Europe Itinerary - Milan to Lauterbrunnen

As i recall we wake up early in the morning and toasted back the Pita bread we bought it Venice Mestre from an Indian stall for breakfast. We head out to do some last minute shopping and exploring around Duomo di Milano & Vittorio Emanuele Galleria as it heavily pouring the day we arrived. We rushed like mad as we bought 11.30am train from Milano Centrale to Spiez Switzerland.

How do you travel from Italy (Milan) to Switzerland (Lauterbrunnen)? 

This is the frequent question people will asked and googled it alot prior the trip and this is the time we will get to experience it. So we bought tickets from Milano Centrale to Spiez (Switzerland), upon crossing the border to Swiss, the train will announce for passport verification for foreigners.

To sum up the whole train route from Italy (Milan) to Swiss (Lauterbrunnen):

The Tips here is to buy your tickets early (3-4 months before departing) and it could save you lotsa travel money.
There is no seating allocation in Swiss train, all train are free seating (except you gotta observe class 1 or class 2)

Switzerland is amazingly beautiful, picture was taken behind Spiez tran station as we are waiting the train to board.
People are overly friendly in Swiss.

Europe Itinerary - Cinque Terre - Day 4

The next morning, we took the earliest train from Florence to Cinque Terre with transit at Spieza. (The train did stop at Pisa) Afterwhich, we finally reached Cinque Terre after much seeing in other people's blog. 1st stop is Riomaggrire and we took the long trail and hike up the hills to Manarola. We din manage to visit much in Riomagarrioe due the excitement which we straight head to the hills. 

Is still a long way hike to go!

Almost reaching the little small town of Manarola!

After about an hour plus hike, we reached Manarola where is a fairly small town where you do have bars, restaurant, homestays, etc. Our lunch is few slices of pizza, couple with beers, and my new found fav snack "lumpini" and chill fairly bit after the long hike. Grab a bag of fried squid while we are on the way to catch a train to Vernazza.
U gotta pass by this tunnel to reach Manarola train station.


Look at the Q from the train station disembarking to Vernazza. 

Reaching Vernazza will scare you off where there are like millions of tourist squeezing into this town but it has a nice vibe to it. Everyone is sitting on the side of the road with one hand on a drink or food and just chill. We just walk around for about 30-45mins and leave to Florence.

Reached Florence was around 5-6pm and we rush to Pizzale Michealangelo to catch the sunset and the magnificent view of Florence.

Europe Itinerary - Rome to Florence - Day 3

We bought the trenitalia ticket to Florence around 1-2pm so we still have plenty of time to wondering around Rome!

The Virgin Mother Mary was just on the street on one of the building. There are devotees passing by touching the flowers.

We went back to Colosseum to get ourself the last look of the amazing historic site before heading to florence. Check out the long Colosseum queue to purchase the tickets. Remember my tips on how to cut queue or skip the queue at Colosseum. Check it here.

As we walk toward Victor Emmanuel II Monument and decided to walk behind the building and as we walk walk walk and walk, we stumble upon Basilica Di Santa Maria di Aracoeli!! The church is amazinggggg inside.




I really got mesmerize with the amount of detailed work and it just un-explainable you gotta visit and feel it.

Check out the ceiling of the church.

We walked from back to the front of Victor Emmanuel II Monument. Now we know that Basilica Di Santa Maria di Aracoeli is located on top or behind Victor Emmanuel II Monument.

It was almost 12pm so we walked back to the apartment to collect our back and head to Roma Termini to catch the train to Florence.

Before reaching to Roma Termini train station, make sure you dropby to Er Buchetto @ Via Viminale 2/f (a short walking distance from the train station) for some awesome Porchetta sandwich! We took away 2 breads and head to the train station as we are catching the train!


It was so hungry and straight we head to Mercato Centrale!
Address: Piazza del Mercato Centrale
Hours: Monday to Saturday 7am to 2pm (Market)
            10:00am to midnight (Food Court)

Our so called dinner, Carbonara and ribs couple with refreshing Ichnusa Beer. Relative cheap meal. Total is around 24 euro.

@ Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore! The weather is getting colder by night and we wondering around the night scene of Florence before walking back to our apartment to get ready for tomorrow day trip to Cinque Terre.

Europe Itinerary - Rome - Day 2 - Spanish Steps, Pantheon, Piazza Navona

After spending much time at St. Peter's Basilica and lunched nearby we choose to skip Castel St. Angelo and just have a look at the outside.

We took the metro from Ottaviano (San Pietro) to Spagna and paid again for 3 euro.









Out from Spagna metro and we walked about 1-2mins and reached Spanish Steps. To be frank, is just the steps and the ads in the pic really ruined the environment or maybe we are tired, so we just sit for awhile and walk to Pantheon.

On the way to Pantheon we dropby this Gelato shop called Venchi (i find this is the best shop/brand of gelato coz of the smoothness of the gelato).

About 15-20 steps from Venchi shop, waaallaaa. We are here, the Pantheon. Entrance to the Pantheon is FREE too!

Inside the Pantheon!





After we are done with Pantheon, slowly walked to Piazza Navona. This is a really nice place to hangout, where there are many showing off of street art be it painting, graffiti, music performance, etc.  We stopped by here quite sometime to watch live performance of graffiti spraying, live much and dancing!




















We walked back to Pantheon to see it lit by at night!

Called it a night at the restaurant nearby our apartment. This meal cost around 26 euro. 

Europe Itinerary - Rome - Day 2

After recharging and trying to adjust our time difference, our plan route for Day 2 were as follow:

1. St. Peter's Basilica @ Vatican City 
2. Spanish Steps (Piazza Di Spagna) 
3. Pantheon
4. Piazza Navona

Early morning we head straight to St. Peter's Basilica,Vatican City! How to travel to St. Peter's Basilica,Vatican City? We took the metro from Roma Termini to Ottaviano (San Pietro) and it cost €3 for both of us and the ticket is valid for 120 mins(if i rmb correctly) where you can travel to any station.

Walking distance from the metro to Vatican City is around 5-10mins (depending the stopover for pictures). While walking towards St. Peter's Basilica we saw this beautiful Mother Mary portrait! Just follow the crowd and walk!

The is NO entrance fee require for St. Peter's Basilica, is FREE but for ladies remember to wear decent clothes where you need to cover your shoulder and knee.

There is security checks like airport where you bags need to be scan and walk through the body scanner!



You will be amaze the ambiance on the architecture that was built

There is a small fee to pay if you wish to go up to the Cupola. We paid 5 euro each and took the kiasu 500 steps to the cupola while paying 7 euro allows you to cut a few hundred steps by taking the lift up halfway and you still need to climb the steps up to the cupola.

You enjoy the magnificent view of Vatican City coupled with the nice windy blowing your face and hair! There's where we queued up to enter the Basilica and the people looked so tiny.

It was almost 1pm where we are tired and hunger for food. Planned to visit Piazza Navona but we were too tired to walk there and instead took a quick lunch at a shop near St.Peter.

I think we over spend our time @ St Peter coz of the charming architecture and the long que up to the cupola. So we took a simple lunch to fill our Stomach as we still have many places to cover!

Europe Itinerary - Rome - Day 1

We landed in Leonardo da Vinci International Airport, Rome in the morning around 7.30am. For budget traveler, board the Terravision bus from airport to the Roma Termini train station. Ticket costs €4 per person which is really cheap and makes sure you buy online else you will end up waiting for the next schedule of the bus or taking other bus company that cost you €5 per person.

We stay @ Via Urbana from Airbnb for 2nights which is really near to Colosseum, around 5-6mins of walk. By the time we checked in with Vincenzo, it was around 11.30 - 12pm due to the traffic from airport to the city. Did a quick refresh of ourself after so many hours of flight and head out to explore Rome.

*Tips - To skip the queue, buy the roma pass or purchase your tickets at Palatine Hill and head back to Colosseum. The usual long queue is because of ppl buying the tickets.

As we walk and reached Colosseum around 3-4pm, the queue was not that long and i think we queue around 15-20 mins only. 

The tickets cost €12 per person is valid for Colosseum, Palatine Hill and Roma Forum (Valid for 2days, if you're unable to finish the tour,come back tomorrow.)

It was a tiring day for us due to jetlag and the time different, we wrapped up after touring Colosseum, Palatine Hill and Roma Forum and head for dinner. Dinner for us cost around €25-30 with appetizer, main course and a drink in Italy.

Europe Itinerary - Italy & Switzerland

Honeymoon trip in Europe covering - Italy & Switzerland in mid Sept to Oct.

Italy itinerary we hop on to different cities based on the following route:

1. Rome - 2 nights (Link 1 & Link 2)
2. Florence - 3 nights to cover Pisa & Cinque Terre (Link 1)
3. Venice - 2 nights to cover Murano & Burano Island
4. Milan - 1 night

Sharing of travelling tips while we were in Italy:

1. Fast train connection intercity (e.g. Rome to Florence) you may purchase your ticket early to get the best deal on their website - Trenitalia. For e-tickets you may show the train conductor when they perform the checking on trains while buying the hardcopy tickets, make sure you validate your ticket before boarding any trains. (All trains in Italy required seat reservation, the seat number will be printed on your ticket)
2. Beware of pick pockets in Italy train station or in the trains. Make sure you do not rush your time else they will come and take advantage of you.

Switzerland itinerary we hop on to different cities based on the following route

1. Lauterbrunnen - 2 nights (Link 1)
2. Zurich - 2 nights to cover Lucerne/Luzern & Rhine falls
3. Geneva- 1 nights

Sharing of travelling tips while we were in Switzerland :

1. We bought the Swiss Travelling Pass which we think is worth it after much calculation.
2. Trains in Swiss do not required any seat reservation (you may sit anywhere in the train but make sure you are in the correct class), just hop on to any train to your destination.
3. Look for COOP or Migros Supermarket to get your food. Dining in Swiss is super expensive for travelers like us.

Download the "Stay" app on Iphone or Andriod for city navigation, it is really useful. - Do not need internet connection.