Italy-Venice

Welcome to Venice!

Luxurious gondolas

Beautifully crafted venetian masks

Miniature glass art!

Venice! 

I always hear people saying how beautiful Venice is, now I finally get to see it for myself. 

Well, upon first glance, it is beautiful, but it really isn't much after a while. There wasn't much sightseeing either, I pretty much finished Venice in a day. At this point I was already quite sick of visiting museums and random churches so I didn't bother. Didn't take a boat ride either because those gondolas cost a bomb to ride on, though they look really nice! 

I was more interested in the tons of shops selling either venetian masks or murano glass crafts. That whole miniature orchestra is really pretty to look at. Each figure measures less than a thumb's length and is quite detailed. There was also a chess set but I couldn't get a good photo of it behind the window. These things cost a bomb too! A photo is just good enough for keepsake.

That pretty much wraps up my whole trip. Pity I couldn't make a trip to Pisa to view the leaning tower, making my visit to Italy incomplete. Overall, I still enjoyed my trip and had a pretty good time =)

Italy-Florence

Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore

Seafood risotto
My 2nd happiest meal of the trip

Not much photos for Florence because I basically only had one day for sightseeing and photos were not allowed for two museums I visited. The Uffizi gallery was quite nice, though not as impressive as the one I went in Vienna. The other is the Academia, which houses Michelangelo's famed 'David'. The only thing worth seeing there is basically just David. And for that one look, it cost 11euros plus 90 minutes of queuing. To me, I was quite willing to part with the money. After all, I have already came all the way, might as well just have a glance. However, to those who have no interest in the arts at all, I would say skip all the museums. You'd be better off spending the entrance fee elsewhere.

Italy-Rome

Second stop, Rome.

If you're wondering, yes, this is an escalator.

The colosseum

The Roman Forum & Palatine Hills

View of town area over Palatine Hill

The Vatican

Top view of front area of Vatican

Backyard of Vatican, restricted area 

Stairway of the Vatican Museum

The Last Judgement

The Trevi Fountain

Amazing bakery that sells really good pastries

Why a photo of an escalator?

Not that I want to complain, but the metro stations of Italy is not what I would call friendly for the disabled, elderly and people with heavy luggages, like me. That long flight of steps you see is the only exit of the metro, and it wasn't working the day I arrived there!! What a stroke of bad luck! There was no lift around, as with most of the metro stations, but at least the others only had a short flight of stairs. Thank goodness halfway through the climb, some kind fellow helped me! There is some good in this world after all!

The colosseum, vatican, sistine chapel, famous tourist spots of Rome, and definitely tourist infested! It's not obvious in my photos as I try to avoid capturing human heads as much as I can, but there was a sea of people in every spot! And one thing which I don't understand why it always happens to me, almost all the sites that I visit are under renovation at certain parts. So every time I take a photograph, I have to avoid the ugly parts with all the scaffoldings. It happened when I was in Vienna last year too!

Pastries and baked goods in Italy is really good!
How I wished I had the stomach to try everything in the shop.
Though it's not exactly cheap, but I'd gladly pay the price for such quality.
I'm already missing the fabulous choux creams I had there!

Italy-Milan

My first stop in Italy, Milan. 

Milan Cathedral
Duomo di Milano

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

Unsuspecting building tucked in a corner of the plaza...

...in which was hidden a 7-storey shopping place.

Random structure

Wild berries & cacao gelato

There wasn't much sightseeing to be done in Milan. The most famous one is the Duomo, located right next to the Galleria. These two places were done in under an hour. And I was left dangling, didn't know where to go next as I didn't expect it would be so quick. So, decided to visit a shopping place that was newly opened and featured in a magazine I picked up.

And I immediately regretted that decision. 

There were barely any street signs around and I don't understand why the Italians are so secretive in labeling the street and building names. You won't know the name of a particular building until you are right in front of the entrance. This really doesn't help when I'm trying to find my way around the place. In the end, I spent over half an hour searching in the area, only to find out that the place is located about 200m from the Galleria, right under my nose!

La Rinascente. 

The exterior of the building suggests nothing of a shopping place, and the signage is totally inconspicuous!

Anyways, the shopping place held all the high end brands such as LV, Dior, blah blah. So you can imagine how unexciting it was for me. The only thing I enjoyed here was lunch, and it was the best I had throughout the whole trip. An order of angus beef fillet with grilled vegetables and sautéed potatoes. Yum!

That pretty much wraps up Milan. I would say it didn't leave me a good impression. In fact, I got cheated on the very first day! In the central station, there were these bunch of people who targeted unwary tourists that just arrived. And in the main tourist spots, there were also dozens who either gives you feed for the pigeons or push some kind of trinket onto you and ask for coins. They can get really pushy at times. I'm just glad I didn't get pick-pocketed.

Sakura Miku

Isn't she adorable!!

I already lost count how many versions of Hatsune Miku has been released.

Still, she's definitely going to be in my figure collection!

Arteastiq at Mandarin Gallery

Visited the Arteastiq Tea Lounge on Monday. 

It was very packed and the queue never ended for the whole time my friends and I were there.

Next to the tea lounge is a space which they provide canvas and paint for people to paint, at a fee of course. I find it to be quite a interesting concept, and there is a surge of such concept cafes around SG recently. For people who just want to try their hands at painting, this is a good solution that doesn't cost too much.

Anyway, the interior of the lounge was nice. Sadly, I didn't get to sit in the sofa area.

Was seated under a large white lantern-like lamp. Their table and chairs were quite assorted, like random mix-and-match, but in a way, artistic. 

They had a tea set for 2 at $48, which includes a choice of tea, and a platter of smoked salmon, crabmeat salad, smoked turkey ham, spicy top shell salad, a crispy prata wrap and either a orange or apple cake. The portion was tiny! Quite pricey for such a small serving. Not to mention taste is not fantastic. What they served was really simple food, not much cooking involved. Think I would stick to scones and sandwiches for hi-tea.

Their tea is quite nice. I had a oolong tea with lychee gelato. The gelato was good.

And I liked the wooden tray which they served it in.

They have really nice china crockery for the other tea selections.

Though I doubt I will ever go back again.

Chirp Chirp

I can't believe it's August already!

A quick update on what I've been busy with over the past month.

 This parrot took me the longest time to make!

It measures a total length of 5cm. Painting the pattern was what killed me.

Glad that my friend loved it. She custom ordered from me as a gift for her sister.

I didn't manage to take nice photos, hope to get a couple of photos 

from my friend so I can throw it into my portfolio somewhere.

Another custom order.

This pile of tags are for primary school kids. A total of 82 pieces.

It was fun to make these. They were quite easy so

 I didn't have to rack my brain much when I made them.

There was another pair of bracelets but I didn't bother photographing 'cos I think they're really ugly.

That's just my opinion I guess, 'cos my friend was happy with them.

Yay! I'm quite motivated now to keep on making stuff.

Got a whole list of designs in my head, but I'll probably end up making only a few with my snail pace.

Next month I'm flying off to Italy for holiday.

I'm feeling abit sian about it because I'm going with my sister-in-law,

and she's not exactly what I will call good company.

To make matters worse, she and my brother's marriage are on the rocks now.

Sigh. Complicated.