Update On My Italy Trip: 9 - 10/2/2009

Just a summary of my trip to Italy with my colleague and friend Bryan. Will update the blog with pictures if I have internet access while on my trip.

My itinerary

9/2/2009 (Mon) - 10/2/2009 (Tue)
11:40PM (MY time) - Rome at 5:30 AM (IT time)

Flight from KLIA to Rome - Fiumicino.
Took a direct from KLIA to Rome. The flight was not full, more like a quarter filled mainly by Italians.

Salted peanut snack.

I could not sleep in the plane, more than 12 hours awake on board. Dinner was around 6pm (IT time) was fish and potato, which was not bad.

Dinner

Lights off after dinner, but I could not sleep, was wide awake I just can't sleep well while traveling, be it in a car, bus or train. While I was awake, I watched 10 episodes of Heroes (Season 2) on the flight's on board entertainment system.

Heroes, season 2.


Early morning snacks.

Breakfast 3:50am (IT time) was omelate (not so good). The dessert banana smoothie and fruits was to my dislike. The only good thing about the breakfast was the croissant.

Breakfast

The plane landed around 5:30AM. Once I stepped out of the plane, I was hit by the Rome cool air which was around 8°C. We boarded a bus (yup, no sky bridge) to gate C. Went though immigration and collected our bags.


Fumicino airport to Termini Station (Rome)
We took the non stop train the Leonardo Express (Trenitalia) from the airport to Termini railway station in Rome. Cost EUR 11. Have to stamp the ticket to validate the time which is valid for 90 minutes from the time the ticket is validated to your destination. We heard from a local lady that if you don't validate the ticket, you could be fined heavily.

Nothing to see out the window as the sun has not yet risen.

Bryan and me outside the station.


Photo taken from outside the station.

Termini (Rome) to Firenze Santa Maria Novella railway station (Florence)
Once we reached Termini station on platform I think 26 after 7AM and we headed to platform 7 where the scheduled timetable said the train from Rome to Florence would depart from. It was a long walk.

The weather was cloudy, cold and windy. Could not change our departure time to an earlier train, so we were stuck with the 8:50am train. Just around 8:30AM, we found out that the train to Florence was to depart from Platform 4.

Our Train (Trainitalia) from Rome to Florence
. Cost EUR 57,80.
. Travel time 8:50AM to 10:27AM
. Our carriage 11 and seats 61-62.
. There are toilets on board the speed train too.

Nice scenery on the way from Rome to Florence. The trip took around 1 1/2 hours. Did not take many photos as I was sleepy and nodding off in the train.


Florence
Stayed in Town House Suite Casa Dolce Casa - Florence
. Address Via San Zanobi 27 - 50100 Florence.
. Cost EUR 32

It is a small town house, located around 5-10 minutes walk from the train station. We took around 1/2 hour to find the place, walking around the streets of Florence with the help of a printed Google map.

Met Vito who checked us in. Showed us around the town house, gave us a map of Florence and informed us where to visit. All the places to see is within walking distance.

We stayed a night in a twin bedded room. The twin room, kitchen and bathrooms and areas within the town house is clean, that is very important. There is free internet access, a very very important necessity for me... to update my blog :-D

The toilet has hot water, which is even more important.

Just a night, as Florence is a small city, and most of the tourist spots are within walking distance.


Florence Sight-Seeing
We walked in Florence for around 5 hours. It was still cold 5°C, windy and wet, as it rained nearly the whole day. The rain is not like the torrential rain we have in Malaysia, but it was like a drizzle.

Will update the blog later with some photos and places we visited. Most of the photos of myself was taken my me :-P

Lunch at IL Bottlegone on Via Martelli. I had spaghetti with meat balls (Secondi Cont) and a bottle of mineral water. Cost Eur 9.50 (Eur 8 for the spaghetti). Bryan had lasagna and coke. Things here are expensive for us Malaysians after converting our little RM to EURO.

I was dead tired, and we walked back to Casa Dolce Casa, had our baths and rested before our dinner. That was around 6:30pm, but by 7pm we slept and was too lazy to go out in the freezing cold for dinner. Yup no dinner, I just had a small bar of chocolate.

I was shivering, and I had to put on my thermal wear to keep myself warm.

The other guests came back later that night, and this place is not sound proof. It was NOISY.


End of day 1 in Italy
. KLIA - Rome - Florence