Italy Trip: Visiting The Colosseum

Our next destination is Rome. The plane landed at 9 p.m. and then we took Leonardo Express train from Fiumicino Aeroporto to Roma Termini station. We arrived at Roma Termini station around 10 p.m. and we dragged our luggage to the hotel. We stayed at Nord Nuova Roma Hotel near the station. When we arrived, the receptionist welcomed us and mentioned my traveling partner's name with Italian accent, which made me realized that we've arrived in Italy. Oh I just love the Italian accent, it feels like they put their emotion in the way they saying every words, so fascinating.

The next morning, we took Metro from Roma Terimini station to Colosseum station. We directly went to the ticket office and buy the entrance ticket.

Ticket to Colosseum

People already lined up to enter the Colosseum, but the queue not really long, around 15 minutes we're already inside the Colosseum. At first we didn't intend to take a guided tour, so we're just walking around aimlessly. But since Colosseum looks more than meets the eye, so we decided to buy the English-spoken guided tour. There's a specific place at the aisle where we met some peoples who were waiting for the tour started just like us. We waited until our guide came the she gave us the audio-set so we still can hear what she said even if we were left behind.

The aisle after entering the entrance gate

Our tour guide

From the tour, I found out that the Colosseum has been used for many purposes during its life time. From the symbol of imperial power until the place where people build house inside Colosseum (seriously!). I also found out that when Colosseum was used as the battle ground, it was decorated into various themed, from forest themed to Sea theme (they flood the stage with waters and put ships on it). It's so genius and make me wondered how the people in the past with limited technology already made such epic themed battles.

The empty Colosseum stage

the map

Unfortunately all we can see now is its ruin, especially due to the earthquakes in the past and some of the stones were used to build other buildings (seriously?!).

this was the place where the gladiators were waiting before joining the battle

Done cherishing the beauty of Colosseum, we continue to the ruin next to Colosseum, it was Roman Forum. Even though with bare eyes all you can see is just ruins, but somehow the atmosphere of old time glory still felt and they just look so beautiful. I really wonder how people in the pas really used the Roman Forum for their daily activities.

Me in front of Colosseum. yes, it is book of Colosseum story in my hand :p

Inside Roman Forum, this place still look like an old city

the ruins as the background

Many polices patrol around Colosseum, from the one who used the car until the ones who used horses. There's also some army doing their daily patrol (something you had to get used to see in all over European countries lately)

Police car

The police patrol using horses

My favorite look of Colosseum is from this view:

this is one of the view of Colosseum like in Spectre movie

it was one of the scene in James Bond movie, Spectre, which is look a whole lot better in real eyes. Can I say I love Rome now?


XOXO,
The Tourist

Spain Trip: Casa Mila, Casa Batllo, and Passeig de Gracia

We only had a half day to spent on the last day in Barcelona. So this time we decided to visit some famous places, but just to see how it looks like from outside and not trying to explore more than that due to our limited time.

To make it like a flow, we took metro from Placa de Catalunya station to Diagonal station. From there, we took a walk towards Placa de Catalunya. By having this walked, we can enjoy various buildings and branded shopping store along the street.

Our first stop is at one of Antoni Gaudi's masterpiece named Casa Mila or also known as La Pedrera. This building is named after the owners, Pere Mila, and the project to create the current architecture was started in 1906.

Casa Mila

Casa Mila is one of UNESCO World Heritage site

me in front of the entrance of Casa Mila

The next building that we came accross was Casa Batllo. This also one of Gaudi's masterpiece and named after the owner of the building, Joseph Batllo. According to what I read ini Wikipedia, in the early 20th century, Passeig de Gracia was well known as a very prestigious and fashionable area. It is also an area where the prestigious family could draw attention to themselves. So no wonder Batllo and Mila put some effort to make their houses as unique as possible and hired Antoni Gaudi as the architect to make their house more picturesque.

Casa Batllo (the second building from the right)

Done with the houses, now it's time for shopping. My original plan was only to Zara, but we managed to visit other stores as well during the walk to Zara :p

huge Zara store in Passeig de Gracia

just another fountain in front of Zara store

amazed by this store since we don't have Mango Man store in Indonesia :(

Compare to the price in Indonesia, the Zara in Barcelona is only cheaper by IDR 100k- 200k, but since I already had plan for certain items, so the stuffs became more appealing to be bought in here.


XOXO,
The Tourist

Spain Trip: La Rambla, Granja Viader, and Placa de Catalunya

After spending a day full of walking around the city, we decided to spend the night around the hotel. Since our hotel located near Placa de Catalunya, so we went sightseeing La Rambla at night. La Rambla that night was packed with people.

La Rambla at night

Another view of La Rambla

Chrismas ornament on the street

Since we already had rice during the lunch, so we wanted something light for dinner. I always have an eye for dessert, so this time we're going to one of the famous place for Churros, named Granja Viader. This restaurant is established in 1870 and still crowded until now. We had to queue for a few minutes outside the restaurant until we got our seats.

Granja Viader banner

queue in front of Granja Viader

waiting to get our seats

We ordered churros, hot chocolate, flan, and milk. The churros itself taste really good, the original one is only covered with sugar. But since we also ordered hot chocolate, we could dip the churros to the chocolate. The flan taste like a light pudding with caramel sauce for me. To be honest, the chocolate is more like a cup of melted chocolate instead of milk chocolate that you usually find elsewhere. I love the taste of the foods that we ordered, but if I returned there, I will order more churros and not dip it in the hot chocolate, cause the dip made my stomach felt overwhelmed. This place is recommended for anyone who wants to taste the original churros from its original country, Spain.

Our order in Granja Viader (the churros was amazing)

You can buy milk and other food to be taken home as well

our little wefie in Granja :p 

After finishing our delicious desserts, we walked back to our hotel. Before then, we stop by at Placa de Catalunya. Basically Placa de Catalunya is a huge empty plaza, where people meet each othes or doing activities. There are some fountains at the plaza, and they gave us a show like Font Magica, but these ones in smaller size and less dramatic.

Placa de Catalunya

The fountains made the atmosphere felt beautiful

The fountains at Placa de Catalunya

Since we came there in Desember, so the Christmas ornaments were everywhere. One of them was covering the El Corte Ingles, one of the huge department store in Barcelona.

Christmas ornamen at El Corte Ingles

Finished with sightseeing, we went back to hotel and took some rest for the next day journey.



XOXO,
The Tourist

Spain Trip: Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell

After visiting Camp Nou, we continue our trip to another famous tourist point in Barcelona, Sagrada Familia. Sagrada Familia is a Roman Catholic church designed by the famous Anthony Gaudi. The word "Sagrada Familia" means the holy family. The construction of the building was commenced in 1882 and still continue until now, which made Sagrada Familia as a never ending project.

We use metro to get to Sagrada Familia MRT station. When walked out from the station, we arrived at the back of Sagrada Familia, so we had to circling the church to get to the entrance of it. Once we entered we could see how complex the architecture of the church. My favorite part of the building was the colorful glass, the shine going through it and make the color inside the church look so beautiful.

the amazing architecture

the light looks so beautiful if you see with bare eyes

At the other side of the church, we could see the miniature of the church. Before leaving, I bought some magnet at the official souvenir shop, so I can have something to remember. Actually if we had more time in there, we can take the lift to the upper level of the church and explore the beautiful architecture of the building.

Sagrada Familia miniature

just one of the ornaments at the wall of Sagrada Familia

Before we heading to our next stop, we had some lunch at KFC across the church. Actually there are plenty restaurants around the church, so don't worry if you feel hungry when you visit the church.

Sagrada Familia view from the front of KFC

Our next stop was anothe Gaudi's masterpiece, Parc Guell. We went there using the metro and stoped at Lesseps MRT station and walk from there to the Park. From Lesseps station, we walked to Parc Guell which was about 1,6 km. During our walk, we noticed that many people put Catalan flags on their apartments' balconies.

The walk from Lesseps station to Parc Guell

Catalan flags in balconies

The walk to Parc Guell is ascending, so when arrived at the gate we almost lost our breath. The ticket to enter Parc Guell is strict to certain time only, and if you late to enter the gate, the officer won't let you in. So, please ensure you can arrived on time at the designated time when you purchased the ticket.

We entered Parc Guell from the west entrance and then we just follow the walking way to the main area, where the porter's lodge pavilions located. From the pavilion, we took the Dragon Stairway to get to the Nature Square (Placa de la Natura). I used to put the picture of this Pavilions and Barcelona city view from Nature Square at my office desktop wallpaper, so it's really nice to be able to see the real view with my own eyes.

One of the pavilion

the Dragon Stairway

the famous lizard "El Drac"

The view of Pavilions from Nature Square. If the sky is clearer, we actually could see the sea from here.

typical tourist photo at Parc Guell :p

We also took a chance to walk to the Laundry Room Portico. The view of this Portico is usually appear in instagram whenever I saw people posting about Parc Guell, so I was a bit curious about it though there's not much to see in there.

The Laundry Room Portico

When it almost twilight, we decided to go home through the south entrance. From outside the gate, I could see one of the pavilion (which became the souvenir shop) looks so beautiful from outside.

Souvenir shop pavilion from outside the gate

XOXO,
The Tourist