Italy (Rome & Naples)

Rome

Hehe.. sry ar if some1 like kenseong waiting so long for updates.. no excuse, juz being lazy recently! holiday ma, plus my little bro came to visit me so far away from Malaysia, kept me bz for a while edi.. anyway, im going to London tml for another 3 days wif my bro! haha, so faster update 1st b4 i ciaoz!

Italy was fun of course. Me went there along wif my 3 best buddies here: William, Eric n Paul. We juz went to 2 places, which were Rome n Naples. We were trying to get to Piza or Venice but the two places are too far away from rome for us to travel there.. coz we juz wanted our trip to be short n relaxing, without any long n tiring journey..

As for the whole trip, we juz on our own to deal wif everything: accommodation, transports, entry tickets, food & stuff like that. Sometimes we were so frustrated wif it but eventually we managed to make our holiday quite a success, especially no1 got mugged! ^^

Other than taking lotz of pic, i had a 'Gelato' almost each day i'd been there. Wondering watz that? haha, thatz 'ice-cream' in italian! of course, we also had lotz n lotz of pizza n spaghetti over there lo.. haih, for the whole week there i spent more than 300 pound edi.. summore said its a budget trip... T.T

Olitti.. one of the famous Gelato shops in Rome..

We arrived at Rome firstly, stayed in a hostel called 'Roma Inn'. Got breakfast n bed thatz it! haha, to make the matter worse, the hostel was under renovation! T.T summore our room din have a door! nvm la, luckily still got internet n knew a few frenz over there.. ^^ cost us about 15 euro a nite..

As we were staying near the Coliseum, or ppl say 'Colosseum', it became our 1st destination. There were so many ppl over there as we expected. For the 1st visit, we din get in the Coliseum. We juz walked around it, took some pic thatz it. Haha, the funny thing was, my fren Paul, he got himself a pair of cool sunglasses for 4 euro instead of 25 initially! haha, this taught us not to buy stuff from street venders over there coz normally u would kena tipu 1! ^^

We did actually go into the Coliseum for the 2nd visit. Cost us 11 euro ler! worth it? almost onli.. T.T

One of the 7 wonders of the world.. Coliseum!

another cool side of it!

I'm in there!

Not alone of course! Eric(top) n Paul

View from inside..

See the underground? There was the place where the slaves n animals like lions were kept..

Group pic!

I told u guys I went there twice rite? coz basically we went back to Rome after staying at Naples for 3 nites. So in details, for sum1 wanna know: 2 days Rome, 3 days Naples then 3 days back at Rome! ^^

We had our 1st meal at Rome n guess wat? Only pizzas for 4 of us of course! wahaha.. they think its far better than any other pizza in the world but for me, its still the same! hehe..

Yam yam!

Actually we were quite lucky to be there at that time coz the Pope was there at Rome as well! He was giving a talk at St. Peter's Basilica, possibly the largest church of Christianity! We actually went there on the 2nd day n were quite surprised to see the Pope there! Seriously the whole building was sooo big n i took a video of it to show to u guys! U actually can hear the Pope talking!

St. Peter's Basilica.. Totally crowded at the front of it!

In front of it.. Christian representatives from lots of countries were there!

There were lotz of places there worth going that i dun think u guys would neva know about them until u've been there such as Trevi Fountain, Palatino, Piazza del Popolo, Castle St. Angelo n Vatican Museum. but I think some of u would know about Vatican City. It is in fact a country within rome. Yeap, it is the smallest independent nation exists in the whole world. ^^

Piazza di Giustizia

Trinita dei Monti.. many ppl gather here to relax.. we actually saw sunset there!

Castle St. Angelo..

Arco di Costantino!

The beatiful Trevi Fountain.. Threw a coin into it wif a wish.. ^^ Paul told me if u threw euro in they would keep it.. but foreign coins would be given to charity.. ^^

The statue of Liberty!

Let me go on wif the top attraction of Rome.. Vatican Museum! Gud experience there.. queuing experience! haha, juz kidd la.. but try to guess how long i'd queued to the entrance of the museum? 3 hours! shit.. from 10am to 1pm.. wth! worth it la.. think so.. inside? its all about arts, especially those from the famous artist Michelangelo! Have u ever heard of Sistine Chapel? It was total decorated by him n the official residence of Pope! haha.. wasn't allowed to take pics there but still lots of ppl did that.. here are some of other sites of the museum.. ^^

Very long queue!

Finally! the entrance after 3 hours of queuing!

Throughout the museum brilliant artworks not onli could be seen on the walls,

but also the roof, and..

Floor! haih.. but after a long queue to be honest I was too tired to enjoy watz in there.. T.T

My fren actually took a pic of the famous roof of the Sistine Chapel.. appreciate.. ^^ u can call it.. 'The Forbidden Picture' ^^

I think i betta finish all the stuff at Rome b4 i proceed to Naples.. ^^ ok letz continue wif ar.. Ruins! haha, there were so many of it within Rome ler.. juz felt like taking picture of them every single time i saw a new 1! ^^ ok la.. i juz post a few of them onli lo..


One more gud thing about Rome is.. u dun nid to worry about water! Natural drinking water pipe could be found anywhere in the city but im still buying normal drinking water from shops. Know y? As water could be gained for free, the mineral water bottles were so cheap till about 50 cent euro for a 2 liter of water! ^^ but honestly i wasn't so sure about the quality of the free water outside..

Free drinking water! ^^

Any1 interested in cool buildings? i got 2 more here: Pantheon of Rome n the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II! haha, wat a long name! here's the pics:

Pantheon.. the coolest ancient temple i've ever seen.. ^^

Met our course mates over there! Wat a coincidence..

The Monument to bla bla bla... ^^ quite cool to be honest!

We actually saw an exhibition of 'Trash People' at Rome! Quite lucky again ^^ Coz it was within the 7 days of public display for Italy. Its about care for the nature n dun make so much rubbish! haha. though u may not be interested, i'll juz put a couple of pictures on.. it actually been to lotz of famous places such as Great Wall of China, La Defence of Paris, Cario etc.. ^^

Naples

Here comes the Naples! hehe.. top attraction, though i heard crime rate there was quite high! be careful if u wanna travel there.. anyway, they are famous of.. Coasts n Volcano! haha, thatz the interesting part! Visited Pompeii, the victim city of the Volcano Vesuvius, n of course the volcano! Went to the city center of Naples n Amalfi Coast, the famous local coast.. ^^

Cool castle in Naples.. though i've forgotted its name.. ^^

Cool shopping mall.. name? forgotten as well!

Talking about Pompeii, its all about ruins! haha, after the city had been struck n buried by volcano in AD 79, the archaeologist managed to dig it out n display the whole destructed ancient city to the public. ^^ Here's the pics..

Thats one of the ppl who couldn't escape.. Respect paid.. pity..

Here goes the volcano! Haha, the Vesuvius Volcano! n the fun part was, its active! ^^ We went to the very top of it! hehe.

Climbing up to the top.. Tiring!

Here i am! the crater of the volcano!

Looking down into it.. ^^

I was watching this! haha

Opps.. Smoke's coming out!

Relax.. Cheese!

The Amalfi Coast ar.. nothing special there to be honest.. fisherman area.. beautiful coast wif some stone beaches.. ^^ lots of houses there too! We bought a few local lemon wine! around 30%.. n i bought 4! c who'll get it la.. coz i wun drink it ^^

The beautiful coast of Amalfi

Here we are on a stone beach! ^^

Fish boats! rainy over there.. T.T

Nice scene? haha, would be nice to live up there for a short period..

I had been enjoying throughout the trip though kena tricked a few times.. not a smart ppl i was i must admit.. ^^ lost some money bcoz of my stupidity! haih.. anyway, we knew some new ppl over there which i was quite happy about.. Alex from UK, Laura n Janet from Texas.. ^^ nice meeting them!

Alex (second from left) had been traveling across Europe! ^^ we were in an Irish Bar in Rome..

Janet n Laura from the bottom left to right.. took a pic wif 4 of us after the visit of Vatican Museum.. ^^