My Italy - Prelude

I studied Fine Arts for 2 years in the university besides my Engineering major. Textbooks in Western art history usually begins with the astonishing 200 years between 1400-1600 in Italy, what people commonly called the Italian Renaissance. 

I have only come across the important works of art briefly in the textbooks and I always wanted to see the masterpieces with my own eyes. My plan was to follow the development of art, which started in Italy, later spread all over Europe and reached its peak in Paris (A hint of my next destinations LOL).
 

Therefore, the coming travel journals may sound a little boring for those who have absolutely no interest in art. But it is important for me to write down what I learned during the 10 days, and to remind myself how much I used to enjoy art.

It may as well serve as a very simple art guide in Italy for those who are interested but never have the chance to learn more about art. I did my homework and I can show you only the interesting and essential facts :-)

***********************************************************************************

It was a 13-hour midnight flight and I would be reaching Milan at 8 am the next morning. For some reasons I couldn't sleep on the plane so I took some snapshots instead.

I sent this picture to my family during the trip and it took them 2 weeks to realize what was it.

At first I thought these were clouds, but quickly found out they were snowy mountains!

I only managed to see 2 sunrises during the entire trip. This one I saw on the plane was very beautiful, the second one I saw in Florence was beyond words.

As a side note I have requested low-fat-low-cholesterol meals for my flights. And they actually looked and tasted way better than regular in-flight meals! They replaced oily omelet with warm grilled chicken breast, hash brown with low fat mashed potatoes, and served with plentiful colourful fruits and vegetables. For those who are tired of regular airplane food and/or as health-conscious as I am, give it a try next time!

 

It was a 10-day trip in Italy and our plan was to start with Venice, then Florence, Rome, and finally Milan again. We were catching a 11:30 am train to Venice on the day we arrived at Milan. Before the ride we found a seat in a cafe called Bistrot Pasticceria. I ordered a sandwich filled with cream cheese, tomatoes and shrimp. The bread was so soft and the cheese was so rich it tasted almost like a savory cheesecake. Yum!

After that our adventure in Italy began.


***********************************************************************************

Travel tips: 

#1
Apparently Italians do not normally use skim milk to make coffees. I tried to order skim milk cappuccino several times but they looked at me as if I was ordering lemon cappuccino. So I eventually gave up trying. 

#2

As soon as we arrived at the Milan airport we got ourselves vodafone SIM card for EUR 20 with 1GB data. After activating the SIM card I kept receiving SMSs from vodafone, all in Italian. I'd suggest you DO NOT IGNORE THEM. I used google translate and found out they were activating a number of services. If you don't bother to find out which of them are free of charge, disable them all.