Date: 19th July 2009
Venue: Italy, Rome
Wow...After few months of planning, it's time for us to have our
last holidaysbefore we go to Malaysia for good. Thanks to my
dear husband who plannedeverything properly for the trip.
I am not a good planner. So, have to rely on my husband to
make reservations for everything.... haha....
God is good, all the time!!!! We experienced Him a lot
during our trip to Italy...... At first we planned to go to
city centre train station with bus (as we have sold our car).
It was quite troublesome to go there with luggage on day
with quite gloomy weather. However, as we were waiting,
we saw a car gradually slowing down as it approched the bus
stop. It was sister Naggi..... she saw us and offerred us a lift
to the train station. Wow..... Praise the Lord....
We took train to Gatwick Airport (London) and we stayed
at Yotel for just a few hours for a nap before we flew to Rome
with Easy Jet. Yotel is a cabin hotel in Gatwick Airport.
Although it's small, it is a nice place if you just want a nap.
Please visit the website for more info:
http://www.yotel.com/default.aspx
Photos taken in Yotel Cabin
After about 5 hours nap in Yotel, we flew to Rome.....It was so hot
in Rome. I was not feeling well at that time so the hot weather
was really killing me. I felt so uncomfortable but still have to
smile while taking photos...... hahahaha......
We stayed in Stella's house B&B while we were in Rome. The owner
of the B&B (Stella) is a warm and nice lady. Although she cannot
speak proper English, she tried all her best to show us the direction
to the tourism spots in Rome. So, i would recommend you to stay at
Stella's house if you were looking for affordable and comfortable place
to stay in Rome.However, one thing that we did not like about this B&B
is it is located near to the main street, and a lot of vehicles passing by
that street at night. So, it's a bit noisy at night. But apart from that,
it's a nice place to stay.
Please visit the website for more info.
http://www.venere.com/bandb/rome/bandb-stellas-house/
There are a lot of stalls along the streets outside of Stella's house.
You can easily buy food such as pizza as there are a few bakeries and
pizza shops besides Stella's house.
Joyce is happy with her first lunch in Rome
After lunch, we went to first hot spot in Rome with train - The
Colosseo. The place was very crowded. My advice to you if you want
to visit Rome in June or July will be to apply sun tan cream, wear sun
glasses or hat or even bring umbrella and must have water with you
all the time if you do not want to get dehydrated.
It's ok if you do not bring enough drinking water with you as you can
easily get drinking water everywhere in Rome. You can refill water at
the place shown in the pictures below.
Joyce cannot stand the heat in Rome + not feeling well
at that time = give up and sit beside the road to rest while
Nelson walk around to take some photos
After that, we walked down the street and we reached Arco di Tito
where we saw a lot of ruins. This is Foro di Cesare (Forum of Caesar)
which lies at the foot of the Capitol hill, part of its area being now
occupied by the gardens and parking lots of the Via dei Fori Imperiali.
It was built between 54 and 46 B.C. by Julius Caesar at his personal
expense, with the object both of enhancing his own fame and meeting
the needs of the citizens, for which the old Forum Romanum was no
longer adequate. The scanty remains give little impression of the original
structure, which covered an area 170x75m/550x250ft. Nothing has
survived of the sculptural
statue of Caesar which is described by ancient writers.
Then, we walked further and we reached Monument to Vittorio.
Its is a monument to honour Victor Emmanuel, the first king of
a unified Italy Emanuele II. I think this is a very important place
to Italian as visitors and tourists are not allowed to sit or
even squad down at this monument. I guess it means that you
do not show respect if you sit or squad down. There was a group
of people sat down on the staircase while taking photos. At
the end, the security guard asked them to delete the photo
as they were sitting down.
Wow...it was really hot outside, i could not stand anymore.
I was like walking in an oven. Finally, i gave up and back to Stella's
house. I took some photos in the room before i took a nap.
The old style lift
It's time for dinner. At first, we wanted to have dinner at a Steak House
beside the Stella's House. According to Stella, they offer nice steak.
However, we went out at about 5.30pm and it's consider too early
for dinner. So, a lot of restaurants were still closed and yet to start
business. Later, only we realized that normally Italian do not have
dinner such early. So, if you want to get nice Italian food, you have to
wait until maybe 8pm.
Ok.... back to my story about 1st dinner in Rome. As we were
out for dinner too early and we had no choice but to have it
as we needed to be back to B&B earlier for rest. So, we walked
around to look for restaurants which has started business.
Finally, we entered into one resraurant which offered set dinner
at 8 Euro (main course + vege, 1 bottle of water, coffee) and
10 Euro (main course + vege, 1 bottle of water, coffee & dessert)
Wow... it is cheap loh!!! So, we ordered the 8 Euro and 10 Euro
set dinner. Em.....we nearly fainted when the we ate the food.
Let's talk about the main course first. Nelson had steak while
i had cabonara spaghetti. According to Nelson, the steak was
like stone and not cooked properly. Nelson suspected they
did not fry or grill it but just cook it in the microwave. And for
myself..... this was the worst cabonara that i had ever tasted.
The spaghetti were like dipped in melted butter.
Later, they served us the steamed vegetables. The vegatables
looked ok but again... we nearly fainted when we ate. The
vegetables were very soft and it seemed like steamed for
too long or it was the leftover from yesterday.
Ok... next, dessert. They served Nelson with a slice of pie and
they also served me a slice of pie (the dessert was not included
in my set dinner, but they said it's a complimentary from them)
Wow... as a dessert lover, i felt so happy as i had dessert too....
However, i nearly fainted again when i tasted the pie.... It was
the worst pie that i had ever tasted...... it was hard and the cream
inside tasted terrible.
Ok... we still tried to be positive and hope that at least the coffee
will be the only thing that we enjoyed for this dinner. However,
to our surprise, the coffee tasted so bitter and 2 packets of sugar
also did not help to reduce the bitterness.... WOW.... this time
we really gave up..... So, we asked the waiter for bill. The waiter's
attitude was not really good since the beginning.
Later, we discovered that we were overcharged 4 Euro. So,
we asked the waiter. According to him, they charged 2 Euro
per person as service charge...... Wa!!!! 2 Euro per person.
They did not serve us properly still want to get 2 Euro from
us? Their serving attitude was terrible.... they were like banging
the plates on the table when they served the food.
Finally, we left the restaurant with lot's of complaints although
we know that we should not complain. However, i must say that
i vomitted everything out at night as i felt really uncomfortable
after eating the oily oily Cabonara spaghetti.
Our advice to those who wish to find good food in Rome.
Rule #1: After 8pm
Rule #2: Don't look for restaurant which offer cheap set lunch
or dinner.....
Rule #3: Don't look for restaurant which has waiters or waitresses
standing outside to "pull" customers.....
