Vatican City

The day after we saw the Coliseum, we visited the second main attraction: Vatican City. Although it technically is not a part of Rome, we simply took the Rome subway system to get there. 中文版

We had been warned about the size of the Vatican museum; therefore, we focused on our main mission to see the Sistine Chapel and Raphael Rooms. However, once we entered and we realized you can only do one way. We could not just jump ahead to where we wanted to go; therefore, we went with the flow.

The Gregory Egyptian Museum (Museo Gregoriano Egizio) was the first section we saw. Ian was amazed with the collection they had as he had seen quite a few Egyptian exhibits before, but nothing compared to this. This was actually my first time seeing a MUMMY, and they had a couple of MUMMIES on display. All I could think of was that the mummy would sit up and say “Hi, thanks for the visit.” I walked away the display quickly as I also not sure if I want people looking at my body after I die.

When the crowd kept passing us that we realized we took too long for each piece; therefore, after visiting the Pio-Clementine Museum (Museo Pio Clementiono) & the Gregory Etruscan Museum (Museo Gregoriano Etrusco), we walked past a string of paintings as if we were blindfolded, in order to reach the Sistine Chapel and Raphael Rooms.

The artwork in the Sistine Chapel wasn’t the largest or the oldest, but it was undoubtedly the most magnificent in execution and richest in meaning. Small and cozy, the chapel itself was filled with tourist. Pictures were not allowed, nor were loud talking. The guards will periodically shout “no camera” whenever someone unholstered their photographic equipment and a loud “shhsss” can be heard taming the crowd whenever the noise level surpassed polite whispers. At the front of the chapel, you will find the master piece by Michelangelo Buonarroti﹝1475 ~ 1564﹞ – Last Judgment – who worked on it alone for seven years until its completion in 1541. His tormented attitude to his faith had conveyed in imagery was upsetting. He depicted Christ has no sympathy for the agitated saints around him, no pity for the people that got hurled down by demons in hell. It was sad to see someone who was devoted his religion for most of his life and later felt tormented by it.

We weren’t sure if it was due to the euphoria of having just seen the crown jewel of Vatican art or whether it was simply the arrangement of Vatican museum itself, but the artwork after the Sistine Chapel felt like garnish to us. At the protest of our stomachs, we proceeded to have our late lunch at the cafeteria. We then strolled through another wing of the museum with just paintings. I was exhausted by that time, so only Ian was still enthusiastic about searching for Caravaggios amongst the lot.

As we ran out of time, we took a quick look of the St Peters on the outside and decided to come back the next day. That evening we went back to the Coliseum to witness its beauty at night; don’t be surprised if you see a lot of small crowds chilling out in the area. Reminder: please have your tripod with you, we managed to take a few pictures by wisely using the rails and objects surrounding it, however, we couldn’t fit the whole Coliseum in most shots.

Rome – Italy

The very first attraction we visited in Rome was the Colosseum, or Roman Coliseum which was built by an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 slaves. With their hard work, this arena had drawn million of visitors every year to Rome. We were no exception; we paid our visit and respect to this gorgeous arena. 中文版

Looking at these larger than human sized marble and concrete stones, I wondered if Roman habitants were actually giants. That would explain how the Coliseum was built.

The morning started off with cloudy skies. Our hotel was only three subway stops away, but light rain started when we reached the Coliseum. You would not believe that by the time we entered the stadium, it started pouring. The pouring rain was like a whip from the sky, smashing into us relentlessly. We were like gladiators in the Coliseum, there to fight against the rain and to capture the Coliseum, albeit on our cameras and in our minds.

You would see “extra” ruins on the side, looking like they have nowhere else to be stored but to be laid anywhere. We touched and felt them. At one point, I think I even smelled blood in my nostrils, felt the fierce lions nearby, probably hidden down in the center where they used to be. If we happened to trespass these forbidden area, we would probably have to deal with the lions as well.

We weren’t defeated by the rain even we were totally soaked, it was the hunger and coldness that drove us to leave. After all, warriors need food and shelter, too. It was such a coincidence that the rain which tortured us the whole time we were in Coliseum actually stopped when we left. While we were having pizza at the food stand outside of the Coliseum, we saw two rainbows, not just one, arching towards the Coliseum. I guess that was a sign of appreciation of the warriors who conquered their fight.

After a bit of food, the sun came back up, we also regained a bit of strength and motivation to visit Palatine Hill. We didn’t stay long as we were too tired from fighting the rain and the cold earlier, when we got closer to the gate, there were people rushing us to leave anyway as they closed before the sun went down.

We found our backpack was filled with water when we got to the hotel. Ian’s camera wasn’t working for the rest of the day, the ipod had mist on the screen, the map was gone, even Ian’s transportation pass, located in his wallet, was no longer functional, for the rest of our trip in Rome. He had to show the ticket to the transportation staff every time to let through. Why they didn’t just issue him another pass, we have no answer for. Since that day, I started getting a sore throat and even stayed in bed one day upon our return.

Torino (Turin), Italy

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We squeezed Turin into our 3rd for the Dream: Cars of the Future show at the Museum of the Automobile (Museo dell’ Automobile) in Turin. In order to do that, we took a 7:30pm train on our second day. The train was schedule to arrive at mid-night, however, due to a train delay, we arrived at Turin after mid-night. We quickly checked-in the hotel, got as much sleep as possible; then checked-out the next morning for our next mission – Museum of the Automobile (Museo dell’ Automobile)

Turin is well known as an “Automobile Capita”, some might have known this city due to the 2006 Winter Olympics. We wish this is one of the cities on our itinerary that we salted more time for. Again, we gave ourselves another excuse to re-visit Italy.

For those who sees cars as a convenience that makes life easier by moving us from point A to point B (like myself), you might be impressed by the collection in Museum of the Automobile (Museo dell’ Automobile). The guards in the museum paid extra caution to every visitor, especially when they approached the automobiles. The exhibit, which ran in the month of November only, showcased concept cars from different periods along with information about their origins, designers, and inspirations on the walls. As Ian’s camera was out of battery by the middle of our visit, I paid so much attention taking pictures of almost every car on display. Seriously, you cannot compare this carefully curate collection to the yearly media spectacle in Detroit. For those who have a strong passion for cars, this was the chance of a lifetime.

Two days in Venice-Italy

Two days in Venice isn't much time we knew. And although the days were misty, we still got the most out of them.
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Day 1
After reading guide books (Thanks to mom-in-law, Gracie, Judy and Martin) and www.tripadvisor.com, we took the suggestion of walking towards Piazza San Macro on our first day. We weren't too worried about getting lost as there were so many tourists like us, holding their maps and trying to figure out where they were. You know you are on the right track as yellow signs with arrows to Piazza San Macro keep showing up whenever you start doubting your whereabouts. We took as many pictures as possible, especially those colorful buildings that caught our eyes. A lot of them have sculptural designs around their windows, doors, or even doorknobs. You will also find magnificent mask and glass stores at every corner.

We reached Piazza San Macro after lunch break, where you can find people standing and sitting in groups chatting, laughing, and taking pictures. You can hear singing and music instruments playing as well. Even the big fat pigeons joined in the commotion and were hanging around people, hoping tourists would feed them. Ian, like other kids, especially enjoyed scaring the pigeons, so they flied and we got so worry that the pigeon would take their revenge by bombing us.

As we only had two days in Venice, we picked the two main attractions: The Basilica of San Macro and The Doge's Palace. We visited the Basilica of San Macro (or Basilica of St. Mark) first. It was rebuilt in 11-century and we were amazed by the upkeep of the structures, and the 17-century mosaics arts inside of the church. Since picture taking is not allowed in the Basilica of St. Mark, we examined each piece carefully.

It was November, by five o'clock the sky started fading to grey. We took some night scene pictures at the Piazza after finishing our tour in the Basilica of St. Mark. We then took another adventure to find a place for dinner by crossing the oldest bridge in Venice - The Rialto Bridge. The night scene is so peaceful since there is not much traffic on the water anymore. That night we had a nice dinner and met a couple from Malta and later a mother-and-son who came from Connecticut, U.S.A. They were sharing their experiences in other parts of the Italy. It felt like having dinners at home as you don't easily find people speaking fluent English in Italy.

Day 2
On our second day, we used the 12-hour day pass (cost 14 euros each), that allowed us to hop on buses and water buses (vaporetti) anytime we wanted. We arrived at Piazza San Macro again, but this time we visited The Doge's Palacenext door to the Basilica of St. Mark. Once we entered The Doge's Palace, we were like two kids on their first trip to zoo, uttering only wows and woos. The palace is covered with sculptures on the outside. And on the inside it is filled with sculptures double my size and paintings triple my size (or more!). The world's largest canvas depicting hundreds of saints is the great hall (Sala del Maggior Consiglio) in the palace, in which I fell asleep. Even the walls and ceilings are embroidered with golden threads framed within golden borders. I wonder if they have golden bathtubs and toilets hidden somewhere in the Palace that are not permitted to be shown in public. At one point we weren't even sure if our upper lips and lower lips would be ever met again.

We only had three hours left after The Doge's Palace for the architecture exhibition portion of the Biennale festival. Good thing that this was not a tourist attraction. No lining up was necessary. We quickly strolled through the various halls and exhibit spaces and took pictures of whatever Ian wanted to keep for inspiration. Looking at some modern designs was a good balance so we don't get overwhelmed by historical paintings and sculptures - or "cathedral fatigue" as some call it.

One of the things we missed out in Venice is riding the Gondolas. Since the day light was scarce and we had only two days, we would rather spend time seeing the sights than chilling out on a Gondola. This gave an excuse to visit Venice again in the future as we had yet to try the Gondolas.

Finally Blog is setup

According to the dictionary, relocation means “To move to or establish in a new place”. What the dictionary didn’t mention is that relocating is also an elimination process, you don’t really “move” everything with you, there are always something you end up leaving behind, such as school projects you are so proud of, idol posters that you put a lot of effort to find, flash cards that you don’t even remember how did you obtain in the very first place, favorite clothes that you know you will never fit in or will not wear again, and the most important thing is the closeness between your friends and you.Therefore, I am “establishing” our blog to share what happens in this new place in order to reconnect with my family and friends.

Relocation and moving have been a part of my life as I have moved from city to city at least three times and two of them are oversea moves. I am not very fond of the “elimination” process (who would anyway?) but I sure do enjoy this “new place” experience (don’t be envious).By setting up this blog, it allows us not to leave our family and friends behind even though we are physically far apart.

I hope this blog can share and update our status with our dear family and friends who are now in other cities. And they can say hi to us as often as they like.

一直以來都想寫 Blog, 這次由於搬遷到一個新城市的關係, 促使我這個寫Blog的欲望。如你看看字典, 你會找到「搬」意旨「遷移或挪動」, 「遷」是「搬動或變易」的意思。字典卻沒有提及搬遷也是一個棄舊換新的過程，因為在搬遷的過程中,你很不容易把一切都「搬」到新地方, 總要狠下心把一些帶不走的棄掉，例如一些你感到很驕傲的學校功課或作品、 那些你已遺忘的偶像海報和閃卡, 還記得當年如何搜集回來嗎? 那些你已不再合身但是最愛的衣物, 最重要的是那份與好友的親切關係。有見及此, 我們希望藉著這個Blog來分享在這個新地方所發生的一些趣事,可以把我們和親朋好友聯接在一起。

搬遷已成為我們生命中的一部分, 明顯可見的已有兩次是從一個國家搬到另一個國家, 且有三次或以上的是從一個城市搬到另一個城市。談不上是甚麼專家,但搬遷已經不再難倒我倆。唯一不喜歡的是「棄舊」的過程, 有誰會喜歡棄掉一些曾是最愛的舊物; 但一想到「新的旅程」在即便又驚又喜,這種機會可是難逢。希望這個Blog能把遠方的親朋好友拉近。

這個不僅是讓我們分享我們的現狀, 并且希望你們可隨意分享你們的一點一滴。