Category: travel

Ah, Venice [wikipedia.org]. Possibly the most romantic city in the world. But… like most well known romantic cities Venice knows how romantic it is which means it’s really easy to spend a lot of money and get jaded by too many tourists, expensive hotels and overpriced food.

Luckily this did not happen to Candice and I. I think, despite my being a bit depressed over the loss of my camera, that we have a good time in Venice. We only stayed three days and did not get to see everything but we had a good time. We even did a few overly touristy things; a gondola [wikipedia.org] ride with accordion and live singing accompaniment, and a trip around the lagoon to three of the other islands, Murano [wikipedia.org], Burano [wikipedia.org] and Torcello [wikipedia.org].

The food in Venice was very good. We ate at a couple of local taverns suggested by one of the staff at our hotel and while it was not the best food we ate in Italy it was quite good and not too expensive. The atmosphere was fun too; cramped into tiny tables back to back with other customers with waiters squeezing past to bring the bowls of soup and plates of pasta. Perfect.

I think that the reason Venice is such a wonderful place to visit comes down to only a few things; the lack of cars and roads, the canals and water and the age of the buildings. These combine in Venice is to create a wonderful ‘living ruins’ feeling. The water is slowly eating away at everything making sure the old building always look old, the small twisting streets make the place feel more ancient, you can’t even see a car and the fact that people really do live in Venice—and the shops and services for the people who call the islands home are mixed with the shops and services for the tourist hordes.

I think I would really like to take Candice back to Venice in the summer so we can sit outside at cafes along the canals and drink a good bottle of wine. Take long walks in the warm evening air and explore more of the back streets away for the Grand Canal [wikipedia.org] and see the many sites we did not have time to take in in the few days we were in Venice.

Verona [wikipedia.org] is supposed to be a romantic city for lovers. A good stop you would say for a honeymoon? Well I won’t be remembering it for it’s romantic qualities, not from this trip. You see it was while getting off the train in fair Verona where I lost my camera. Not quite a Shakespearean tragedy but a quick way to ruin my day nonetheless.

I tried to enjoy Verona. Took a few photos with the Ixus I purchased for Candice before the trip—she insisted I keep it to make me feel better, which did make it easier to put aside my desire to sit in a pub and try to find my missing camera in the bottom of a few too many bottles of good Italian wine (and maybe something stronger.)

So. Only a few photos from Verona but I feel I should still post an entry for completeness. On the bright side I should mention that we had our first really good Italian food at a small tavern in Verona. Possibly the best gnocchi I’ve ever had and it was not even on the menu. The chef made it because they did not have any other vegetarian dishes that day. One more reason that Italians are better than French in my worldview.

You can see a few more photos in the Verona, Italy, November 2007 photoset on Flickr [flickr.com]

Candice and I visited Como [wikipedia.org] as a day trip from Milan. Unfortunately we did not leave Milan until about noon. So by the time we got to Como and walked from the train station to town we have little daylight to explore the city by. And then there is the fact that almost all the photos I did take were with my 40D which was stolen a few days later. C’est la vie. I only have a few photos from Como but you can see the rest in the Como, Italy, November 2007 photoset on Flickr [flickr.com].

Milan [wikipedia.org] was the beginning and the end of Candice and my trip to Italy. The alpha and omega or our long delayed honeymoon. Milan was the beginning and the end because it is cheaper to fly in and out of the same city, otherwise we might have ended in Rome.

In the end it was a good idea to return to Milan; before leaving Singapore I tried unsuccessfully to get reservations to see the Leonardo’s The Last Supper [wikipedia.org] in Milan. I told the reservation company that we would be back in Milan for a day before leaving and they were able to get the reservations for that day. But I’m getting ahead of myself… Quite a few things happened before we saw the Last Supper.

We arrived early in the morning an had an adventure trying to get enough small change to buy tickets for the train from the airport from the automated machine. To get enough small change we had to get coffee from a cafe (and the first cafe turned us away as they did not have enough change for our 20 Euro note—this was to be a reoccurring theme while in Italy, everywhere we went people were asking for exact change or smaller notes. This was mostly annoying but in some places it was a problem, if I had had smaller change I would given it to them, I didn’t!) Even after drinking our espresso and latte we still needed more change so we went to a shop and got some bottled water for the train ride.

After navigating the train and metro system we checked into our hotel and attacked their breakfast. Like having correct change, hotel breakfasts were to be a reoccurring problem. Candice was not impressed by them and she was distraught at the thought of the same thing every morning for almost a month but we only had Chinese for dinner four times in three weeks so I think we did well.

Our hotel was not quite two blocks away from Piazza del Duomo. This made the first stop easy enough; The Duomo of Milan [wikipedia.org]. The Duomo is impressive, being one of the largest and tallest cathedrals in the world. The vast open space of the inside is truly awe inspiring.

After exploring the insides of the Duomo we stopped for lunch near the Piazza and then visited La Scala [wikipedia.org] and spent some time listening to a symphony practice the works of Toscanini [wikipedia.org].

We didn’t actually spent a lot of time in Milan, we went to Como [wikipedia.org] and on a train ride to Switzerland on the second and third day we were in Italy respectively. And on the forth day we were off to Verona and Venice.

Unfortunately one of the downsides of going to Italy in November is that the sun sets at 4:30. Most of the major sites close an hour before sunset or at sunset so it is hard to visit more than a few things in a day. Fortunately La Scala and the Duomo in Milan are close enough that after La Scala we returned to the Duomo to take in the sunset from the roof. The roof of the Duomo is magnificent, a must visit site. Even packed with all manner of tourists the site is awe inspiring. Every inch of the spires and buttresses of the Duomo are covered in carvings creating a magical playground unlike anywhere else I’ve ever been.

As I said earlier we visited Como and spent a day to ride the train through Switzerland (to Geneva and back to Milan) while staying in Milan are at the start of our trip. So the only other site we visited in Milan in the first few days was the Castle Sforzesco [wikipedia.org] which contains some nice museums. Worth a visit but not much to shout about. Anyway, there are no photos from the museum (or many from Milan for that matter) because of what happened on the way to Verona: someone stole my camera bag and all my camera equipment while on the train to Verona. Partly due to my own stupidity but this threatened to kill my mode for a few days. I did manage to put it aside and enjoy the rest of the trip but still feel sad about the photos that could have been. Candice was nice enough to let me use the Canon Ixus 75 I purchased for her for the trip. But it was not till Rome near the end of the trip that I was used to it enough to take a number or good photos. Everything you see posted to Flickr in my Italy sets is from the Ixus. This explains the lack of photos from Milan and Como as I was using my 40D not the Ixus, we only took a few snap shots with the Ixus.

As I said before I turned out to be a good thing that we returned to Milan for our flight back to Singapore. I managed to revisit the Duomo (including the roof—this time early in the morning) to take a few photos and even though they are not what I would have liked it is at least something.

The only other thing we did when for the day we had back in Milan was to visit Leonardo’s The Last Supper at Santa Maria delle Grazie [wikipedia.org]. Candice was not impressed and I don’t blame her. I was quite disappointed because the ‘tour’ you have to buy a ticket for in advance includes nothing but the painting itself. And while I enjoyed the tour the first time I took it with A—– in 2002 I felt cheated this time. The first time I went there was a guide who explained the history of the painting and talked about the symbolism making the whole tour much more meaningful. This time there was nothing. Just a room with a fresco. I don’t know if the guide the first time was a fluke or if this time we visited on a bad day or maybe they have decided that since the Da Vinci Code was so big they don’t need to have a guide. Whatever the reason I was disappointed and I have a hard time explaining to Candice why I enjoyed the painting so much.

That covers the sites we visited in Milan but a few words must be said about just walking the streets of Milan around the Piazza del Duomo. Streets filled with shops in the name of every major and minor fashion house in the world. The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II [wikipedia.org] and other less known streets are amazing just to walk. Downtown Milan seems much more a living city than any of the others we visited (except maybe Rome) and it actually feels like people live there not like the glass bubble of Venice or the postcard vistas of central Florence.

You can see the whole Milan, Italy, November 2007 photoset on Flickr [flickr.com].

I’ve been to Jakarta three times on business, all three times it was fly in in the morning, have a meeting and then fly out. This time the meeting was on Friday afternoon so I decided to stay a night and see about some photos.

First off; there is nothing in Jakarta to photograph if you want typical Southeast Asian travel photos. No great ancient temples, no colorful Chinatown (there is a Chinatown but it’s not much different than any other part of town. The closest thing to interesting sites is old Batavia where the Dutch built their capital. Unfortunately for me it seemed to be under renovation—the whole damn city square!

Jakarta is a sprawling stinking polluted mess of a city. Dotted with ‘heroes of the revolution’ type statues and monuments that would not be out of place in Stalins Moscow. The constant haze and pollution means getting decent photos of these monument is hard.

I guess there must be little back alleys and hidden places that would be interesting to photograph, places that would be fun or exciting to visit but even the Lonely Planet only devotes two pages of it’s Southeast Asia on a Shoestring book to Jakarta.

It’s just not that interesting. But you can see the rest of the Jakarta, Indonesia, October 2007 photoset on Flickr [flickr.com].