#pregoItaly : Italy is definitely Eat, Pray Love. Vlog updated!

This is going to be a reaaaaaaaaaaally long post but of course this time, i keep my promise (well at least to myself) to write my travel-log since there has been so many things happened to me during my Italy experience.

fyi, i wrote these experiences while travelling from one city to another city in Italy (while i have free time la.. ) so it may sound a bir weird in some sentence bcuz sometimes  i refer to the events as past or present tense ( yep, grammatically confusing).

***yep, carry on reading to know why eat pray love nye tu altho its a bit krik krik..

Prego!

Day 1 : Milan; where it begins.

I arrived in Milan at around 11 am and we took the train to the city where our hostel and it all begin when we arrived at the Milano Centrale metro  i got pick pocket or how to say this, my passport, cash, debit card, UK student id, and MyKad ( with OTHER UK cards as well :((( ) were stolen.  It surprised me a lot bcuz I couldn't  really tell how it happened. Their work is a masterpiece (**Perfecto emoji). Hahaha. I didnt really react much until Aiman called me and i burst; i couldn't keep it to myself anymore. I dont know. Too much to handle when your beloved, family was not around. Thanks to my travel-mate kena angkut sampai ke police station. Urghhh. Lesson learnt. Take care of your belongings whenever you're. Italian police 👎🏻. No wonder they couldn't solve any of these problems( pick pocket, theft, and list goes on...) bcuz they're the bunch of lazy people. plus, it took them almost two hours to get them to write my report. Urghhh. so lemme tell you what to do when your passport loss/got stolen in Italy (Malaysian edition). 

1) block your credit/debit card immediately. or better to travel with a debit instead! 

2) find your embassy contacts. The main Malaysia embassy is in Rome so to get temporary passport, you'll need to be in Rome. Ada one in Milan but seems like they will still redirect you back to Rome's. 

2) a copy/scan of your passport. Remember when you travel anywhere make sure to have your passport and any important documents scanned.

3) flight ticket back to  malaysia/ any other places etc UK. 

4) 3 pieces of id photo with white background. You can easily find this everywhere in Italy. No worries

5) you need chill pills of any form . My family, bestities and bf they are ze best. 😭 thanks for the motivation to go thru another 9 days in Italy guys XOXOXO. 

6) Pray. Pray. Pray

Enuff of drama

The hostel was fine. We got ensuite hostel with 6 beds. Not bad tho. 

Milan? 

Nyehh. Will never go back to milan anymore. 👎🏻

But the gelato was soooooo gooooood. DONT EVER  buy gelato if moe than 4 pounds. this ones is only €3.50. it has  pistachio+choclate nuts or sumthing. Dunno. A good advice is to search for the hogh rated and affordable gelato. 

Day 2: Firenze or Florence. 😍

I love emoji and i thot this 😍 emoji suits Florence. Its definitely safer, cleaner, prettier and cheaper( gelato at least..) than milan haprak. Hahahaha. 

Our hostel wasn't that bad tho. I booked for two different room but the person sort  things out for us and gave us en-suite room with 5 beds. Although its not really ensuite la. Look at the picture dude!

A shower cube in a bedroom.. hmmm

Whatahell was that kan 😆. But the receptionist was really nice. Its hard to find nice ppl here. 

Behind ze scene. Hehe

Porche sumthing. There were shops. Not bad. Banyak gellatto😋

€2.50 gelato. Not bad. The milan's ones better but yeah gelato taste the same kot. 

Ok ngada. This place was a bit like milan but not as huge as milan. High street vs luxury fashion 💁🏻 boleh la. 

Duomo! So pwetty 😍 

Stoped by sephora. There was this sales girl, she thought i wanted to buy the perfume. So nice layan i but i kan haprak miskin no money ok. Good thing when 'these' happened, I controlled my nafsu shoppin'. Huhuhuu

Day 3: Pisa leaning tower, La Spezia, Manarola Cinque Terre 

We took the train from firenze to pisa which arrived at around 9 am and  left our baggage at the train station locker bcuz we wanted to walk to the infamous leaning tower or how to say this, a work of fail architects but  brilliant structural engineers ? Okay just kidding.So nothing much tbh in pisa, really just the leaning tower, just the leaning tower.So take your time walking, enjoyin the view or even stop for  gelato! 

Like every single tourists' pose 💁🏼 i know im lame and so everyone's lame too. Hehehe 

Around 12, we took the train to our hostel located in la spezia which we intended to visit the one of cinque terre. Cinque terre means 5 villages which it also literally means  there are 5 villages.duuhh. The train ride was nice bcuz the view was pretty. 😍

In front of our airbnb, a very lovely Italian house with lovely owner. Bella biambi! I don't know what that means but they said that a lot. The owner didnt really speak English and they were funny too 😂. However, all the transaction and conversation were directly with their son stefano so 5/5 for the accommodation. plus they have mandarin oranges (pealers as wht they called in the UK) tree and they were very refreshing. Gratzie !

And then again a train ride to manarola, one of the cinque terre! Arghhhh another lovely place in italy. Sort of like the monte carlo but a smaller and less expensive version i guess.

Of all the pretty images and happy selfie, i had a bit tongue war with a very rude china tourist ( KIASU like hell!!!!!). While i took picture of asfar at one view and of course i was there first,  a young China chinesse stood at the same view as Asfar's and sort of conquered the space. So when i asked Alia to just sit next to the chinese lady, she shooed us " you go away, i here first!"  Ok my bad i cant control my F word so i kinda blurt it out cuz i thot she prolly couldnt speak english but damn ( i shud know tht) she heard it and said the f words even more. So rude! Nvm i caught her in a video. Eliza did a very good job imitating her way of saying F which i dont think it sounded like a proper f word.

"Fakiyu" - China tourist 😆👎🏻

So back to our house for the night , had our delizioso magg-gi tel-lor( say-ing it like italiano!)  and i took a proper bath bcuz there was bath tub k..k..! Hahahahaha 

Day 4: Roma! 

Since I lost my passport and everything, i had to settle my temporary passport first so as soon as i arrived Roma Termini, I was accompanied by Yasmin  to the malaysian embassy in roma. Roma hasthe same reputation, severity of the crimes like Milan. This was my second time in rome and i know how i would feel bout rome. I thot there prolly sumthing different in rome this time. I dont know, let see. 

Embassy Malaysian in Rome

We took taxi to the embassy and obv its rome, the taxi driver overcharged the fare but yeah wtvr. As long as i arrived there safely rite.  Thank god sampai sampai there's an italian lady who recognised me as the one with stolen passport in  milan. So she took me inside and took all of my documents with her to process. Later i met encik rohaizad who aiman contacted thru email on the day i got theft, who is also the person who helped me a lot contacting the British embassy for the clearance to go back to the UK. Thank you Encik Rohaizad, may Allah bless you and your family. He even told us that there's more severe cases like me happened to Malaysians in Milan and Rome and i was a bit bersyukur at least I'm safe and not alone. 

Then we took the uber to our house (airbnb) in rome and we were sent a Merc E class ( I think). At that ime i told Yasmin @ this river is most probably a Mafia, looked at him, he's ressed up in the day, has the mafia rich guy look and he ubered an expensive car in Italy. hahahahahaha. Movie influence tho..  Around 2 o'clock we visited the vatican museum , city, sistine chapel... Not bad. i remember me and faris wanted to go there but we missed our slot. Even if i missed the second time. I wouldn't mind. I mean tak best pun. Lulz. Not a museum person tho. 

I didnt take many pictures there bcuz ive been here before and i didnt want to re-create another memories here bcuz the last time i was here, i was with faris. Just keep it tht way 😊. 

Day 5: Grand mosque roma 🙏🏻

So in the morning i decide to stay in bed since I've been to the Colosseum and palatine hill during my last visit. Wanted to go there again bcuz i like it there but my purse says no. So i stayed and my bestities all the way from Egypt facetimin' with me! There you go, my hearty breakfast was served. cewahh. She reminded us that it was our 10th year of friendship. Eh bestfriendship! 

Once they (uh travelm8) got back home, yasmin asfar and i decided to visit the grand mosque of Rome. It was said the biggest masjid in europe. One thing lead to another and to emphasised roma, we saw live pick pocket , You know what !!!! i wasn't all gypsies or the people of colour (screw you bad media) but it was Italian teenagers  and female!!!! Like whatahell kan. They worked in a group of three , one person stand on the front of the victim sort of distracting victims from entering the metro, one person at the back tahan the door and the other person at the side 'master'of pick pocket! Tapi mi lagi drama, bcuz these girls will never ride on the same metro with the victim so they have to get out of the metro straight away but the door was closing the the 'master' stuck in between the door and everyone else saw her with the victim's passport. So she threw the passport on the ground as soon as the metro re open  and run! So as to say she failed lah. Lepas tu semua takut pegang bag masing2 kuat2. Lulz. At least the uncles got his passport back. Alas, i have no luck. 

Back to the grand mosque, so we change 2 stations from termini-flaminio-capri sporti then walked bout 5 minutes. However, the main side of the building closed after 3 i guess. Tbh i dont understand what the imam was saying but he asked to come again tomorow gitu. And we cant even take picture at the centre of the masjid bcuz i dont know what kind of rule was that tp we sneeked a bit to the back of the masjid and nahh the pictures. It looked a bit like masjid negara but masjid negara was way prettier and better bcuz it's still functioning and cleaner. 

The interior of the masjid 😍. Inspired by Turkish designs.

Day 6: last day in Roma! Spanish steps, trevi fountain, pantheon, kucing, mac lipstick incident 

Trying muh best to get good shot with less tourist. Lulz. Boleh la. 

The view from top of the spanish steps. The typical italian houses. My dream house actually tp nk yang clean ah. 

Ummm, pantheon. Tu je ah.

Emanual sumthing. Haahaha. Tak membentu langsung oh, 

I miss comel 🐻😓

And kucing!!! Finally dapat pegang kucing for after almost 6 months tak pegang. The kucing here very friendly. Not like british cats. Sombong memanjang. Hahahaha. Plus tka yah speak italiano pun she understood oh. Cuz im alergic like tht, pegang hujung jari je ah. Nvm. Lepas rindu kat ed. 

%%% <-- matlab alert

We bid our goodbye to the house owner, Michele and head to termini, leave our luggage at the locker and went to the spanish steps and the attractions around. I mean if you've come across a fb post on expectation vs reality of these tourist attraction. You'll get what i mean. Banyak gilaaaa orang. Urghhh. Nvm it's the holiday season pun so what to expect kan. But it was a pleasent day too cuz i think it was Sunday mass then so less people on street, what i mean less is maybe quater less that usual je ah. We went back to termini and here goes my mac lipstick incident 😆. At 530 pm, we headed to napolia centrale! 

Day 7 : napoli, pompei, mount vesuvius

We stayed overnight at napoli since we wanted to go to pompei the next morning. Lets do a quick review of this expensive hostel ( 17€ is expensive considering a hostel k.). We were quite excited bcuz this hostel included a breakfast so we thot thats fine kot mahal a bit plus it was ensuite bathroom and as claimed to have coffee and tea free flow. 

Bak kat orang meleis " indah khabar dari rupa"

Yes, ada breakfast. Tapi cornflakes, susu, croissant ( which is not croissant, italian please made up your mind on what is Croissant.. ) , roti kering and jamz. Hmmmm i expect more but yeah.. 

Yes, ensuite but the room kotor gilaaaaa

No, free flow of coffeee and tea. Meh. 

The hostel is called bella capri. Not recommended at any means!!!! 

Enuff with hostel we thought we wanted to rent a car instead of using their public bcuz it's cheaper. we wanted to go to amalfi coast but the public is expensive and hard to get and it was suggested to take the rent car if can la. Little did we know, it was Easter Monday and most shops ( apparently car rental shops also ) open after 3pm. So we took the express train ( read : 17 minutes, no sitting, sardin!) to pompei cost around €5.20 return. Along the way, i saw the mount vesuvius the one corrupted the pompei. 

There was no student price for the pompei entrance ticket but the ticket person asked, 

"where are you from?" 

"Malaysia" 

"all of you?" 

"Yep" 

"passportti please!" 

**Discreetly showing my temp passport 

 "So for you €6.50!" 

Hehehehe. I dont know if our passport holds such a special place in pompei.  

gratzi! 

Pompei was nice. 

I didnt take a lot of pictures here bcuz i wanted to keep the memories in my head. Plus some sculptures were just scary. Google la sendiri. Huhuhu.

We took the overnight bus to venice which was about 10 hours and overnight bus wasn't bad at all IF it was at night (of course) so you basically sleep the whole journey. Cut a bit on accommodation cost too! 

Day 8 and 9 : Venice or venizia! The city is too romantic and i feel lonely! 😓

Since Venice is a city with lots of canal and water ( im so bad at describing), no other vehicles on the road except for human's legs, to get to basically everywhere, can be excesses by boat/ferry/water taxi its kinda hard to  understand how the city works the first time you there. 

The view from our hotel/room. I dont know if this place is considered hotel ke apa. The exterior of the building buruk gila but the interior looked a bit luxurious and the view from our room. Urghhhh. I wish my beloveds are here cuz i dont know who to share this with. Lulz. 

Banyak gila orang! Me every single time taking pictures. Mesti ada orang nk sibuk gak. Urghh hahaah

Snap 📷 soon as you find the spot with less tourists! 

And asked your friend to take more than one pictures, at least ada back up if it wasnt nice.

If can mandi, i dah jump dah. The water is blue- ish, -greenish. At some places as bau but mostly the smell is bearable ah. And the city is way cleaner than milan/rome.

The gondola ride! There were five of us and one gondola is 100€ for 45minutes. Not bad tho. But i dont know. I dont really enjoy the ride cuz again its so romantic, i wish i had it with my loved ones( read: family, bestities, bf.. Heheheheh) 

My enjoying the view pose but its more of "last night i ate overprice clamp spaghetti and there are so many clamps on the building bricks. Ahhh..."

Urghhhh. Sho pretty.

Oh i forgot! 

Basically when they( read: everyone's been here) said everything is expensive, it's TRUE(too strong i know). We had an overcharged/overpriced dinner last night. Our budget was about 20€ per person. Of course at the menu is belas belas euro BUT do ask for "coverto" or cover charge and "service charge" cuz they are two different meaning although the waiter said "for you student 10% discount". My dish was about 19€ but after all these extra charges it became 25€ sumthing. Plus the price on the menu is different than the price they charged you. So be careful. Nak kata kena tipu, our faults sebab tidak ambik tahu kan. Huhuhu. The food? I masak lagi sedap. The clamps were only the shells. Hahahahaha. lesson learnt! 

Deffo will come back to venice again bcuz its so pretty and romantic. 😍 

Day 10 : bologna aiport -manchester 

I woke up early at 2.am since i couldn't really sleep the night before, i overthink a lot of stuffs, my lost passport, money to do new passport and visa, my coffee stain temporary passport ( well thats another problem ; clumsy geeebakkk) and just reminiscing my travel experience. I did enjoy italy physically, as a place but spiritually, this place is empty. I slept for about 3 hours; overthinking about what are the risks for my journey back to manchester and sheffield, how i will confront my parents, and if my italy experience is blessed or a curse. Im hoping it's a blessing in disguise. But i like to think this way as what kakak naqibah used to say back in KMB days, sometimes ada reason Allah pilih awak out of the rest to face the ujian. As im writing this, I'm 3000 feet above italy and swiss alps, i think. I sat alone at 10F seat, a window seat, i thot i wanted to snooze off once im on the plane. Alas, i cant stop worrying,thinking and reflecting. 

Coffee stain temporary passportti! 

I got off at Manchester airport and if course i got nervous at the immigration counter. Too many WHAT IFs in my mind while waiting. Its all because of the coffee stains urghhhh. 

So is my turn and,

"Hello, my passport was stolen in Italy and this is my temporary passport..."

"Ohhh..." 

Curiously checking my temporary passport. Of course her only concerned was the stain

"What's all these..?" 

"Coffee stain.." I laughed a bit bcuz im nervous ok. 

"So you lost your passport, you get a temporary passport and you spilt coffee on it..?" 

Weyhh time ni aku rasa nak pengsan and fikir macam2 dah. Kena deport ke.. Tak leh masuk uk ke.. 

"Hahahahahahahahahahahaahahahhaahahahahah.. You had a really bad day iinit..."

And she continued laughing while i stood there wishing her to stop laughing bcuz *whisperin everyone is watching. 

"Im sorry, i wasnt laughing at you but i could use some laugh now.. I had a really long day too.." 

At least, i made her laugh. Hehe

Alhamdulillah, safely entering UK. 

To my travelm8s :- 

Thank you bcuz terpaksa face my problems especially Yasmin. I know dia takkan baca ( as any of them wont 💁🏻), yasmin helped a lot. I couldn't thank her much. Thank you Yasmin 😘😘😘😘 !!!!!!!  

Things to do once im back in sheffield 

1) baring, kiss comel,  i miss comel, tell him what happened, probably nangis kejap. Mampus ah nak cakap aku cengeng. Mmg. I miss my family and besfriends. 

2) prepare document nk bawak pg london for my new passport. I'll write about that later. ( read : later= never). 

3) dinner with kak ila and aiman. Nk luah perasan semua. Of course blog is half luah perasaan kan. Hehehehehe 

3) My parents will be in london tomorrow. Speech, ayat belum siap. #prayforGee. 

4) lab reports and study!!!!!! 

so can you tell my EAT, PRAY, LOVE experience in Italy tak?

K. Fine. 

Of course, cheers to more travelling experiences.  

Ti amo, 

Geebakk