Milan, Italy
5/06/2009 04:20:00 am
Oh boy oh boy oh boy, this is now a great story to tell...(more pics on my album)
Friday, 1st May 09
The day started off at work, where I left at 12noon to go back and pack, in which I didn't really need to but was avoiding work in a way. Came home, clear up the place so that there is room to drop our stuff when we come back and manage to fit in one episode of Naruto ;)
Off to grab the tube at the airport after. Checked in at Lufthansa's terminal whereby they use machines instead to print off your boarding pass and one pretty much just head to the counter to drop off any bags. We then head off to purchase D's new toy. Heh. The thing is that when he went to the shop, the price was £30 more than what he saw online! So what he did was to ring them up instead and made an order. Smart eh? We then head to meet up with our friends at the gate and boarded the plane. Seats on this Airbus are quite spacious that made our traveling comfortable. We receive a snack too which made the trip such a great value since we only paid about £50 each return. The trip took about 2 hours
View from the plane in the evening, amazing
Was quite efficient at the airport. We grabbed the city map, and took the Malpensa bus into the train station in the city that took about an hour. As soon as we got off, we grab our luggage and headed off to one corner of the footpath to look for our hotel. I was so glad that we were quick because as soon as we decided on something, I was looking for my roller bag. No where to be found. Panic attack. Dave quickly found out that there was something fishy going on when one Italian dude interrupted us by asking us for the airport while we were looking at the map. He quickly ran in that direction, only to realise there were 2 people who were working together so he had to run the other direction. He saw the bag (since it was florescent green) and the dude that carried. As soon as he was found out, he dropped the bag and ran, in which me and Ket saw from afar...
What a great start after 2 mins of touch down time o.O
Anyway, we scooted off quickly from that dodgy place and found our hotel. Everything was fine until we saw our room. We only had a single king size bed with one pillow! Our poor friends had to go down and enquire since this was not what we pictured from the internet. But in general, it was much better to our previous hotel we stayed.
Hotel Mennini - our accomodation
View up the stairs
Saturday, 2nd May 09
After our Buffet breakfast, we headed off to the Church in Duomo. We went to central station to check out the tickets for the train to Lake Como the next day.
Market outside the station
Things they sell
Train station from the outside
Inside the station
Being so eager on the first day, we walked. Took us about 45 mins to get to the Cathedral. Took pictures on the way (check out my album). We passed by the statue of Leonardo da Vinci before arriving to the Galleria
Us in reflection wandering
Statue of Leonardo Da Vinci
D making full use of his new toy
There were alot of high end retail shops (even McDees was in Gold!) but the Gallery itself was impressive.
View of the Gallery outside
As we got out of the gallery, we stumbled across a 'piazza' which is a courtyard, whereby the Duomo Cathedral was on the left. Was quite crowded that day.
The Duomo
Queue getting in that didn't take too long luckily
At the centre of the Cathedral
It was quite dark inside and wasn't as impressive as St. Stephen's bascillica in Budapest. But I was keen to go up. Then again, we gave up since the queue to even walk up looked like it'll take an hour before we actually climb up the stairs. Bleh.
Anyway, went back to the piazza and took more pics
Milan Policemen
Balloons
View opposite the Duomo
Vending van with a mini coconut fountain on the left (can you see it?)
Headed off to have lunch in a recommended restaurant. Mozarella was the specialty and there was story about 2 of the 3 brothers that established this restaurant and the youngest became and artist and had his works done in this restaurant.
Starter HUGE mozarella and yummy sweet cherry tomatoes- filled us up straight away
Pizzas in the restaurant here are done in such an original way. Special oven and not forgetting proper crust and yummy cheese. YUM
Traditional way of cooking pizza
Fratteli la bufala restaurant
When we came out, we saw some of the remains of a building dated back in the 2nd - 3rd Century!
Temperature today - 31 deg!!
The remains of a building
We headed off to a castle that had a park for us to hang out and relax
Castle in view
Went off to the Puma factory shop to check out the deals...in which I found this to be funny
Beautiful House hehe
we had gelato on the way back and OMG the stores are amazing! It's not just the 20 or more flavours they have but as well as mini cups of dessert and cakes. HeaVen~
Cups of dessert, gelato flavours and the signboard showing the sizes
As we head back to get changed, we passed by a supermarket and bought mushrooms, pasta and some snacks for our office.
Dinner was at a steakhouse. Service was superbly fast and steak was excellent. Had a tad too much of Italian red wine. We walked to a Canal after and had more Gelato :P
Seven Restaurant
Our yummy steak meals
Canal at night
Sunday, 3rd May 09
Woke up slightly later and went straight to the train station. Lake Como was half an hour away.
Da boys
Coming out from the train station, heading to lake como
Found kiera's shop ;)
Arriving at the pier
Clocks are everywhere, so much so you don't need to wear a watch!
We were deciding on whether or not to grab the boat one way to Bellagio (one of the cities by lake Como) or city hop 4 smaller cities instead for a more reasonable price. We went with the former since we heard nicer things about it. So we took a ferry that went for an hour to the place. Also, apparently george clooney stays in one of these cities. They were selling postcard of his holiday house LOL. Poor guy.
Ticket counter
Cities we passed
My dream home....sigh
This was something we have never seen for a long time, check out this man's camera!
Bellagio city is unique on it's own, and Lake Como is very beautiful especially when we could see the alps from afar. We explored the city (even walking to the other side) had more Gelato and tried one of the Italian's popular starters: Melon and ham.
Map of Bellagio
Us and the alps behind
Melon and ham dish
There are more pictures of the city on my album. Do check it out :)
On the way back to the train
We went back to the hotel, changed and quickly head out for dinner. We wanted to go to this restaurant called 'Anna and Leo' where they are famous for their pasta but was closed when we arrived (took us 2 hours to look for the place and it was 11pm when we found it). So we went into the next one that was open. And I have never seen the largest pizza in my life. One slice was only 1/8 of the entire piece and it filled up the entire plate!
La Cappelleta - D's pizza
As well as the menu was written in italian, the waiter was italian, I went with the safest dish: Ham and cheese pizza LOL. Ham was called 'Cotto'. As expected, food arrived quick.
My dish - check out the size!
Had more Gelato on the way back...mwahaha. We manage to get better rooms on the last day but our air-conditioning wasn't working. Ah well, at least the beds were bigger.
View from our balcony on the last day before we head off to the airport
Overall, trip was GreaT, got a sun tan, trip taught me not to trust people and to have my luggage in FRONT of my eyes, but wishing I had more energy to withstand less sleep and I learnt that 'preggo' was a common word used when people serve us and when we say thank you, and I still have no idea what the word means. Milan is a small taste to what we are going to get in July :D. Am looking forward to more sun and Italian desserts.....
And please check my album out! More pictures loaded up :)
Friday, 1st May 09
The day started off at work, where I left at 12noon to go back and pack, in which I didn't really need to but was avoiding work in a way. Came home, clear up the place so that there is room to drop our stuff when we come back and manage to fit in one episode of Naruto ;)
Off to grab the tube at the airport after. Checked in at Lufthansa's terminal whereby they use machines instead to print off your boarding pass and one pretty much just head to the counter to drop off any bags. We then head off to purchase D's new toy. Heh. The thing is that when he went to the shop, the price was £30 more than what he saw online! So what he did was to ring them up instead and made an order. Smart eh? We then head to meet up with our friends at the gate and boarded the plane. Seats on this Airbus are quite spacious that made our traveling comfortable. We receive a snack too which made the trip such a great value since we only paid about £50 each return. The trip took about 2 hours
View from the plane in the evening, amazing
Was quite efficient at the airport. We grabbed the city map, and took the Malpensa bus into the train station in the city that took about an hour. As soon as we got off, we grab our luggage and headed off to one corner of the footpath to look for our hotel. I was so glad that we were quick because as soon as we decided on something, I was looking for my roller bag. No where to be found. Panic attack. Dave quickly found out that there was something fishy going on when one Italian dude interrupted us by asking us for the airport while we were looking at the map. He quickly ran in that direction, only to realise there were 2 people who were working together so he had to run the other direction. He saw the bag (since it was florescent green) and the dude that carried. As soon as he was found out, he dropped the bag and ran, in which me and Ket saw from afar...
What a great start after 2 mins of touch down time o.O
Anyway, we scooted off quickly from that dodgy place and found our hotel. Everything was fine until we saw our room. We only had a single king size bed with one pillow! Our poor friends had to go down and enquire since this was not what we pictured from the internet. But in general, it was much better to our previous hotel we stayed.
Hotel Mennini - our accomodation
View up the stairs
Saturday, 2nd May 09
After our Buffet breakfast, we headed off to the Church in Duomo. We went to central station to check out the tickets for the train to Lake Como the next day.
Market outside the station
Things they sell
Train station from the outside
Inside the station
Being so eager on the first day, we walked. Took us about 45 mins to get to the Cathedral. Took pictures on the way (check out my album). We passed by the statue of Leonardo da Vinci before arriving to the Galleria
Us in reflection wandering
Statue of Leonardo Da Vinci
D making full use of his new toy
There were alot of high end retail shops (even McDees was in Gold!) but the Gallery itself was impressive.
View of the Gallery outside
As we got out of the gallery, we stumbled across a 'piazza' which is a courtyard, whereby the Duomo Cathedral was on the left. Was quite crowded that day.
The Duomo
Queue getting in that didn't take too long luckily
At the centre of the Cathedral
It was quite dark inside and wasn't as impressive as St. Stephen's bascillica in Budapest. But I was keen to go up. Then again, we gave up since the queue to even walk up looked like it'll take an hour before we actually climb up the stairs. Bleh.
Anyway, went back to the piazza and took more pics
Milan Policemen
Balloons
View opposite the Duomo
Vending van with a mini coconut fountain on the left (can you see it?)
Headed off to have lunch in a recommended restaurant. Mozarella was the specialty and there was story about 2 of the 3 brothers that established this restaurant and the youngest became and artist and had his works done in this restaurant.
Starter HUGE mozarella and yummy sweet cherry tomatoes- filled us up straight away
Pizzas in the restaurant here are done in such an original way. Special oven and not forgetting proper crust and yummy cheese. YUM
Traditional way of cooking pizza
Fratteli la bufala restaurant
When we came out, we saw some of the remains of a building dated back in the 2nd - 3rd Century!
Temperature today - 31 deg!!
The remains of a building
We headed off to a castle that had a park for us to hang out and relax
Castle in view
Beautiful House hehe
we had gelato on the way back and OMG the stores are amazing! It's not just the 20 or more flavours they have but as well as mini cups of dessert and cakes. HeaVen~
Cups of dessert, gelato flavours and the signboard showing the sizes
As we head back to get changed, we passed by a supermarket and bought mushrooms, pasta and some snacks for our office.
Dinner was at a steakhouse. Service was superbly fast and steak was excellent. Had a tad too much of Italian red wine. We walked to a Canal after and had more Gelato :P
Seven Restaurant
Our yummy steak meals
Canal at night
Sunday, 3rd May 09
Woke up slightly later and went straight to the train station. Lake Como was half an hour away.
Da boys
Coming out from the train station, heading to lake como
Found kiera's shop ;)
Arriving at the pier
Clocks are everywhere, so much so you don't need to wear a watch!
We were deciding on whether or not to grab the boat one way to Bellagio (one of the cities by lake Como) or city hop 4 smaller cities instead for a more reasonable price. We went with the former since we heard nicer things about it. So we took a ferry that went for an hour to the place. Also, apparently george clooney stays in one of these cities. They were selling postcard of his holiday house LOL. Poor guy.
Ticket counter
Cities we passed
My dream home....sigh
This was something we have never seen for a long time, check out this man's camera!
Bellagio city is unique on it's own, and Lake Como is very beautiful especially when we could see the alps from afar. We explored the city (even walking to the other side) had more Gelato and tried one of the Italian's popular starters: Melon and ham.
Map of Bellagio
Us and the alps behind
Melon and ham dish
There are more pictures of the city on my album. Do check it out :)
On the way back to the train
We went back to the hotel, changed and quickly head out for dinner. We wanted to go to this restaurant called 'Anna and Leo' where they are famous for their pasta but was closed when we arrived (took us 2 hours to look for the place and it was 11pm when we found it). So we went into the next one that was open. And I have never seen the largest pizza in my life. One slice was only 1/8 of the entire piece and it filled up the entire plate!
La Cappelleta - D's pizza
As well as the menu was written in italian, the waiter was italian, I went with the safest dish: Ham and cheese pizza LOL. Ham was called 'Cotto'. As expected, food arrived quick.
My dish - check out the size!
Had more Gelato on the way back...mwahaha. We manage to get better rooms on the last day but our air-conditioning wasn't working. Ah well, at least the beds were bigger.
View from our balcony on the last day before we head off to the airport
Overall, trip was GreaT, got a sun tan, trip taught me not to trust people and to have my luggage in FRONT of my eyes, but wishing I had more energy to withstand less sleep and I learnt that 'preggo' was a common word used when people serve us and when we say thank you, and I still have no idea what the word means. Milan is a small taste to what we are going to get in July :D. Am looking forward to more sun and Italian desserts.....
And please check my album out! More pictures loaded up :)
