Hi Friends! This is one of the 3 posts that is submitted for the nomination of Best Photo Blog category by OMY Singapore Blog Awards. I must hereby THANK the panel of judges from OMY’s editorial team for selecting TravelerFolio.com as one of the top ten finalists in the Photo Blog category.

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A more relaxing sightseeing day for us, after the mad cow rush the day before. It was very hot, seemed hotter than Singapore, on 29 May. It’s always good to start Europe first from the South like Italy, as it is warmer; then move to colder regions so that by the time, those colder regions should be nearer to Summer and turn warmer.

We visited the Catacombs, which are the underground burial places under Rome. It was a mind boggling experience, seeing human bones being arranged artistically with shivers down the spine.

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The four of us occupied the whole cabin in the train when we were still in Austria. A cabin had six seats; three seats in a row facing opposite the other three seats. All the seats could slide down so that we could lay down to sleep. Not too comfortable, but cheaper than buying a ticket with sleeper.

We read that night trains are dangerous and there are thieves that might spray sleeping gas in night trains. Thus, we were extra careful with our belongings; we slept on our bags. Our friend even chained our cabin door so that we could all have a peace of mind that no one would come in and took our things when we were asleep!

Around midnight, there were suddenly a lot of passengers boarding the night train. We thought they were Italians. Then came a loud knock. It was an Italian police officer. He wanted to check our passports as we were entering Italy. My friend quickly unchained the door for him.

Magical Venice!

We disembarked the night train at Venezia Mestre station at the Italian mainland and took another train to cross the Venetian Lagoon to central Venice.

The Grand Canal is the most important canal in Venice that forms a major water-traffic corridor to the city. A canoeing competition was going on, so it was not possible for us to take a boat ride to Piazza San Marco or St Mark’s Square in English. We had to walked through the mysterious alleyways to find our way there, giving us the opportunity to explore every nook and canny.

The alleys are brimming with small artisan shops for every visitor to shop for the exquisite souvenirs like the Venetian masks. We entered one such shop and had some fun trying out the Venetian masks.

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We stayed at Michelangelo Campsite , the cheapest stay in our trip, only around €10 per night. per person. There were no light and electricity in the tent, only two single bed. We used our mini torch to shine at our bags to get clothes for bathing. The bathrooms were some distance away from our tent.

As we walked through the campsite to the bathrooms, we passed by a garbage site and saw fireflies! I had never seen fireflies in the wild and seeing such magical insects hovering at the garbage was never a picture formed in my mind when I was reading fairy tales in my childhood!

It was fun at the camp site, though with bare necessities. We picnic in the night at the terrace, overlooking Florence under the dark sky. After picnic, as we were walking back to the tent, all of us suddenly realised that we were only wearing shorts after bathing, and had forgotten that it was night time in the cold! We dashed back to our tents, as fast as we could, all shivering in the cold wind.

In the middle of the night, the cold air crept under my blanket and I woke up trembling. I learnt something - tuck in the blanket under the mattress so that no cold air could invade!

Florence is a great beauty!

The next morning, we headed to Ponte Vecchio. Our tents were nestled among the olive trees in the campsite.

On the hill overlooking Florence in the daylight is mysteriously enchanting; it was like being brought back by a time machine to centuries ago.

We passed by Piazza Michelangelo, a statue of David on the hill on the south bank of the Arno River. The site was designed in 1869, with a great view of the city to offer.

Ponte Vecchio is a Medieval bridge with three segmental arches over the Arno River. There are shops built along the bridge. The striking orange and yellow colours of the bridge certainly certainly also contribute to its unique characteristic.

The reflection of Ponte Vecchio and the buildings on the placid water surface added another mesmeric effect that had intrigued us to capture the magical moment. After all, this famous bridge in Europe is so popularly painted by artists for centuries.

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We walked along the historic buildings and naively believed in a trickster who looked like a South American. He showed us that by waving the paper doll in front of the speaker, the paper doll would dance. Seeing is believing, but not always! We tried to spot the trick; we tried to see if he was manipulating the paper doll, but we just couldn’t find any loophole! We couldn’t see any string attached to the paper doll too. I wanted to open the packaging which was only loosely stapled to check the content before I paid. Then the trickster became very impatient and fierce that he didn’t allow me to check. We bought two - a Pikachu and a Minnie Mouse at €2.50 each! In fact, there were many peddlers along the passageways selling the same stuff too. (See below for how we discovered that we were being tricked.)

There were also people selling padlocks to lovers, to connect the idea of love and lovers by locking the padlock and throwing the key into the river, and the lovers became eternally bonded. Oh, I had seen this before on Mount Huangshan in China, where the people there do the same thing. And I heard that the keys are alike, so even if the lovers throw away the keys into the abyss, the peddlar could open the padlock again and sell it to other lovers again and again.

P.S: Back in Singapore, we tried to make the paper doll dance in front of the speaker on with music. You must be thinking we were very stupid. No argument over that! Then I found that the piece of paper in the packaging was a piece of instruction, surprisingly, written in English. It instructed us attach the string to make the paper doll dance. One might not see the magic if the trick is performed tactically. We were so silly! The paper doll is actually a string puppet. As a tourist, I used to buy things out of impulse when seeing something special in that country. Also, I realised that tricksters are normally fierce to intimate the victim so that the victim would just give and take instead of hesitating further. After much incidents that had happened in many countries, I think I have grown some wisdom at last!

Next: to Pisa for the leaning tower!

We left Florence to Pisa by train. It was a short ride of about one and a half hour.

We walked into yet another famous postcard scene again - the Piazza del Duomo (Cathedral Square), one of the main centres for Medieval art in the world. The square was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is dominated by four great religious edifices namely the Duomo (cathedral church), the Leaning Tower, the Baptistery and the Camposanto.

This was taken while standing at the Field of Miracle, where all three great buildings can be shot nicely in a picture. It’s a courtesy photo from my pretty buddy, Wendy, who went there in 2007.

The leaning tower is awe-inspiring! How could it lean at such a dangerous yet seductive angle? We spent almost two hours in the square, virtually trying to support the leaning tower, to create our own postcards!

Leaving Pisa for Rome, our last league in Europe.

Next: to ROME!