Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears..

haloooooo dearest!!:)

i speak to you though my face texture and colour is similar to italian leather and jetlag has given me eyebags almost as puffed up as my suitcases..but vanity aside..

Italy was great. Sensory Overload is a quite an apt way to describe how i felt the whole way through and even now, when i think about how immense the Colosseum was, how breathtakingly beautiful Raphael and Botticelli's paintings were, how ingenious Leonardo and Michaelangelo were.......and to think that the first thing that used to come to my mind when hearing those names were a bunch of mutated cartoon turtles who loved pizza.

There are so many many experiences i wanna tell you about but i reckon you'll fall asleep and in the process, i probably will too..so here are some highlights and tips for when YOU wanna go:

1. Call up one best friend. Proceed to bicker about who misses who more and when to meet up. Because time is so limited, a later date is confirmed for making a second call to see if meeting up will be possible. (truly malaysian)

2. Bring a bag of rice. You are going to miss it. I did. Alternatively, bring 10 packets of maggi mee, a kettle, a mug and chopsticks. Seriously. If not, you'll end up buying a kettle. I did.

PART 1 - ROME:

3. Get your ass outta bed at 6.30 in the morning if you're thinking of checking out any sights as lines get bad as the day goes on. If you're going to the Vatican for the Vatican museums (including the Sistine Chapel), then go on a weekday. If you're going to the Vatican for the Pope, go on a Wednesday or a Sunday.


They aren't Vatican court jesters, they're actually the army!really one..rofl..maybe they double up..

4. Check out the amazing winding staircase on the way down from the VMs. It was commissioned by some dude called Montevecchio who wanted the staircase wide enough to be able to ride his horses up it. bet he was trying to impress some chick.


5. Reckon i'll be exhaussting the word amazing and awesome because that's just what these monuments are. Amazing and awesome. Trevi Fountain ladies and gentlemen.




5. Pictures really really REALLY don't do ANY of the monuments justice. Growing up you see pictures of the colosseum but it is NOTHING like the real thing. you're in there and you can feel the battles, you can feel the sweat, you can feel the excitement that seems to linger on even hundreds of years later...i think i wanna watch gladiator again..




6. Gelato. Insist on having a piccolo (small) cone every day. you will not get ice cream like that anywhere else. Eat one everyday or you will come home and kick yourself for not having more..distinguish real one from fake one by looking at the colouring; if banana is greyish means its made from real bananas, if its yellow then its mass produced. same goes for lemon; it should be white not yellow. try nocciola, tiramisu and pistachio flavours. so so so so good. the best is on the isla tiburina in rome. my bro reckons the best is on Via De Scavo in Venice. someday we'll go back and have a showdown.


7. other places of mucho interest: the Roman Forum (the Putrajaya of olden day Rome), Palatine Hill (where you get to go see where Romus and Romulus lived and following that where Romulus ruled Rome), Piazza Navona (the street musicians and performers are brilliant), Via Del Corso - my gawd the shoessssssssss!! and my personal favourite - Campo De Fiori; market by day, al-fresco dining by night surrounded by brilliantly talented old-skool artisans, from woodworkers to painters to upholsterers. When you're done with all that, go back to your hotel, put up your legs and enjoy your maggi mee, eaten best in a paper cup and coffee stirrer.


more tomorrow...