Today we planned to explore Venice from another angle, by water. We planned to cruise Grand Canal. We had our breakfast in Tre Archi Hotel. I must say, although the room for our first night was terrible, considering the price we paid, the breakfast was good.

To explore Venice, except on foot, there water bus or vaporetto. It is cheapest way to travel around Venice apart from walking. It costs EUR6 per trip irregardless of the distance. (Per trip EUR6 is not cheap although it is the cheapest mode of travel). There are different service number of vaporetto. Do make sure you check it out before boarding. Before you board vaporetto, you must validate your ticket. You might be fined if you forgot to validate your ticket or you re-use your old ticket for second trip.

There were many pigeons in St Mark Square. In fact, there were vendor selling bird seeds to curious tourists. If you feed the birds, the birds will flock to you. We stand near to those tourists who bought seeds to feed. Stand still. Eventually the birds flied and stand on our shoulders, hands, arms and even head. It was fun!!!

We didn't go inside St Mark Basilica as it was holding religious event, we were denied the entry. St Mark Basilica is the most famous city's church of Venice. It is best known example of Byzantine architecture.

There is a campanile, St Mark's Campanile. It is a bell tower, 98.6m tall. Most of the campanile in Italy copy the St Mark's Campanile. The campanile went through a few times of restoration. The most recent one was completed at 1912. The original campanile collapsed completely on 1902.


Adjacent to St Marck Basilica is Doge's Palace. It is a gothic palace in Venice.


A few steps away from St Mark Square, you will find Correr Museum. It is a civic museum. The building is very long and grand. There are many shops around also.


It was near Christmas then. Usually we will see christmas tree around. In Venice, there was a christmas tree made of glass, colourful glasses.

It was very special.



Walking along the lagoon, you will come to another tourist sights.


It is the Bridge of Sighs. We wasn't really known where to find it, but as we were looking for place for lunch, we happened to see it.



It was made of limestone, window with stone bar. It was usually the last view the convicts saw from the bridge before their imprisonment.

22 December 15:20. The train from Florence to Venice St Lucia took about 2 and half hour. Do take note that the ticket you bought is to Venice St Lucia. There is a stop at the Venice mainland, Mestre. If you are going to Venice the island, the train station is Venice St Lucia.

From Mestre, the train will pass through the sea into Venice Island. The scenery was nothing spectacular, but seeing the island appearing into the view, it was really giving us excitement.. Excited that we are in Venice!!


We reached Venice around 15:30. We were a bit a bit lost when we out of the station. What we saw were canals, bridges and boats. No bus, no cars... that's Venice!


Our hotel is in the Cannaregio. It is in the northern part of Venice island. It appears to be near to the train station, but with big luggages and in Venice where there are lots of bridges, it is quite troublesome.

We followed the route, walked for 20 minutes to reach our hotel, Hotel Tre Archi. Hotel Tre Archi is near the end of Cannaregio. Cannaregio is less crowded and off the main road. Due to it is not along the popular track, restaurants, hotels and shops tend to offer a better rate.

We didn't really like Hotel Tre Archi. We stayed there for two nights, but for the first night we were given to a very small room with terrace. We believed it is a single room, but changed to a twin room by putting two single beds inside. Not enough space to put luggage, and door was blocked by the bed.
We went out to explore Venice after we checked in. If you are looking to buy mineral water, there is one big supermarket near Rialto selling at better price. The supermarket name is Billa.
It is very rare to have one in Venice. The mineral water sold here is cheaper than in Florence or Rome.

Venice is quite easy to explore. There is one main route from St Lucia train station to Piazza St Marco. This route is always full of people. Get a map from hotel, the main route is stated in the map. You can do without map if you just follow the crowd. If you plan to wonder around, map is important.

There are many shops along the main route, selling souvenirs, masks, leather goods, clothes, vegetables, fruits, etc. We were so busy shopping for sourvenirs. Venice is famous for glass. It is world-renowned for being colourful, elaborate and skilfully made. You will be amazed and spoilt with choice.
You will also impressed with the choices of colourful masks on sale.



As we heard about the restaurants in Venice are expensive, and certain restaurant charging customer ridiculously high, especially in St Marco. Dining in Venice, there will be service charge and cover charge if you dine in. So, we planned to have our dinner in Cannaregio where cheaper restaurant can be found. We managed to find one very good restaurant which offered set menu with price stated clearly outside the restaurant and no extra charges.


The design of the restaurant was not spectacular, but it was very comfortable. The waiter was very friendly and helpful. We were delighted to find this restaurant.


Now, the menu in Venice is much different from Florence or Rome. Venice is an island, so it is famous for seafood.
If you plan to take Venetian food, there are many nice choices to try. One of it is Squid-Ink Pasta.
We ordered a Squid-Ink Pasta set menu and Mussel Pasta. The squid-ink pasta was something adventurous but proved right choice. It was tasty although the pasta is black in colour.

If you don't mind the 'ugly' look, do try it out. The second dish was fish cake. The fish was fresh and something special.
One set menu which contains pasta, second dish and salad, mussel pasta and a bottle of birra
(or water) cost only EUR23. It was quite reasonable.


To our disappointment, we overheard that the restaurant will close starting 23 December for 5 days. We actually wanted to try some other Venetian dishes, but guess we will have to find other restaurant.


It was getting dark. We hurried our way towards Rialto Bridge. The streets were full of tourists. The streets were well decorated with lights. Venice has many canals, the main canal is known as Grand Canal. We needed to cross many bridges from one place to another. It was different experience. Off from the main street, lies the back street, except it was water instead of road.




It was always mesmerizing to stop and admired the water, the dim light and the Venetian buildings. The dark night somehow made the beauty of Venice more appealing.

The lights, the reflection, the water and the tranquilness of the night made Venice very romantic.


As we approaching Rialto Bridge, the road getting crowded, the environment getting more vibrant. Pubs and restaurants with large crowds. Rialto Bridge is one of the most happening area in Venice.



Rialto Bridge is on Grand Canal of Venice. There is a Rialto market in the eastern bank of the canal. That is where the bridge got its name.

Along the bank of Rialto Bridge, there are restaurants, pubs and hotels. There are water taxi stops along the canal too. The view, as seen from picture above, is great. Florence offers peace and transquility, Venice offers vibrant, lively and yet romancing.

We went back to hotel to rest after hanging around Rialto Bridge...

Tomorrow.. cruising the Grand Canal...

We came to an end for our trip in Florence. It was a short 3 days 2 nights. Florence is the home to Renaissance. The buildings, the arts and the architecture are very unique and are much influenced from Renaissance.


The Historical Center of Florence is a World Heritage Site. There are no high rise buildings. There are only buildings with history. Places like Uffizi, Palazzo Vecchio, Ponte Vecchio, Duomo, San Lorenzo, Palazzi Pitti and etc. will certain captivate you. The picturesque of Florence and Tuscany will certain make your trip worthwhile. The calmness of River Arno, the beauty of Ponte Vecchio will certainly stay in our memory for long time. Although it lacks the various attractions like Rome, Florence is still a good place to visit. Florence is full of art and history. It is recommended that you read about Florence or if you appreciate arts, then you will appreciate Florence. And if you can, plan a day or two to Tuscany. I am sure the greenery and scenery will be relaxing and beautiful.
Florence is very safe, clean and orderly. It is even easier to walk around Florence.

We stayed in Hotel Domus Florentiae. It is a three stars hotel located at the level 2. Clean, safe, quiet and strategically located near SMN Firenze and a supermarket. Price is reasonable and breakfast is normal.

We strolled around SMN Firenze in the morning. Santa Maria Novella is opposite our hotel.
We left Florence at around 12:30pm. Once again we took Eurostar Italia towards Venice. Price of the ticket was EUR30 one way per person. It took about three hours from Florence to Venice (Venezia S. Lucia). It was sad to leave Florence, but we looked forward to Venice, one of the romantic city in the world..

One full day in Florence. That's our plan. After a night of reading up DK Guide's Florence. I got to know a bit more about Florence. Florence was built by one family, the Medici family. Medici family was powerful and influential family in Florence. The family produced three popes and numerous rules of Florence. They built a lot of the attractions now. Art was able to flourish under the Medici Family.


We started off from our hotel which is near to the train station. Our first stop was Basilica San Lorenzo. It was claimed to be one of the oldest church in Florence and it is also the burial place of several important members of the Medici family. Basilica San Lorenzo was the main church in Florence during last time.

Nearby to Basilica San Lorenzo, there is a Piazza San Lorenzo.
It is a market place where a lot of stalls setup to sell their stuffs.
Florence is famous for the leather products. There are a lot of leather belts, shoes, bags on sale here.

Each stalls will showoff their merchandises by hanging from their stalls. They had variety of products and very colourful.

If you love shopping especially leather product, you will love this place. You will expected to do some bargain. Leather belt cost from EUR13 and above.



After Piazza San Lorenzo, we continued our shopping to Mercanto Centrale. Mercanto Centrale is a market. There are stalls selling local produces, like variety of cheese, meats, fishes, wines, herbs, fruits, etc. Mercanto Centrale has been around for many years already.

If you like to buy some local products, you should come to this market.
We bought a few small bottle of Chianti. Chianti is the famous Florence wine. We were quite surprised that the stall was manned by a Japanese lady who able to speak fluent Italian.
We continued our journey to Palazzo Medici Riccardi. It was well known for its stone masonry. After that, we walked along via Cavour towards north to SS Annunziata. It is a Roman Catholic minor Basilica. There is Piazza della SS Annunziata also which you can see Duomo. We didn't go to Accademia which is nearby. Accademia is famous to house the actual David and other sculture and art collections. There is entrance fee.

The next destination is Duomo. Duomo is one of the main attraction in Florence. It is also known as Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore.

Duomo was the pride of Florence. It was believed that people of Florence wanted to build the biggest and grandest church in Italy during that time. They wanted to show the greatness of Florence.
It took more than 100 years to fully complete this building.

Nearby is Giotto's Bell Tower. This tower is about 85 m tall. You can go up the staircase to the top to have a nice view of Florence.
The horizontal lines separated the tower into 5 levels.


Then there is Florence Baptistry or Battistero di San Giovanni (Baptistry of St John) is believed to be the oldest building in Florence. It is famed for its three sets of magnificient bronze doors.
Each door has panel depicting scene from the life of St John the Baptist.

All these three structures are part of the Duomo, which you shouldn't miss.



After lunch we continued to explored around. There is a statue of wild boar (forgot the name of the place). It is made of bronze. But the nose looks like gold due to believers that if you rub the nose, you will come back to Florence again. We were superstitious, so.. hehehe...

Next we went to Palazzo Strozzi. Strozzi was also a rich family. He wanted to fight with the Medici family to be the richest family. Strozzi was once drove out from Florence by the Medici family. But he managed to amaze his richness from outside of Florence. He came back and built Palazzo Strozzi, to be the biggest palazzo in Florence. Before he can finish, he died, and eventually all his money was spent on building the palazzo.



We walked along the river towards Uffizi. Uffizi housed masterpiece by well known artist during Renaissance period.
Along the building, there are many statues of the famous artists, including Donatelo. There were a strong sense of artist in the Uffizi area. There were many artists drawing and selling their arts at the area. There were some using wire to make model, like a motorcycle.

We continued to cross Ponte Vecchio towards Palazzo Pitti in the south of Arno River.
The Palazzo Vecchio was their original residence of the Medici family, before they moved to Palazzo Pitti, as the south of Arno river was less developed then and the air was fresher.
Palazzo Pitti was the palace for the Medici family. When we were there, the building was partially under restoration.
Boboli Garden is at the back of Palazzo Pitti. We didnt visit the Boboli garden, but I do wonder will it similiar to the scale of Versailles.


We had more or less covered what we wanted to cover in Florence. While resting, I browsed my guide book again.
Based on our guide book, we noticed there is a very famous ice cream shop near Santa Croce. It claimed to be the best ice cream in Florence, some said best in the world.

The shop is hiding somewhere in the small street. The address is 7, via isole delle stinche . Simply googled it, you will find their website. But it might take you a while to locate the shop.

They have many choices of ice cream to choose from.
And the price is reasonable. They claimed to use the fresh ingredient to make the ice cream.

The ice-cream was simply superb. We ordered three scoop ice cream. It was the best we tasted so far, better than those in Rome. It was not sweet, but the taste was very fresh. We loved it!!
In fact we saw a couple of Asian tourists in the shop, must be using the same guide book.

We ended our day in, where else, Piazza della Signoria again. The next day, we will leave for the Venice.

The train from Rome took about two hours before we reached Florence. We reached Firenze Santa Maria Novella (Firenze SMN). It is the main train station in Florence. Compare to Rome Termini, Firenze Santa Maria Novella is less advance.
When we came out from the train station, Florence made us feel more homely as it was like a town instead of a metropolitan with skyscrapers. All the buildings are not tall. The roads are smaller. Florence has lots more chinese than Rome. It took us a while to find our hotel, Hotel Domus Florentia. It is a three stars hotel. It is located along a walkway. The hotel is on the second floor. The room was clean, the toilet/bathroom is better equipped. If you willing to pay, there are rooms with view.

We checked in and quickly we went out to explore Florence. Remember to ask a map from the hotel staff.


Florence was very peaceful. The architecture of the buildings are unique and old. Florence is famous for its Middle Age and Renaissance arts and buildings.
We didn't have any detail plan of places to visit for Florence. After we left hotel, we walked towards Arno river.The first place of interest we came across was the Ognissanti. It was a church dedicated to all Saints. Next we reached Arno River. It was so beautiful!!! The river was very calm and serene. The river was like a mirror. The buildings on both side of the river were clearly reflected in the river. The sky was blue and there were some greeney afar.The whole Arno river was picturesque.
If the sky is clear and blue, I believe you will take a lot of photo of the river.
There is even a small waterfall nearby.

We crossed Ponte Vespucci into the south of Florence. It is less crowded, and much less tourist. We walked along the river. I was trying to use the same method of 'treasure hunting' we used in Rome in Florence. It proved to be not very well. Some of the attractions in south of Arno River in Florence are not so attracting.

We walked along Arno River till Ponte Vecchio, the main bridge in Florence. Ponte Vecchiob is very unique. There are a lot of shophouses built on the bridge. Ponte Vecchio is main consists of jewelry merchants. It was once houses of goldsmiths. As time goes by, the shops now mainly occupied by jewelry merchants. Nevertheless, the shophouses make the bridge sparkling with gold and shinning diamond.
The architecture of the houses at Ponte Vecchio is very special too.


We crossed Ponte Vecchio, did some window shopping. We stopped for a waffle ice-cream. It costs about EUR4, which was quite expensive.
We were so cold, so we actually wanted to find a place to warm ourselves. :)

After our light tea break, we continued to Piazza della Signoria. Piazza della Signoria is one of the more famous piazza or square in Florence. There are a few places of interest and also the shopping area. It was unintentionally that we reached here. But it is a place you shouldn't miss in Florence. First, there is Ponte Vecchio, Uffizi and Palazzo Vecchio. Replica of the famous Michelangelo's statue David is located here as well.

Palazzo Vecchio was a town hall. People of Florence came here for meeting during last time. Now, it houses some of the famous art collections, like Michelangelo's Victory. This building is a massive, Tuscan Gothic crenallated fortress-palace over looking Piazza della Signoria.

In front of the palazzo, David is standing strong at the entrance. This David is a replica of the actual one, after the original one moved from here to Accademia. David is a masterpiece by Michelangelo. It was among the first sculpture of human body naked. The statue is very detailed in every piece of human muscle and body structure.
Do take more photo of the statue. On the left of Palazzo Vecchio, there is a area where some other famous statues are located.
Those statues include The Rape of Sabine, Perseus With the Head of Medusa and others.

Piazza della Signoria is also the shopping area of Florence. Boutiques, shophouses, restaurants are all along the street. We were very impressed with the window decoration of some of the shops, like Chanel. The gelati shops were very tempting with their colourful and attracting ice-cream on display. We were really had the urge to have one. There is also a famous local supermarket, Coins. The stuffs inside are branded stuff though.

It was December, there was Christmas decoration. Whole street was decorated with lightings. It was like a shooting stars all over the street.
It was full of Christmas mood, there were people selling christmas decorations along the street.

We had our dinner at a self-service restaurant in the area. The price was reasonable and slightly cheaper than Rome. There are plenty of self-service restaurant in Florence, where you will choose your main course, second dish, drink and dessert at the counter. It is simple and reasonably priced.

After dinner, we went back to hotel to end our first night in Florence. Back to hotel, I started to do some reading on Florence and planned for our next day schedule. I understand more about Florence after the reading.

Tomorrow, Strolling and Appreciating Florence....

20th December was the end of our Rome trip. We will leave Rome and going to Florence. Our train time was 12:30pm.
After our breakfast, we went to nearby supermarket for a shop. Before I forgot, there is a supermarket near to Hotel Stella. This supermarket was very very important to us for our stay in Rome. It was our source of water supply as we can't boil water in hotel.

We bought some fruits. We were required to weigh the fruit and print out the price tag ourselves instead of being served. It was quite difficult as we don't understand Italian and the instructions were in Italian.
The only way if it is not the smartest, peek at what others do. :)

We had McDonald opposite Termini which was less crowded. We usually don't like to eat McDonald, we found that McDonald was very tasty.
We took EuroStar Italia from Rome to Florence. One way per person was about EUR33. We bought online before we came to Rome, and printed the ticket in Termini self-service kiosk.

Based on the coach number on our ticket, we boarded the train. There were one big luggage area for each coach to deposit your big luggage. The train was clean. There are four seats, two seats on one side facing the other two seats, with a table in the middle. The train was comfortable although a bit stuffy at the end, but overall it is good.

Rome is a city with a lot of attractions. Places like Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Vatican Museum, St Peter's Basilica and more surely will amazed you. If you going to visit Rome, places like Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Vatican Museum, St Peter's Basilica, Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona and Pantheon are must. If you are history lovers, Roman Forum, Capitoline Hill, National Museum will surely pleased you.
It is very easy to travel in Rome Historial Centre. You can walk or take metro. It is very convenient. Bear in mind that if you to take metro during peak hour, it will be quite crowded.
When we were in Rome, there were a lot of police patrolling, so, it was very safe.
There are quite a lot of graffiti on the wall of Rome, and to some, Rome might appear to be a bit dirty, but I think that's the sincerity Rome has to offer.

This is the third day of our stay in Rome. And I planned it to be a relaxing days, no serious or history lesson nor solemn of the like of Vatican Museum and St Peter's Basilica. It is Fountains day!!

First attraction we came across was the Piazza della Repubblica. Fountain of Naiads was the first fountain for the day. Opposite is the Santa Maria degli Angeli. We just took a few pictures and then move on.

After walking along via XX Settembre, we came to San Carlo Quattro Fontane. It is a fountain at a cross road. Each side of the road will have one fountain. The fountains were a bit old.
We continued our walk along the road and reached Piazza Barberini, which housed the famous Fontana del Tritone (Triton Fountain).








We walked along the via del Tritone towards our main attraction of the day, Trevi Fountain. Trevi Fountain is the largest fountain in Rome. It is also the grandest fountain in Rome. The central figure is Neptune, flanked by two Tritons. One struggle to master the horse, while the other leads a far more docile animal.

The most important thing you can do in Trevi Fountain is to toss a coin over your right shoulder into the fountain. It is believed that you will come back to Rome again.

We reached Trevi Fountain quite early. Although the sky was clear, but the shadow of the surrounding buldings on the Trevi Fountain did make our photo somewhat incomplete. The fountain is huge, so, it is also very difficult to capture the whole fountain in the photo.

There are benches around Trevi fountain for you to rest and admire the beauty of the fountain. There are also a lot of shops nearby selling Gelati. It is said that there are very good gelati somewhere in the road behind Trevi Fountain.
Trevi Fountain is a MUST if you visit Rome.

Based on the map, we moved on to the next tourist sight. Palazzo Montecitoria and Palazzo Chigi overlooking Piazza Colonna. Temple Adriano was under renovation.



We continued walking and searching through the maze of the roads in Rome, we found one of my 'must' visit in my trip, Tazza D'Oro. It is a famous coffee house in Rome
Before we left for Rome, I have read a lot about this coffee house in the forum and tour site like TripAdvisor.
It is said to be the best coffee house in Rome and it is frequently visited by the older generation of Rome.

I was really really happy to bump into this shop. Although it is on my 'must visit' list, but from the forum, I read it is a bit difficult to find and usually close. It was very lucky of me to find it and it is OPEN! The shop is located along the road on the right of Pantheon. (if not mistaken it is at via Orfani). Well, you should able to smell the aroma of the coffee.
We quickly went inside and ordered our Expresso and Cappucino (pardon for the incomplete Cappucino and empty Expresso, as I have finished it before I able to take photo of it). The coffee is strong and thick.
We even bought a bag of coffee bean.

After caffeine boost as our morning tea break, we continued south towards Pantheon.
Pantheon is a temple with Greek style architecture. Pantheon means the temple of all gods. Pantheon is famous for the rounded roof. The front of the building is supported by eight huge granite Corinthian columns.
Pantheon has been used as a Christian Church for some times. So, there church decoration inside.

We went for a Gelati break at Giolitti, which is also much mentioned place in the forum. We had our second Gelati in Italy although it was Winter. It was good.
The size was huge. (We enjoyed the best Gelati in Florence.. :))

It was 1.30pm. Way passed our lunch time. We need to find a place for our lunch before restaurant closed. So we hurried off to Piazza Navona.

Piazza Navona is a square with three fountains. Fontana del Nettuno, Fontana del Moro and Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi. Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi is Fountain of Four Rivers and is the more famous of the three. Each represent a famous river in the world. Unfortunately, Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi was surrounded with scaffolding when we were there.
There was a market at Piazza Navona with lots of merchandise on sale. Restaurants are on both side of the square. Among the restaurant, there is another much talked about restaurant in the forum, Tre Scalini. It is also famous for its gelati. We didn't try, and all the restaurants there were quite empty. Piazza Navona is quite a good place to sit down relax. If you have the money, you can dine in at one of the restaurant while watching the crowds and enjoy the scenery.
If you prefer a more humble style, you can sit down near the fountain as we did.
We had our lunch with Panini + Coke bought from a stall in the market. Panini is Italian Sandwich.

By then we finished our lunch, it was about 2.30pm. We continued to Campo de'Fiori. Campo de' Fiori is a flower market, and it is a morning market. When we reached there, most stalls closed and rubbish has been cleared also. Luckily we managed to catch a glimpse of the colourful flower market. There are also shop houses around selling clothes and lady accessories. Campo de Fiori is also a happening place at night with lots of night life.

Campo de'Fiori was kind of our last attraction we wanted to cover in our Rome trip. We shopped around, and then made our way towards the river again.
We enjoyed the tranquility and beautiful of the river. We walked down the staircase and relaxed at the river side, enjoying the cool breeze and the yellowish trees with clear blue sky.

To end our Rome trip, we decided to go back to St Peter's Basilica. We walked pass Piazza Navona, walked along Tiber river, enjoying the sunset and darkness started to set in with lights started to light up. We walked pass Castel Saint Angelo again. We sat down at Piazza San Pietro, admiring night view of St Peter's Basilica.
I guessed this was the best to end our Rome trips. Next, we will go to Florence..