishing). Still, everything was (is, I'm still here) nice even from the outside; the river especially.
Cooking our own dinner for two nights straight (and breakfast in the mornings) is definitely one of the major highlights (they were edible! Though the pork kinda turned bad; blame it on the lousy fridge).
Oh and Renate, our host, was really nice! She even made sure we had breakfast the first morning when we check in (we had the whole apartment by the way). Other than the mosquitoes and daring houseflies, everything was perfect.
Thus far, including the 5 scoopes we had in Milan, we have had 12 scoopes in total. Of course, it's gelato I'm talking bout. BUT, I've regretted them now (not cos of the fats, we worked out! So kinda neutralized the intake -- "kinda"), cos I just had the best tiramisu right at the shop in front of our apartment! (Less my sister's version, but since it's without alcohol, no count! So yep, the best yet!). Well, the two famous/recommended gelato place did sell really awesome ice creams (Melones! We had 3 scoopes of melon out of the 12) so for non-tiramisu lovers it's a must try. But damn me for only remembering tiramisu to be an Italian cuisine at my second last day here. But it did "lifted me up"!
Caricature! It was really impressive and for only €10!!! Everyone should get them and support the local artists along the streets; it seems like everyone here on Florence is artistically-inclined (so many painters who look like students painting the river and the surrounding when we visited, and every single one is impressive). Some of the old men there does look intimidating but they are really nice guys!
PISA. Day trip on the 10th and "Everybody was Kungfu fighting!" Was more amazed by the tourist (cue: 9gag coming alive!) than anything else with the classic support-the-tower pose. Laughed for more than I should but really hilarious LOL. The leaning tower was quite magnificent as well (only knew from Ms Blur today that it happened as a mistake cos the architect miscalculated and the foundation was too weak that it collapsed, halfway). Otherwise, as what friends have said, 2 hours is sufficient for this place. But contrary to their stance that the nicest place to eat there is Macdonalds, we did find nice and cheap lasagne and pizza along the street of restaurants; in fact, there's a whole row of nice pizzeria restaurant there (inferred from the amount of Italians in them)!
We have officially hit the halfway-mark for our trip and will post the other cities either as I go or after the end of everything. Also, Happy belated Birthday, Singapore!!! 3 years ago I was marching on as a proud soldier and 3 years on I'm exploring a totally different side of myself!
For now, ciao everyone!
