Viva Italia!

Bonjorno!

It's been almost a month that I left Italy. I have a lot to recount but time is not a treasure that I possess. Furthermore, my writing block is getting bigger and bigger hence my inadequacy in describing situations well. For a more concise report, go here. 

Staying true to a certain travel guide series, I've come up with a top ten list of the trip.

#1. Traversing through Rome's urbanscape reminded me much of Kuala Lumpur sans the neck breaking skyscrapers. There, low cost flats made up the fringe of the city. I love the sights of clothes hanging from the lines and windows, the undeterred energy of kids playing and the ubiquitous graffiti...

#2 ...which leads me to the graffiti. You can find this so-called form of art nearly everywhere which includes walls of public buildings, bus stops, and the sides of trains! Sadly, with combined power of the enforcement lax and the unlimited passion of the artists, some of the historical sites are also desecrated by graffiti. One example would be Grand Rialto bridge in Venice. It's an eyesore to see some writings scrawled on one side of the bridge.

#3 Shopaholics, beware! Many fashion houses call Italy their mecca. And Italianos are so into fashion that they can easily fall into two categories, the winners and the victims. Anyways, you can easily get Louis Buitton or Bucci from dealers which you can find prowling the streets of all major cities in Italy. To make the irony more pronounced, some of them operate near huge billboards asking people to avoid these fake items. To be honest, most of the stuff are really second grade. You can tell the difference almost immediately. Maybe they should learn the art of faking from the Far Eastern cousins...

#4 Getting lost in Venice might be the most delicious experience ever. Don't bother consulting a map because the road network is equally complicated as the alveoli in your lungs. And trying to pinpoint your current location on the map is also a hopeless cause. Some of the roads are unlabelled while others are too minute to be spotted from the map right away. As I said earlier, getting lost might turn out to be good after all provided it's not nighttime. You might stumble upon hidden treasures in the countless alleyways or you'll appreciate the romance of the city even more...

#5 Italianos are most helpful when it comes to asking directions. The only problem is they always point straight ahead, neglecting the fact that there's a huge block of houses or a river right in front of you. You'll get to your desired location eventually but that's after 500 turns or so...

#6 I would say that it's a compulsory to have gelato every day in Italy. You'll be hard pressed to find any ice cream quite like theirs anywhere else...

#7 I think I've seen half of the most important work of arts in the world in Italy. There's the humongous yet deliciously detailed David, the famous frescoes of Sistine Chapel, the incomplete but highly revered Adoration of Magi by da Vinci, the famous Boticelli's The Birth of Venus and numerous other art objects that I've seen depicted in books or movies. 

#8 Water rides in Venice may seem fun for the first half an hour or so. It fizzles out soon after. It takes eons to get from one point to another. Gondolas are strictly for the rich due to its prohibitive ride fee.

#9 I'll seriouly recommend anyone visiting Venice to stay at Dimora dei Fiori. It's easily the best hostel I've stayed in. It offers the unbeatable view of the canal and is absolutely gorgeous at dawn/dusk.

#10 Rome: Historical (duh!), streets of Pisa - Dreamy, Florence - intensely Romantic, Venice - dreamily romantic.