Italy - Naples
Breaking News! Okay, not really haha. Well, in the previous post I spoke of this weird girl and now apparently she is in my Marketing class and she pretty much sits behind me. We don't talk though. We don't even act as if we know each other.
Anyways, on to other things. School has started for me again and because it is Summer, everything goes really quickly and I even have a quiz on Thursday. The good thing is that everything also ends very quickly. My last day of school should be on the 2nd of July and then I'll start preparing for US already.
My flight has been confirmed and we would be flying on the 8th and landing on the 9th. Andrew would be going with my family and we would go touring around NY a little before going to school.
We would be in Manhattan for about 4 days and then going down to Boston, and to Amherst. We would go to the Niagara as well after that and head back to Amherst for my orientation. Then it would be goodbye to my family.
I think I would go out and look for somewhere to study tomorrow for the test on Thursday and another next Thursday.
Alright, so back to my trip. Naples is the city center, so it is basically buildings, buildings, buildings. But I like their architecture so much that I started snapping shots of random buildings while in the bus.
This is a very popular opera house in Europe, said to be the top 3 opera houses known for their good acoustics. It was really windy the day we were there so we were freezing while the guide was explaining to us. This was the coldest day in the entire trip.
The Galleria Umberto - basically a shopping mall even though it looks nothing like it. It has amazing architecture and the details put into each of the statues and design is just breathtaking.
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| Royal Palace, Piazza del Plebiscito with statutes of previous Kings |
We went for a dinner after that, and got a good shock of our life because a 9" pizza was served individually to each of us and that was just the starter. We had another main dish of pork and dessert just for dinner alone. Well, I managed to finish everything so no complains there xD. Afterall, for some reason I can down loads of pizza.
I'll post the pictures of those next time since they are all in my phone xD. Till then, ciaos!
Labels: Italy, Naples, Pictures, travel
Italy - Pompeii
So, yours truly has finally been to Italy! Yay!! *pops the champagnes*I have been wanting to go the Italy for ages, and now that I am going to US in just a few months, my mum decided to fulfill that wish on my last holiday before I leave for New York. The schedule was a little cramp seeing how my final examinations ended only on the 14th of May, and my school starts again tomorrow (26th of May). But we managed to find a tour that fitted exactly in between.
We usually prefer to go free and easy but my father said that Italy was too dangerous so we went by tour this time around.
The flight itself took really long. It took about 13 hours in total via transit in Turkey, Istanbul. I can't even remember what I did on the plane because I gave up watching the movies after like half a show. Most of the time I was just listening to music and sleeping.
Oh right, I bought a storybook in the Duty Free area in Istanbul and it was considerably cheap. They were slightly damaged but I don't mind much. Hard cover Inferno by Dan Brown was only 4 Euros (less than $8). I mean, I bought that book for about $32 last time. The House of Night Series books were 3 Euros (about $5) each, when I paid at least $12 for each and every of the series. It gives me a little heartache knowing all that money was wasted when I could get it for so cheap T_T.
Anyway, I bought 1 book when I was transiting on the way to Italy, and another 3 books when transiting back to Singapore.
- The Magician's Apprentice by Trudi Canavan
- The Ambassador's Mission by Trudi Canavan
- The Rouge by Trudi Canavan
- Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway
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| Ignoring the fact that my fingernails are all bitten short, those lemons were huge |
We arrived in Roma in the morning so we drove down to Pompeii, the buried city.
They were selling these humongous lemons there. The flesh (whitish portion) was eaten together with it.
They sold something called LemonCello, which was the lemon mixed with alcohol if I'm not wrong, but I didn't really like it since I'm not an alcohol person. The lemons though, was pretty nice.
They cost 4 Euros each but it was in a touristic area, so the prices should be higher than usual.
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| The oranges are the normal sized ones, and the huge lemons look like Pamelos instead. |
Pompeii city itself was impressive. It was huge but we only covered a small area.
Even at that time, the people were using lime and other chemicals to make different color on their walls.
There were 2 amphitheaters but we only went to one. It was the smaller one, closer to the entrance. It was said that there were Gladiators even in Pompeii. Amphitheaters were also made so that the sounds from the stage was maximized so that everyone in the audience could hear better.
It was only the 1st day and I really shouldn't make judgments. But the 2nd girl from the right in the picture, struck me as weird since here. I was trying to walk around her when she stepped back so we ended up colliding. I said a sorry and all she did was glare at me. I mean it wasn't even entirely my fault but okay, whatever. Only that when I was walking with my mum later when she suddenly cut in front of us abruptly only to stop suddenly as well. We had to avoid her just so not to bump into her again. I thought that maybe she was just shy, and not willing to talk or something but I found out that she was even taking Communications in my exact same school with also 1 year left just like me. Out of the entire tour group, their family was the one we talked the least to.
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| The roads were uneven because it was said that carts were pulled along the roads, making engravings on them. |
These were said to be cafes during the time, where the pots were like a bar table used to serve people over and the other with the arch was an oven.
Original carvings on the ceilings. Be it the past or the present, Italian architecture and carving details are really beautiful. Even though I don't understand much about architecture, I can't help but be in awe of all the beautiful buildings around the country.
Original Pompeii citizens who were trapped in the volcanic lava are discovered many years later and kept as relics.
The reddish orange drawings on the wall was indicating that this was a prostitute house. There is even a penis shaped thing above the door to emphasize the meaning.Instead of condoms, the people of the past used things like cats and dog's intestines as protection.
These pictures were found in the prostitute house and were so-called 'menu's for the men to choose what they wanted to do.
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| Penis-shaped carvings were made on the grounds to point towards the direction of the prostitute houses. |
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The Volcano responsible for burying the city has not erupted for about 60 years and is still active.  |
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| The giant lemons are the white ones on the right. They are spongy and sour but not too sour to the point that it is not edible. |
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| Our 1st Gelato in the country! |
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| We had Lemon and Pistachio. The Pistachio is still the best here even though we tried others in other places. This one was the most expensive though. It was 4 Euros if I remember correctly. Other places sold it for about 2.50 Euros. That ends our visit in Pompeii. We went on to Naples after that but I would post that another day. For now, ciaos and good night! |
Labels: Italy, Pictures, Pompeii, travel
Obviously in construction at the moment... or maybe forever because I'm lazy like this ;)
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