An Italian Memory

After years of having an email address, I took the time (ya, today..) to finally clear up some emails (more like over 20K worth of emails!!! yikes!) and like how decluttering do to you, you will stop by some things of sentimental value, and ponder if you want to throw it or in this sense, delete or not. 

2010 was the final year where most of us would communicate with each via email before the phone apps took over our lives. I stumbled upon an email which I wrote to my housemate back then describing my day trip to Florence from Rome in Italy. It was my first overseas solo trip in Europe and I picked Italy to start, thanks to the movie "Eat, Pray, Love". It was a big hit that time. 

Thanks to the email records, I'm being reminded how wonderful travelling is, without the social media that we have today. Hope you guys would enjoy reading the memento like I did. I can't even recall all the names of the places and things I did in Italy.

 

8th December 2010, 06:09

 

"finally, i can reply properly. the queue for the vatican museum and st peter's church wasn't so bad. first impression, the queue was like a trail following around of the wall or plaza. so, it's like a half moon queue in shape. think i spent about less than 40 minutes for the queue to get into vatican museum, and about less than 30 minutes for the queue to st peter's. the queue also, i thought for what, is for security scan only. haha.. just like airport. how exaggerating. but understandably, the collections are private therefore more security features in place. 

 

the sistine chapel is great, or should i say magnificent. michelangelo is magnificent. i don't know how he did his frescos on the ceiling but it was just brilliant. the chapel was dark and not much lightly apart from the vivid light from the tiny windows above the chapel. it was so crowded and hot! so many police in there too. i bought a christmas first day cover of the vatican at the post office. then, i sent a postcard to myself too. haha.. 

 

in florence today, i spent the most time shopping instead of sight seeing. i did what normal tourists to florence do - rub the snout of the Il Porcellini (the pig) at Mercato Nuovo (New Market, just after the Ponte Vecchio), and i went to see panaroma view of Florence at Michelangelo Plaza. i didn't climb up the 414 steps in the Duomo to get the city centre panaroma view of Florence. And I didn't get to see the real Perfect Man, David at the Gallery of the Academy because the ticketing office went on strike. Hence, it was closed. Bah! So, I ended up seeing two copies of David at Michelangelo Plaza and Plaza Del Signoria. I guess he is perfect because of his figure. The Italians believed a lot in la bella figura (the perfect cut of a figure). So, even if the thing that you buy is not something impressive in appearance, but they will always wrapped it impressively just to make you look and feel good. Haha.. i dunno how true the saying is but so far, all my purchases are in plastic bags. LOL!

 

i bought a small leather handbag at Central Market near San Lorenzo plaza. It costed me 17 euros. I made sure that it was genuine leather and made in italy. also, with the word florence/firenze printed outside the handbag. i had something with the name of the place that i buy my things. it just had to appear on them. hehe.. then, i got some leather bracelets, 6 for the price of 5. 1 euro each. got some keychains too, 1 euro each. not forgetting postcards (20 cent each) and michelango's bookmarks containing his works (at 50 cent) each. i didn't eat properly in florence because i dunno where to do so. so, ended up eating a giant wurstchel sausage with panini at santa croce german christmas market. 4.50 euros, kept me full until i came back to rome. hehe.. weather in florence isn't that great, but it was extremely hot and humid. i sweated so much today if compared to yesterday in rome. had to wash my jacket when i get back to newcastle.

 

as for tomorrow, i planned to go to villa borghese. just for a walk before meeting my new friend, Jun Jun, at Piazza del Popolo. we're going to old bridge at vatican city for gelato. apparently, it is the best in rome so far. well, the san crispino is not bad too since it is featured in eat pray love. :D just that it is a bit expensive. one scoop for 2.30 euros. where as the one at old bridge, 3 scoops for 2 euros. wahh, i was like -_-|||

 

but eating gelato by far, the most expensive place in florence. i kena conned d. i thought it was 3 euros. that fella in the end said 10 euros! what the.. that also for big cup 3 flavours with fruits summore. i only agreed to buy is bcos she said 3 flavours for 3 euros. who knows 10! zzz.. never eating gelato again in florence. and besides, korean drama cheat me by saying how nice florence is. it isn't as nice as Rome. or probably, i haven't been given a longer time to stay and visit other tuscan region outside of florence. i might return to florence or rome in the future. my mom has been envying me for some time already.

 

the other girl, Xiao Wang, left for London this evening. Jun Jun is leaving tomoro night for Milan. She works there. Both of them are going back to China in December. ok for now, until tomorrow."