Burano - A glorious burst of CoLOuRs!!

This is going to be a very colourful entry because I am going to write about BURANO!

If you know how I am obsessed with colours, you will know how much I love this tiny island, which is famous for its rainbow coloured houses.

On this island you will never find 2 houses with the same colour sitting next to each other. It's because the government controls the colour to be used. I wonder if they have recruited a team of artists because the colour scheme is just brilliant!

Other than being beautiful, there is a practical reason for them to paint the house this way. Historically, families in Burano caught fish for a living. While the houses looked almost identical, it was way easier for the fishermen to find their way home by colours.

Burano is a small island and many tourists may find it not much to do there. It's not true. Unlike central Venice, Burano is not purely for tourists. It is where local people live. I strongly advice you to take some time and slowly walk around the island. You will be surprised by the amount of things that fascinate you.

I was wearing the glass necklace that I got in Murano, by the way :)

I found the way they hanged their clothes was extremely artistic.

The small town is famous for making lace too! They were all hand-made and labelled "made in Burano", next to a very intimidating price tag.....

Errrr....there is something wrong with this bell tower.....

I later googled and realize Italy is in fact quite famous for building leaning towers, other than Pisa [ The list of leaning towers ]

Here I bring to you my collection of beautiful window-sills in Burano. Now admire the perfectly matching colours.

 

It's a crime not be to romantic in Italy, I guess

But there was one thing that I was not quite satisfied with Burano: The food. It's quite pricey compared to elsewhere in Venice but the quality was, to be honest, just so-so...hmm....

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For those who love reading my blog, THANK YOU! <3 *muah*

There is a lot of effort to organize the thousands of photos that I took in Italy. But I just enjoy sharing with people the things that I love. And I wish I can inspire you to admire the extraordinary things in our ordinary lives.

More interesting things about Venice is coming soon. Goodnight, my friends.

XOXO

Murano - the glass island of Venice

I woke up at around 6 a.m. on my second day in Venice (no it was not jetlag, I normally wake up that early lol). The breakfast wouldn't be served until 7 so I decided to run around the neighborhood. It was the 7th of May so the weather was still quite chilly in the morning. But I love the morning sun and the quiet street.

The cars still had their headlights on when I ran out....

Love the beautiful flowers in Italy, they were EVERYWHERE!!
 

As much as I love hotel buffet breakfasts, it is the same thing that I am crazy about no matter where I go - the cereals!!

I strongly recommend everyone who is going to Europe to get the travel pass of the cities. It's really convenient especially if you have extremely packed itinerary like mine...

My hotel was not in Venice but we could get there in no more than 20 mins. The photo was taken at the bus stop and my hotel was only 50m away (right behind the red bus in the photo).

My first destination was Murano, a beautiful island 1.5 km away from Venice. The whole town is devoted to making glass for more than 700 years. There is a glass museum on the island about their successful glass making business. If you are looking for a beautiful glass bottle or some unique glass accessories, this is where you should go.  Every piece of glass they sell was hand-made in Murano. Therefore even for the same design, every piece is unique and and you can't get it anywhere else. I have got a cute glass necklace there and wore it almost everyday in Italy. You will see it later when I write about other cities. :)

Murano was not supposed to be this quiet, but it was 9 am in the morning when all the shops were still closed.

Love this cute Mosaic of people making glass.

 

I struggled a bit whether I should post this picture. Blurred line between being exotic or erotic....

I made several failed attempts to scan this QR code. And it was way too big to be captured in the tiny scanning screen without jumping into the water behind me. Driven by curiosity, I decided to take a picture of it and see what I can do later. 

  

As I was writing this post, and about to scan it again using my phone, I realized the real QR code was at the right hand corner of the mosaic......

LOL

 

 

Among all the wonderful glass products on this amazing island, it was this alien that I wish I could bring home (but of course besides being extremely expensive, the alien was half a feet taller than me).

It was made by an Italian artist Massimo Lunardon who is famous for making cute life-size glass alien and put them on the streets. If you want to know more, read this !

Murano is a small island and you'd probably spend no more than 2 hours there. On the same day I also went to Burano, another interesting island nearby, and then back to Venice for the museums. 

Burano will be coming next, stay tuned if you like reading my travel journal. :)

XOXO

Pomegranate - another superfood that you should include in your diet

Oatmeal with apple, pomegranate, blueberry, yogurt and cashew

I have modified my last fruity oatmeal recipe by adding one more magic ingredient: Pomegranate seeds. And I used red instead of green apple this time, for the sweetness (and colour lol). Pomegranate is a very healthy fruit. If you want to know more, read until the end of the post. Otherwise just remember pomegranate is good for you.

With blueberry and pomegranate seeds in a bowl, it has to be the most anti-oxidizing breakfast EVER.

How to deal with a pomegranate

If you search the internet a lot of "tips" will tell you to cut a pomegranate in half to start with. NEVER! And don't even think of digging a spoon into the fruit, unless you have someone else to clean the kitchen (and your clothes) for you. Pomegranate seeds are very juicy, and the juice is intensely red. I can guarantee, any attempt to cut through a pomegranate will result in something like a murder scene.

For me I will score the skin of the fruit horizontally 8 times, peel the skin as carefully as I can, and take the exposed seeds out one by one. I have very steady hands and I find it quite fun to do so, although it took me around 10 mins to deseed the whole fruit. It's not at all difficult, but just be patient and gentle.

There are websites teaching you how to open a pomegranate in 10 sec, and it often involves "gently pry open" the fruit. Hmmm...to be honest I don't think this is technically possible. Prying open a pomegranate has to be violent. Some suggests you can submerge the fruit in water to make it easier. I haven't tried it before but I guess it makes sense. I will try next time and let you know if it works. :)

A perfect job done. Yes, I know : P

Why pomegranate is good for you

Pomegranate is tremendously anti-oxidizing, beating even blueberry and green tea. Punicalagin is a substance that can only be found in pomegranate. Research suggests it can help lower blood pressure, protect blood vessels, prevent heart diseases, fight cancers, and it is extremely good for our skin. There are skincare products that claimed to contain pomegranate extract. But I guess the effectiveness do not even come close to consuming the fruit directly.

Beyond the fruit

Interestingly, pomegranate was featured in a lot of famous paintings in history, not only because it is beautiful, but also its unique symbolic meanings.

Source: Wikipedia

• If it's a baby boy holding the fruit, he's very likely to be Jesus Christ. Pomegranate represents life, death, and resurrection in Christian symbolism. (shown above is Botticelli's "Madonna of the Pomegranate")

• If pomegranate is associated with a woman in mythological paintings, it represents fertility and marriage. This is borrowed from the story of the Greek Goddess Persephone, the Queen of the underworld. [ Read here ]

• Other fruits commonly seen in paintings with a symbolic meaning include grapes (the sacred blood of Jesus) and Apple (sin)

Next time when you walk into a museum and see a painting of a table of fruits, chances are this is a religious painting with a great deal of hidden messages for viewers to decode. (Below is Caravaggio's painting "Still life with fruits")

Source: Wikipedia

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As a side note, I will be travelling to Paris in the last week of September. I know a lot of friends may be travelling around the same time too. If you happen to be going to Paris or Amsterdam please do let me know. May be we can meet up and enjoy a nice French dinner together ;-)

The Major Panda Event in Hong Kong

It happened a month ago but I just didn't have time to put everything together. When I finally decided to write about my Italy trip and flipping through my iphone photos, I accidentally found them.

The pandas were sooooo cute it's difficult not to share.

If you haven't heard of this event before, read this: 1600 Pandas World Tour

It was an exhibition were you can find 1600 cute paper pandas. So here are the photos. Enjoy :)

They are cute!! Aren't they?

 

 And there were cute panda cartoons on the walls. Perfect for photos :)

 

The Perfect Sugar-Free Oatmeal Recipe - with green apple, blueberry, cashew and yogurt!!

Trust me. I know better than anyone that oatmeal is boring. When I was doing my part-time finance master I fed myself enough oatmeal for dinner that I thought I would never touch it again for the rest of my life.

Well, never say never.

I now have an awesome way to transform regular oatmeal into something really exciting. And this is the magic ingredient.

Here is all you need:

• a green apple
• half a cup of plain yogurt
• a cup of milk (you can use soy milk but I think milk tastes a lot better)
• 1/4 cup of blueberry
• a handful of cashew nuts
• 1/4 cup of instant oatmeal
• honey and vanilla extract are optional

 Step 1 - Transform the texture of your instant oatmeal  

I believe one of the reasons why people don't like oatmeal is its texture. It's extremely dry if you don't give it enough time to soak up the water. But if you give it too much time, it will end up being really thick and slimy.

The trick here is, soak 1/4 cup of oatmeal in 1/4 cup of milk the night before and pop it into the fridge. By doing so you will let the oatmeal absorb just enough milk to become soft. We will later add in more milk for a thinner and smoother consistency. 

 Step 2 - Chop, Chop and Chop  

Did I mention I am obsessed with chopping fruits and veggies? One of my favorite morning activities is to chop things lol. Chop a green apple anyway you like. There is no right way to do it, just make sure you are not making apple puree. You want the apple to remain crispy and fresh to compliment the creamy oatmeal. 

If you haven't already realized, the blue background of my pictures, is in fact my chopping board...LOL

 Step 3 - and Chop Chop Chop  

Now it's time to chop some nuts. You can use any nuts you like. But I prefer cashew nuts because they are sweet and go well with fruits and yogurt. 

Don't try to put the nuts in a food processor, they will just lose the texture and flavor altogether. You just need them to be coarsely chopped. You want them to be crunchy so you can taste them.

 Step 4 - Mix them all!!  

Toss the yogurt, blueberry, green apple, cashew nuts, soaked oatmeal and the remaining 3/4 cup of milk into a large bowl and mix them using a spoon (not mixer, not blender). If you happen to have vanilla extract at home, add a few drops and it will do magic. Sprinkle flaxseeds on top to finish. 

If you don't have a sweet tooth, this fruity oatmeal mix is already perfect to serve. Since the fruits are not blended, you will be able to taste their natural sweetness. Otherwise you can also drizzle honey on top. 

This is by far the best oatmeal I have ever had. You will be amazed by how the green apple adds texture and flavor to plain oatmeal. The result is crispy, crunchy, smooth, creamy, sweet and fresh. Don't forget it's SUGAR-FREE, very nutritious and really fun to make too!

I hope you all enjoy it :)

XOXO

  Nutritional Information :  

Protein     19 g

Fat           11 g
Carb         70 g
Sugar       36 g (naturally from fruits, milk and yogurt. Low GI)  
Calories   397 kcal

Quick maths behind the ice bucket challenge...

Despite the number of psychology books that I read, sometimes I find human behavior is indeed quite difficult to understand. For example, the ice bucket challenge that went viral.

I know this thing is here for a good reason: to raise the awareness of ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). But honestly, how many people who tried to freeze their brains by throwing ice water over their heads bother to know what does ALS stand for?


But I am not here to discuss whether it's stupid or smart to do the challenge. I am here to do some simple maths:


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Each person in the ice bucket challenge nominates 3 other people to do the same within the next 24 hours. So the number of people pouring ice water grows 3 times every day.

• Assume there are 7 billion people in the world, in 21.27 days the entire population would have poured ice water once.

• Assume only the people living in developed countries have access to clean water, and 10% of them did the challenge, using a 20 cm X 30 cm X 40 cm ice bucket. We could have wasted 2.4 million cubic meter of water (or 960 Olympic-sized swimming pools), in a little more than 2 weeks.

OK. This is all I want to say. Judge it yourself : P

Florence 101 - Dante

Dan Brown's new book Inferno, which is set in Florence, has reminded me of my best memories in Italy. It motivated me to continue writing my travel journal (before I go on another trip lol). Here I am going to slowly refresh what I have learned during my vacation in May. And I hope it's going to help you better prepare your next trip to Italy too.

Florence played a crucial role in the development of Italian art, culture and the language itself. It's often regarded as "the cradle of Renaissance".

The city, of course, is very beautiful in her own right. But if you want to get the most out of your vacation in Florence, I'd suggest you to take some time and learn about a few names that you are bound to come across: The Medici Family, Michelangelo and Dante

I am going to start with Dante.

 Dante Alighieri 

He was a widely loved Florentine poet in the middle ages, a century before the Renaissance started (some called him "the frontrunner of Renaissance"). His works had remarkable influence over the Renaissance artists and the Italian culture. He also represented the people's love and pride of the Florence city.

i. The Father of the Italian Language
He was considered the father of Italian, mainly because of his epic work "the Divine Comedy". Comedy here doesn't suggest his poem was about something funny. At that time the "high" literature was called "tragedy" and "low" literature "comedy". High literature was written in Latin. However, Dante's Divine Comedy was first literary work written in Italian. Due to the success of his poems, the Italian language also became an important language in Europe.

ii. The Inspiration of Renaissance Artists
His works, particularly the Divine Comedy, inspired a lot of Renaissance artists. He created new visions towards the heaven and the hell, and acted as blueprints of many famous religious works of the Renaissance, including Michelangelo's Last Judgement on the wall of the Sistine Chapel. His work was admired by the most prominent artists in the world, including Michelangelo, who was also a poet himself, and Botticelli. 

iii. The Star-crossed Lovers
The life of the poet was a romantic tragedy. He fell in love with a woman named Beatrice at the age of 9 at first sight (yes. 9!). However instead of Beatrice, he married the daughter of an influential family in Florence at 12 (yes. 12!). Beatrice died at the young age of 24, buried at the church where she first met Dante. Much to the poet's grief, she was often mentioned in Dante's work. In Dante's Divine Comedy, he reached the paradise under the guidance of Beatrice. He devoted his work and much of his life to the woman he loved (hmmm...his wife, however, was never mentioned in any of his work).

iv. Florence and Dante
Dante was born, baptized, and raised in Florence. He loved his homeland dearly. However he took the wrong side in a political conflict and was exiled from Florence when he was in his mid-thirties. He was later invited to Ravenna, where he finished his Divine Comedy, and died 3 years later at 56. Until the very last moments of his life, he wished one day he could return to Florence with honour. Years after Dante's death (and success), Florence finally wanted his remain back from Ravenna, but in vein. Despite the fail attempts, Florence built a massive tomb for Dante nevertheless, with a quote from his work Inferno "Honour the most exalted poet" and "His spirit, which had left us, has returned". (so sad!!)