Rome #3

Most of the foods we ate in our stay in Rome are pretty similar. We followed the guidebook to Panther Rosa for our first dinner outside of the hostel. it was DELICIOUS~!

We ordered 2 pizzas - the one im holding is their house speciality: Salmon cream pizza. Shujun is holding the Eggplant and Ham pizza. They are both insanely yummy to the point we couldn't stop gobbling and even contemplated ordering another serving!


Italian pastas however are crazily salty... so tho this Spicy Tomato paste Buccatini (Fat hollow spaghetti pasta) was highly recommended by the guidebook we didnt quite take to it. Too damn salty liao...

More photos of our yummies hahaha... i wish i could eat them now again!


Evidence of us gobbling.. sigh what can i say : Panther Rosa rocks!


And so to conclude our very lovely and satisfying dinner, we ordered a tiramisu to share as dessert.. we thought it was heavenly too.. until the last day when we chanced upon another restaurant that served tiramisu that even the gods in mount olympius would commit murder/incest/all bad deeds (oh wait they've done all that already..hmm) to taste.


IF you look beyond Cherysa's big face, you'd see this cute little child with a head of curly locks looking over at us. Well i thought it was a boy but after seeing the flower motifs on the front of the tshirt it mus be a she so i shall stop calling it it oh stopit SHE SHE SHE i mean. so the little girl was being absolutely entertaining for me haha she kept refusing to eat n jus kept talking singing n all. I cannot for the life of me remember what was it she did that made me want to snap this photo.. all i can remember is i tot the father was rather dashing.. kinda like the dark handsome brooding italian haha.. notice i omitted TALL... well cos he's anything BUT! haha.. so anyways i think he wasn't too happy we were snapping pictures of his baby girl.. darn italian fathers r so protective of their children n they absolutely adore them u kno.. kiss hug cuddle play with them openly its such a heartwarming sight..

This was a place we had our last dinner at. Oh the food was absolutely yummy again! thank our lucky stars we just chanced upon it randomly we didnt even get the name of the restaurant but the food was so good n the price was so reasonable too! I totally love the cream pasta haha.. The Calzone (folded pizza) was interesting but my stomach wasn't at its best that day hence i couldn't take the oil from the pizza and instead happily tucked into the cream pasta with mushroom, ham n peas! oh man peas go so well with pastas!



This is the ultra sedap tiramisu... man food jus gets better and better as the days past haha.. the tiramisu was soft and moist not too sweet n it left a lingering taste in ur mouth jus makes u want to take another mouthful and another and another till there's nothing left :(

We went into one of those fastfood pizza joints for a meal during the day the pizzas were also deliciously good. I declare thin crust pizzas my all time favourite!

Trevi FountainShujun took this photo off a poster... it shows u the entire fountain cos try as we might we simply could not fit the whole fountain into our photos..

The real deal - how the fountain looks like in real photos haha..

Notice the detail in the bottom left hand side of the fountain? There is a wave pattern covering the corner window. Stories go that when the fountain was being built, the shopowner who occupied that corner slot complained that the fountain was affecting his business and demanded something be done about it. He kept complaining and blaming the construction of the fountain for cursing his shop with bad business cos ppl cant see his shop as the construction was blocking it that in frustration to deal with the shopkeeper, they decided to permanently put a wave over the window thus blocking it forever. haha so cute i wish i could put a wave over the side wall of my house and block my neighbour out of view too..

In the top right hand corner of the building do u see a fake window? There's also a very interesting story behind this! A boy living in this building jumped out of that window and died hitting the bottom of the fountain cos the water was very shallow. From then on, his father ordered the window to be bricked up to prevent anymore such 'nasty accidents' .. i choose to think that the father is haunted by it and every night he goes to the window he sees his son jump out the window. its creepy so he decides to brick it up to stop the hauntings.. but that's jus my 2 cents worth believe wad u wish! haha..

So many people at the fountain on a random lazy afternoon... its really very relaxing to sit there and stone... but then there are people selling squishy balls to you... useless things i feel... yet they shove it in ur face n coerce u to buy it..

The statues on the building actually tell a story too... i onli remember snippets so i shan't try to tell the story here lest its inaccurately told.. haha.. but the folklore's really interesting to hear..


Next up:

Pompeii City

blogger's acting up

i don mean to stop after rome#1 but there's smth wrong w blogger's upload pictures function. cant seem to work and i have no patience to fiddle with it now cos 28dayslater is showing in 30mins!

i loved 28weekslater.. i know wad u thinking... dis girl must b weird to love such a gory flick.. but i still love it ha ha...

so ciao mayb monday i'll try uploading again!

Rome #2

Visit to the Vatican City!

Finally blogger has stopped throwing its tantrum and i can blog these photos up! these are not the end, there's still pompeii n the glorious foods i haven posted haha..

St Peter's Basilica

See the throngs of people in this open space.. they arent' standing here for nothing, they are queuing to enter St Peter's Basilica haha.. being the law-abiding singaporeans we are, we joined the queue... but later on we saw some really unethical mexicans and italians simply cutting the queue blatantly and no one says a thing.. thank god for the guards at the entrance who spotted ppl cutting queue and refused them entry, asking them to really go n queue instead... yay i feel less wronged hahaha..
its a glorious sight.. the basilica.. haha..

upon entering this is what we see.. the basilica has a ver high ceiling, bright and airy, pretty welcoming.. however do note that if you wish to visit this place you need to be properly attired, means no short skirts or sleeveless clothing.. u need to cover up at least till ur shoulders and ur knees..

st peter's houses several famous paintings and sculptures- this is one of them.. i kno this had a really nice story behind it but i cannot remember it for the life of me.. it seems to have slipped my memory so sad... im starting to forget my wonderful trip... :(

This is the main altar where St Peter, the apostle who is considered the first pope was crucified and buried. this trip to Europe taught me alot about Jesus, Virgin Mary, the Apostles etc etc haha.. i never knew alot of the things i know now.. i just wish i could remember them for longer.. its already starting to slip my mind these things..

Other popes were also buried in the Basilica.. in this manner.. ok i admit it is rude to take photos of mummified people especially one as revered as a pope..they are virtually on display for eternity even after death cos ppl visit the Basilica on a daily basis... so this photo is shujun take one hor.. not me hahaha...

Vatican Museums

We visited the Vatican Museum on a different day from St Peter's Basilica even tho they were in the same place ie Vatican City.. it was due to lack of planning and ignorance at closing times of the Vatican Museum. Anyhow we still got our student discount for the VM which we were very happy to receive haha.. no matter how long we queued for this.. and the VM is essentially a museum trail designed to lead everyone to the Sistine Chapel eventually.. well we didnt know that so we hurried our way through the Museum thinking we could come back n see these things later cos SC was our main priority.. think about halfway through den we realised after SC it was exit all the way liao haha..

At the entrance i just love the curved ceilings and its intricate details...

Amidst the crowd. i look tired.. well that's cos i am! haha.. last day in rome i think damn tired lah.. hahaha.. rome was the most hectic out of all our trips cos it had the most to see..

This was a painting done on the ceiling! i thought it was a very remarkable painting cos it looked so extremely 3d i would reach out to touch it if i could just to see if my fingers entered an alternate dimension haha..

More pictures of my favourite arched walkways with many many very tall people... i feel like a shortie in Europe..

Last but not least!

Sistine Chapel

We only have one very precious photo cos it is forbidden to take pictures in this holy place! like seriously they don just say say one.. they mean it cos there's lots of guards around to scream "NO PHOTOS!" to whoever whipped out a camera.. they even go as far as to make sure u delete those photos if they catch you.. its that strict so lucky u we managed to get even one photo thanks to auntie shujun! hahaha.. i was too humji to even try but she did so yay we haf a photo for keepsakes! haha.. there's more to the sistine chapel obviously but this was the main fresco that told the tale of jesus i think..

anw the sistine chapel is very highly protected to maintain it. we saw this kid spill a drink in the chapel and immediately several guards formed a tight circle around the spillage to prevent people from stepping and spreading the spilled drink around the chapel. A cleaner was called in and they poured sand to soak up the liquid before sweeping so that the broom would not scrap away the details of the floor tiles.. if my mum made me do that at home.. i swear i'd never dirty the floor again.. i'd hover around the house if i had to... hahaha...

so photos of Pompeii city and Mt Vesuvius in the next post! Next time now i want to sleep liao haha..

Rome #1

after procrastinating endlessly.. n visiting cherysa's blog only to realise she has finished blogging the entire trip.. i shall not laze around but attempt to blog until Rome for the day haha.. so more pictures for everyone! :)

Rome was a pretty intense place.. the hostel we stayed in "Navigator's Hostel" deserves mention.. it is one of the most friendly hostels i have ever lived in. The other hostels we stayed in we never had so much contact with the owners or people living in there. In addition, its the only hostel ever to provide dinner on alternate days. To put it bluntly, its kinda over-friendly to the point where you lose your personal space but hey if that's what you want, this is the perfect place for you!

We spent 5 days in Rome. it was lovely we have hundreds of photos so i think i'll upload them in blocks haha.. not in order just according to category :)

Let's start with the hostel! Navigator hostel! We shared this tiny space with several other people. there was a total of 8 max in a room. The night we came there was a Prague couple whom the hostel owner Johnny told us alot of stories about. However, they decided to sleep at the beach for that one night and the morning when they came back, they packed their stuff and left. Then there was another interesting character, an Argentinean lawyer, who was really quiet and shy, he only started talking to us on the 2nd night. (after cherysa's eye candy left boohoo!)

This is Omar. The 'security guard' for the night. he stays in the hostel to 'protect' us haha.. They are in the kitchen cooking fried chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner today.

This is Johnny. He is the owner of the hostel. U know.. it is true when they say you cant judge a book by its covers.. Johnny grew up being an ah beng.. but he eventually became his own boss.. who can say anything about him now?

Fried chicken in the making! yummy!

Yay! its done we finally get to enjoy some delicious foods! :)

The colosseum!! it is bloody majestic looking! It was 11 euros well spent! :)

A procession we saw along the way! On the day we arrived in Rome, we thought it was Rome's birthday, but when we asked around no one seemed to know. thankfully, on the morning after we arrived in Rome we saw this! A special procession celebrating something that we do not know haha.. anyhow it was a really really loooong procession! The girl in orange is SUPER CHIO... n i mean like really really chio haha.. too bad we couldn't get an upclose shot of her.. nevertheless her image is forever in my head.. haha.. she is that beautiful ok!

Kids never fail to brighten up anything.. they add so much youth and vibrancy to the procession when they look lost and mess up the organized execution of the entire group of people trooping down the street..

The Palatines! Our entry tickets to the Colosseum also allowed us to visit this place of ruins. its kinda like a park where there are alot of ruined buildings and structures and artifacts.. too bad there was no guide or audioguide to tell us the stories behind all these things.. so we just walked around and looked but didn't really understand or know the stories behind every item there.

Ok this is the end of Part 1 of Rome. Will continue the remainder later on...