pisa - obviously
we spent so much time in the sunshine by the green green grass of the tower. at first i was in awe with how green the grass was even in winter. but it takes a lot of hard work to keep it that way, or so i found out late one night. hahaha. :p



bologna
it was gorgeous! apparently according to yeow it's got the oldest university ever. founded in 1100-smth. and here i thougth galilei's university of 1343 was ancient. think about what singapore was then. hahaha. it was so big! and yet so old - it had the vibe of florence and rome, except, no tourists!!! we could have quite possibly been the only asians i'd seen there. which was coolness, cos you don't have people snapping, and shops there just for the sake of selling things. it was truly a quaint little big town. heh.

pistoia
the hospital/medical school. the pretty florence-like chapels. you can so tell you are in italy. i think i recognise italy enough that if you threw me in the middle of somewhere, i could probably tell you whether or not its in italy. or it has italian influences. i should so be here studying architecture, or art, or renaissance history, or something like that instead of dinky engineering. bleh.



Vale del Diavolo
Translated to: Valley of the Devils. We read off some website that it was something that was both disturbing and unforgettable. You wouldn't believe the ribbing I got in the car when we got there. I was the one who decided to go there you see. But you gotta admit it sounded seriously intriguing! But hey, everyone was disturbed and we'll never forget it. :p And we wonder how the residents live there. *shudder*

grossetto
a tiny little medieval village within the city walls, but it expanded SO MUCH out of the wall, that the city centre was more like the hub, or the shopping centre of it all, so to speak. pisa really is the smallest town. haha. i actually live within the old medieval city walls. right next to the old wall actually. in a small corner. heh. and elia walked wall to wall within the first couple of hours she was here - not non-stop, mind you. but uh. we stopped for pizza. and gelato. :p
pisa really is the smallest town. haha. i actually live within the old medieval city walls. right next to the old wall actually. in a small corner. heh. and elia walked wall to wall within the first couple of hours she was here - not non-stop, mind you. but uh. we stopped for pizza. and gelato. :p

some lil coastal town
of which i forget the name, starting with f methinks. it was so completely dead. as in, seriously, the shops were ALL closed. on a saturday afternoon. at 1pm. even the places to eat!!! cos the people only head out at 4pm apparently. unbelievable. oh, but we did find a place to eat. haha. ONE. :p

livorno
a lil town by the sea, with SO MANY shops! seriously, for a town like that, the shopping lanes, unbelievable. even more than florence methinks. but again, so many italians! so few tourists! and the families that went out: mommies, daddies, kiddies, all decked out in really stylish gear, of course.

which brings me to the fact that i think there's a dress code. for italians. haha. as in, cliches exist for a reason i think. and you always imagine the italians a certain way. and i *will* upload photos soon, not to worry. ;)

lucca
it was the closest to pisa, and yet we went there last, and woke up at the freakish hour of 7.30am on a SUNDAY to get there. the entire town is surrounded by a wall. yes, again. what else could they do? it is a medieval city. where people try and break other people's cities down or something. *shrugs* but this wall, it was thick. it wasn't just a wall, it was like, an embankment. with a lane atop the wall. with trees, and streetlamps, and bicycles and grassy patches, and small ramps leading down. haha. it was like the whole city was just this giant stadium. with churches and roman amphitheatres they built over. and lucca also has the nicest old chocolaterias, where they melt chocolate and put it in a cup for you to drink with milk, or not, the choice is yours. of course, i can't deal with dark chocolate, and ended up adding so much sugar. but it was still yummilicious. *smacks lips*



cinque terre
finally, i had to abandon elia to the cinque terre by herself for a morning, while i went for class, and joined her later on. we did, however discover something that isn't down in the photos in the previous post... a playground!! all the way up there by the cliffs, overlooking those colorful houses and the blue blue sea, with the wind whipping all over. so gorgeous! i can so see myself growing up there! or erm. behaving like an un-grown-up. heh.