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Spain & Italy

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🇮🇹 Rome, Italy
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Penne
I går, Italien ⋅ 🌧 6 °C
It was rainy and cold all day; the car display said it was 4 degrees Celsius. We braved the rain and ventured out into Penne for lunch, and we explored a little in the rain. Penne is a cute town on top of a hill and there were many narrow cobblestone lanes to explore. It did get a little treacherous in the rain as I feared slipping exacerbating my tendinitis.

After this exploration, we retreated to my cousin’s farmhouse and watched movies.Læs mere
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Ortona
30. marts, Italien ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C
Since we were on the coastline, my cousin decided to drive us 30 mins south to Ortona for seafood. We had a good lunch at Trattoria San Domenico, after which we walked around the town a little and then we explored the Castello Aragonese located next to the restaurant. After that, we drove down the coast a little before heading to her farmhouse in Penne. The rain, which was forecasted for the next few days, started soon after.Læs mere
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Rimini to Pescara
30. marts, Italien ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C
After another hotel breakfast, I set off my train for the 3 hour journey to Pescara. At Pescara Centrale, my cousin was waiting for me. We walked a couple of blocks for her to take care of some logistics related to her move, and then we had a coffee before we set off for our lunch reservation.Læs mere
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The Kindness of Strangers
29. marts, Italien ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C
I still had some daylight left when I got back to San Marino, so I decided to look for last night’s sights in daylight. I learned that the big castle was named Castel Sismondo. I also spotted a Fellini museum, and other public works celebrating Rimini’s most famous figure. If I come back to Rimini I will make it a point to watch some Fellini films and learn more about him first.

As the sun set, I set off for Borgo Fritto to get a second fix of fritto misto. Google indicated they would be open, so imagine how gutted I was when I found them closed. Dejected, I wandered around looking at restaurant menus until I found one with fritto misto… at €20 which was more than double last night’s. I decided I had nothing to lose since this restaurant had an English and, oddly, a Russian menu. When I was seated, I was a little taken aback when the waitress spoke even less English than the two women at Borgo Fritto. But, we met each other halfway and we made it work. I ordered the fritto misto and a glass of white wine.

A few minutes later, the waitress put a simple green salad in front of me, and motioned to use the olive oil and balsamic vinegar bottles on the table to fashion a dressing. I assumed the salad came with the meal, and so I shrugged and ate it. Then, she put a meat stuffed bread on the table and motioned to me to try it. After that, came the fritto misto which was good and, to be fair, came in a larger portion than last night’s. All this time, the owner of the restaurant was nattering away with the regular patrons and he didn’t pay much attention to me. When I finished the fritto misto, I motioned to the waitress that I was too full for dessert, and that I would just like an espresso. I was dumbfounded when she put a small piece of cake with chocolate sauce on the table, and when my coffee came, she slipped me a limoncello. I was fretting at this point thinking the bill was piling up, but a little voice inside me told me that this was just a human being showing kindness to a stranger journeying through a strange land by himself. True enough, when the owner rang up the bill, the salad, the meat stuffed bread, the cake, and the limoncello were not listed. I left a big tip. I won’t publicly state the name of this restaurant here because I don’t think the owner knew I got so many things for free.

Throughout my travels and my life abroad, I have encountered so many instances of people extending kindness to me, such as the man in Makassar who hailed a rideshare for me and refused reimbursement, to the street vendors outside my Bangkok apartment who were so kind to me, and too many other instances to list here. I just hope that I put in enough good energy into the world to balance all the kindness I have received.Læs mere
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San Marino
29. marts, San Marino ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C
After visiting the three towers, I spent the rest of my time exploring the maze of narrow cobblestoned streets. The streets blended into one another because they all sold tacky tourist souvenirs and perfume, with the odd gun shop thrown in for good measure.

Hidden among the lanes was one Atlas Obscura site, Cava del Balestrieri, where the (now ceremonial) Crossbow Corp practice their craft.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/cava-del-ba…

I had a pizza lunch in the town center, and then I visited the State Museum, which had a collection of religious art (many also with disturbingly violent images), archeological artifacts from medieval times and earlier, and, oddly, a collection of Egyptian artifacts. I was hoping to learn about how San Marino became the world’s oldest republic, but there wasn’t anything about the founding of the republic.

After the museum, I made my way back to the bus stop to catch the bus back to Rimini, and I had a coffee while waiting for the bus.

This was a rewarding day of exploration, and I can also now check country number 40 (excludes territories such as Puerto Rico and Hong Kong) off my list.Læs mere
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Guaita Tower
29. marts, San Marino ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C
Guaita Tower is the largest and grandest of the three towers, and there were many more people here. To get to Montale Tower earlier, I had to go across some stone steps which I knew were at the edge of a cliff. I’m not great with heights so I didn’t love going onto this path. Anyway, to get to Guaita, I had to retrace my steps and go back along the same trail.

I thought about going up the tower, but there was a long queue to get into the single ladder going up and down, and my tendinitis-impacted left knee was starting to act up. So, I gave it a miss and instead explored the lower walkways. Inside the tower, there was one Atlas Obscura site: drawings on the walls of the prison made by past prisoners.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/prisoner-ar…Læs mere
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Cesta Tower
29. marts, San Marino ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C
The tower immediately to the north of Montale is Cesta. Here, I purchased an €11 pass which granted entry to this tower and to Guaita Tower, plus some other state museums.

Cesta is much larger than Montale. Housed inside the main tower is a museum of armaments displaying weapons that were in use in San Marino in the past. I also climbed out onto the tower and enjoyed the views there.Læs mere
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Montale Tower
29. marts, San Marino ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C
As I mentioned in an earlier entry, I have a weird obsession with the European microstates which is why I broke my journey in Rimini to visit, San Marino, which is my third after Vatican City and Monaco. Now I only have Andorra and Liechtenstein to go. Although not considered microstates, I also have a weird obsession with Malta and Gibraltar so I may undertake a microstate tour sometime in the future.

I have a decent at Hotel Napoleon. I chose this accommodation because it is very close to the train station and next to the San Marino shuttle bus stop. After consuming my complimentary breakfast, I boarded the San Marino bus which deposited me at the city wall a little under an hour later.

My first impression of San Marino was that is was full of tacky touristy shops. There were so many perfume shops, which left me gagging a little. There were also a number of gun and weapons shops as San Marino has some of the most relaxed gun laws around.

I knew the walled city had three towers. I took a few minutes to orientate myself before I decided to go to the farthest and least visited one - Montale - to the south and then make my way north to the other two.

There was hardly anyone on the path to Montale. I got there after about 15 minutes of walking from the main town. It turned out to be a single tower with no access to the interior. It must have snowed recently in San Marino because there was snow piled up on the sides of the roads and pathways.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/montaleLæs mere
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Desperately Seeking Fritto Misto
28. marts, Italien ⋅ 🌙 10 °C
In the evening, I walked around a bit in the area southwest of my hotel looking for fritto misto as Rimini is reputed to have good restaurants serving this fried seafood meal. I was surprised how lively the area was with young people enjoying their Saturday night out. But, none of the restaurants I encountered really enticed me, and that was because I found a no frills restaurant serving this dish during my earlier explorations and I just knew it’d be much better value for money.

After enjoying the evening scenes and people watching, I made my way over the Bridge of Tiberius and walked a short additional distance to Borgo Fritto, where I enjoyed a really wonderful fritto misto for only €9. The two women working at Borgo Fritto barely spoke English, but they were lovely and kind. It was a self-serve situation - they hand you a piece of paper to put on your table, you grab your own drink from the fridge, and they hand you your food in a paper carton. But, this is right up my alley as I love any place with a street food vibe.Læs mere
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The Adriatic Seafront
28. marts, Italien ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C
After my Atlas Obscura explorations, I walked to the Adriatic seafront. As this was a Saturday, there were a lot of people out and about.
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Milan to Rimini
28. marts, Italien ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C
Why Rimini? Well, my plan was to go visit my cousin Andria in Penne, Abruzzo, before going to Rome, and I am fascinated by the European microstates, so I figured I’d stop in Rimini, the main jumping off point to San Marino, before proceeding down south.

After saying goodbye to my Mr B&B host, I made my way to Milan Centrale where I boarded a high speed Italotreni train to Bologna Centrale. The journey took 1 hour 14 minutes and we reached speeds of up to 300km/hour. At Bologna Centrale, I had a 40 minute connection at which time I boarded a regional Trenitalia commuter train for the 1.5 hour journey to Rimini. Arriving in Rimini, I walked a short distance to my accommodation Hotel Napoleon, checked in, and then stepped out to purchase my bus ticket to San Marino tomorrow.Læs mere
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Como
27. marts, Italien ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C
After walking along the lakefront and visiting Tempio Voltiano, I walked around Como, admiring the old fortification, the buildings, churches, and shops. I also stepped into the basilica for a quick look.

After some wandering around, I crossed the train tracks and found myself on the wrong side of the tracks - literally not figuratively. This side of the tracks was pretty much for locals, and, to make matters worse, I committed an amateur mistake and walked the wrong direction for almost a kilometer, which was pretty boneheaded considering I had a honking huge mountain and a honking huge basilica tower to orientate me. I cursed my stupidity and retraced my steps, and en route I chanced upon a little trattoria - Ristorante Da Rosa - and I decided to dine there because there were lots of locals inside and no menu displayed outside. What a find this was. The owner presented me with a handwritten menu of the lunch specials, which included a pasta course and a second course for - get this - €12! Everybody around me was speaking Italian. It was simple rustic fare, but the experience was priceless , and it reminded me of my 1990s trips to Rome where my Singapore Airlines counterpart took me to restaurants where he had cultivated a relationship with the owners.

After lunch, I made my way to the train station and bought my ticket back to Milan. I tried to ask for a refund on my Varenna to Milan ticket which I had prepurchased online, but the staff there could not authorize it. Ah well, it wasn’t a pricey ticket at €7.20, and the weather was certainly not under their control. Despite the weather not cooperating, I still had an enjoyable and educational day out, and the local lunch experience in particular made for a great experience.Læs mere
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Tempio Voltiano
27. marts, Italien ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C
I spent some time visiting Tempio Voltiano, a museum dedicated to inventor and scientist Alessandro Volta. As a child, Volta observed while playing at a lakefront how certain gases (what we now know as methane) were flammable, and the interaction of gases formed the basis of many of his early hypotheses and inventions.

The second level of the museum houses a series of panels in Italian outlining Volta’s life and his accomplishments. The museum staff were kind enough to spend a few minutes getting me oriented, including handing me an English translation of the exhibits about Volta’s life.

On the ground floor is a collection of his instruments and inventions, including the very first battery.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tempio-volt…Læs mere
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Lake Como
27. marts, Italien ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C
There was a planned metro strike scheduled for 8.45am to 3pm today, and again from 6pm onwards. With this in mind, I planned a day trip to Lake Como to avoid the strike action. My plan was to take the 7.45am train to Como, explore the town, then take the public ferry to Bellagio (journey time two hours), explore Bellagio, then take a short ferry to Varenna and get back to Milan between 3pm and 6pm.

Unfortunately, my day didn’t go as planned. When I arrived at Como San Giovanni station, I walked 20 minutes to the ferry terminal and noted en route that it was windy. When I got to the lake, I saw that the water was choppy and I wondered if the ferries were running. As it turned out, all ferries had been canceled that day. Yikes.

I decided to simply enjoy my time exploring Como itself. I walked northwest along the lakefront and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, eventually ending up at Villa Olmo, an old villa which was now a public park. There, the lakeside walkway ended, so I returned to Como with a pit stop at Tempio Voltiano (see next entry) before exploring the town itself.Læs mere
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Castello Sforzesco
26. marts, Italien ⋅ 🌬 14 °C
After the Duomo tour, I made my way to Castello Sforzesco, a medieval fortification built by the Duke of Milan. The castle is now a public space with several museums on its premises. However, when I got there, I realized my brain was saturated after two consecutive guided tours, so I just enjoyed the castle grounds before making my way back to my accommodation, with a quick Atlas Obscura diversion at Palestro station en route.

My first Atlas Obscura site was an building with a bronze ear which once functioned as an intercom: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-bronze-…

The second site near Palestro station was a building with funky art installations. The building appeared to be residential and I could not get in, so I snapped a picture and left. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/palazzo-ber…Læs mere
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Duomo Interior
26. marts, Italien ⋅ 🌬 14 °C
After we descended the stairs into the Duomo, Maria informed us about various features of the interior of the Duomo. Key among these were three adjacent collections of stained glass with one focused in the apocalypse, and one each on the Old and anew Testaments. She also led us to view some of the most important statues, and she told us about the scale of the pipe organ, which is Italy’s largest with 15,800 pipes. It is played on five asymmetrical keyboards.

Overall, this was a great guided tour and well worth the €38 I spent as I learned a lot.Læs mere
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Duomo Rooftop
26. marts, Italien ⋅ 🌬 14 °C
The interior of the Duomo is only accessed by purchasing a ticket, I looked up the prices and I saw that a two hour guided tour wasn’t too steep at €38, so I booked it.

After completing The Last Supper tour, I hopped onto the metro, ate a slice of pizza, and then made my way to meet up with Maria, our guide. Maria took us through security and then up to the roof by elevator. There, she pointed out various features, which included:
- the design of the roof;
- why there always is scaffolding at the Duomo: the marble used lasts 200 years and individual blocks have to be replaced. The old and new limestone also have different shades;
- various figures represented in the spires, including Adam and Eve which are on different parts of the rooftop, each with either Cain or Abel but not both.
- each gargoyle is unique, and one of them even inspired the dog and boy from The Neverending Story.

Because of the wind, it was a nice clear day and we could see the snow covered Alps in the far distance.

At one point, Maria told me she has observed a big surge in visitors from the US. She asked me if Americans were coming to Milan because airfares were cheap. I replied it was because Americans want to visit a functioning democracy. It sort of fell flat and I think my comment was lost on her LOL.Læs mere
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The Last Supper
26. marts, Italien ⋅ 🌬 10 °C
Tickets to view Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper are limited and often sold out as soon as they are released for sale online; the church deliberately restricted crowd numbers to help preserve the masterpiece. When I checked, The Last Supper was booked out into May. Given this development, I decided to book a guided tour through an agency at a steep markup to the ticket price.

This mornings I made my way to the Santa Maria delle Grazie and met our guide Sylva. When the entire group had checked in, she guided us through security screening and then led us in an informative tour of the church and its most famous painting. Sylva told us about the history of The Last Supper, how da Vinci experimented with painting techniques in plaster and the outcomes of his experimentation, and restoration efforts. When we were finally in front of the masterpiece, she pointed out its contents and their significance, and she pointed out various visual features. She also talked about the painting on the other end of the hall - The Crucifixion by Giovanni Donato de Montorfano - and drew comparisons between the two in terms of technique and their subsequent impact.

After viewing the paintings, Sylva showed us the church itself, which started out as a Lombardy-style Gothic and ended up being conjoined with a newer, renaissance style church.

Considering how next-to-impossible to secure ordinary tickets, I don’t regret paying a premium for this experience.Læs mere
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Barcelona to Milan Malpensa
25. marts, Spanien ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C
Singapore Airlines SQ377 | BCN/MXP
Economy Class
Airbus A350-900 | 9V-SMJ
ATD/1030 | ATA/1204

When I booked this trip, I first purchased a one way ticket to Barcelona and a one way ticket out of Rome. I hemmed and hawed about what to do in between. I wanted to go to Malta, but there were no direct flights between Barcelona and Malta, and I really didn’t want to take two low cost flights to get to Malta and be nickel and dimed twice over. It also seems as if OneWorld carrier Iberia has pretty much left BCN and let the low cost carriers scrap over it. But, still, I needed to get to Italy. I briefly considered doing a rail trip but it was a lot of train travel for a two week trip. In the end, I decided to take Singapore Airlines’ fifth freedom service between BCN and MXP. The airfare was about €50 more than the low cost carriers, but I also knew I wouldn’t be nickel and dimed on seat selection, meals, bags, etc. Besides, I have a long and complicated history with Singapore Airlines starting with my employment with them in 1993 to 1998, so I was drawn to this option by a mixture of nostalgia and curiosity.

I took the Aerobus to Barcelona Airport. I had attempted to check in online the night before, but that failed, probably because I was on a one way ticket. Regardless, check in was smooth once I showed the agent my ticket out of Rome. I then had a quick breakfast and I made my way to the gate. There, I figured out something was amiss when, according to FlightRadar24, the inbound flight SQ 378 had arrived but the aircraft was nowhere to be seen. I quickly surmised that this was a remote gate boarding and that there was no way we would make the 70 minute turnaround. I thought it was a little odd that the gate agents did not make any announcements about the remote bay boarding. In my past experience, letting passengers know the will be boarding via bus helps expedite the process.

At the gate, I was surprised to see how many passengers there were. I assumed that BCN and MXP would more or less split the load, but the flight was at least 75% full in Economy and Premium Economy. I noted that barely a quarter of the Business Class seats were occupied; hopefully MXP would fill the rest as they’re more of a business destination.

We left about 15 minutes behind schedule. The flight to MXP was smooth and uneventful. We were served a sandwich (with a choice between cheese and tuna; I chose for former) in a paper bag, which in my opinion was sufficient for this short sector. I shuddered when I recalled we are made to cater a hot snack with tray setup on Manchester-Amsterdam, and how the crew struggled to complete the service on that sector that was even shorter than this one.

But, most of all, I loved coming back to something that was a key part of my young adulthood: the smell of the cabin (SQ has a specially commissioned citrusy scent), the boarding music, the earnestness and pride… this was a far cry from the carrier I predominantly fly domestically within the US. The only thing that threw me for a loop was both cabin crew serving my aisle were from Korea. Back in the day, the non-Singaporean/Malaysian crew mostly operated to and from their home countries as their language skills were needed on those flights.

Upon arrival at MXP, I purchased a bus ticket for the one hour ride to Milano Centrale, and then I made my way to my Mr B&B accommodation.Læs mere
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Olympic Stadium
24. marts, Spanien ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C
After visiting the Fundacio Joan Miro, I wandered further downhill to the Olympic Stadium from 1992. Sadly, the iconic outdoor diving tower is closed in the winter. Try as I did, I could not spot it from outside. I did want to take a photo for Jeff but it wasn’t meant to be.Læs mere
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Fundacio Joan Miro
24. marts, Spanien ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C
Down the hill from the cable station is a museum dedicated to the work of Joan Miro. I had a pleasant time viewing his art and sculptures, but by far the most fascinating work on display was a mercury fountain by Alexander Calder, who was influenced by Miro. The toxic mercury was encased in a glass room, and it was made as a tribute to the town of Almaden, which was the world’s largest supplier of mercury. The mercury was mined by criminals and slave labor, with most of the miners dying from mercury poisoning. The town itself also suffered immensely during the Franco regime.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/calder-merc…

Joan Mira’s work was whimsical and a lot of fun to look at, although it did take some imagination to interpret the paintings. Women and birds took prime position in many of his works. I was also delighted to see a miniature version of The Eye That Escapes, which is an installation at La Defense where we stayed during the Paris Olympics in 2024.Læs mere
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Montjuic Castle
24. marts, Spanien ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C
Montjuic Castle, with a history dating back to the 1640s, is the main attraction at the end of the cable car ride. Unfortunately, the exhibit hall was closed for renovation, so I didn’t have much information about life in the castle, but I have been to enough Spanish-built castles in Colombia, Cuba, and Puerto Rico to know how the troops lived. Apart from the castle structure, one can also enjoy panoramic views of Barcelona from the castle.Læs mere
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Montjuic
24. marts, Spanien ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C
I decided to spend the day exploring Montjuic, or “Jewish Mountain”, which is the highest point in the city. In the past, there was a significant Jewish presence in the area, hence the name. Another fun fact: Gaudi deliberately designed the Sagrada Família to be just a little bit shorter than Montjuic because he believed his cathedral should not be taller than God’s creation.

To get to Montjuic, I took the metro to Paral-lel, and then transferred to a bus which took me uphill. There is a funicular up the hill, but it was under repair, hence the bus. After I alighted from the bus, I took a cable car up to the Montjuic Castle, and I enjoyed great views of Barcelona en route.Læs mere
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Mercat de la Boqueria & La Rambla
23. marts, Spanien ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C
At dinner time, I headed out to the Mercat de la Boqueria, where I marveled at the produce on display, snacked on fried squid and oysters, and then I settled on a tapas bar where I had potatoes, garlic shrimp, and fish tacos.

After dinner, I strolled down La Rambla on an Atlas Obscura hunt, finding two sites:

Gaudi’s Palau Guell https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/palau-guell

Mirador de Colom: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mirador-de-…

Unfortunately, the most highly rated tapas bar, La Quim, wasn’t open when I visited, so I went back the next morning for their signature fried eggs and baby squid. On paper this was an odd combination, but it was really delicious.Læs mere
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Parc Guell
23. marts, Spanien ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C
In this entry are shots from other parts of Park Guell, in particular the central viewing platform, and the space underneath, plus other random shots.
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