8D5N Italy Tour

8 Days – Whole of Italy
5th – 12th November 2011

Day 1 – 5th Nov.2011
We flew Etihad, Airlines of the UAE, from KLIA to Abu Dhabi, on transit for 3 hours, then from Abu Dhabi to Milan. We touched down at 7.00 am Italy time on 6th Nov.2011

Day 2 – 6th Nov.2011 Milan – Verona
A tour coach picked us up at 8.30 am and took us to Milan City to visit the Duomo of Milan (Cathedral of Milan) – the World’s largest Gothic Cathedral, built in the 14th Century, which took more than 400 years to complete. The cathedral is a forest of stone pinnacles, flying buttresses, & more than 3500 statues and one could get a fantastic panoramic view of Milan from its roof. From the cathedral square, one could see the Opera House, Galleria Vittorio Emanuelle II.

Duomo of Milan

Interior of the Duomo

Galleria Vittorio Emanuelle II

We were attracted by an old man ‘basking’ with his saxophone. He blew ‘Summertime’ and ‘Speak Softly Love’ rather sadly expressed. Connie thought he deserved 1 Euro.

“Summertime”

The square was full of tourists as well as pigeons crowding near tourists who fed them grains.

Pigeons expecting some grains from Connie

We had lunch at a Chinese Restaurant before proceeding to Verona,169 km from Milan, to visit Juliet’s home. Juliet’s balcony was exceptionally popular for snapshots.

Juliew at the balcony

There was also a ruined remain of the Arena.

Arena

The younger group of ladies preferred shopping for branded handbags. From 4-6pm we travelled to Venice and had dinner at Choong Hwa Restaurant before checked in at Novotel Hotel for the night. It was a very tiring and torturing start of the tour.

Day 3 – 7th Nov.2011 Venice
Morning call at 6am, breakfast at 7am, and checked out at 8am. Proceeded to Port Tronchetto to take a boat toVenice. We had a gondola ride @25Euro/head for 30 minutes only.

Gondola ride

A Chinese lady tour guide took us for a walking tour of Venice to visit popular spots of Venice – Doge Palace, St. Mark Basilica, St Mark’s Square, Bridge of Sighs, and a glass making workshop.




















St.Mark’s Square

St. Mark’s Square viewed from the sea

After that it was free and easy, shopping for souvenir, branded handbags, etc. For lunch we had squid ink sauce spaghetti.

Squid Ink sauce spaghetti

After lunch we went back to Port Tronchetto and continued our journey to Florence which took 3 ½ hours. We were just in time for dinner at Hua Qiao Restaurant. Then we checked in Hotel Croce Di Malta in Florence which looked old outside but modern inside.

(to be continued)