Pizzarium

Local delicacy with wide variety of pizza. 20 - 30 minutes walk from Vatican City. The pizza are sold by weight, quite expensive however it does taste good 

This is their traditional bites with cheese wrapped in using risotto look alike 

Verdict: 4 / 5

Regoli Pasticceria (Pastry) - Rome

Regoli Pasticceria is a reputable old pastry shop which sells a range of delectable pastry and cakes at affordable prices. You do not have to pay a bomb to enjoy these quality sweet treats. We were absolutely spoiled of choices as we stepped in and look at the shelves of pastry and cakes. It is a one stop place where you can find all the traditional Italian's pastry.

Right beside Regoli Pasticceria is Regoli Gelateria caffe which sells a wide range of freshly churned gelato with indoor seats within it.

Take away pastry wrapped very nicely like a present parcel.

Cornetto, Chocloate Eclair and Pistachio Puff

 

 

Cornetto- Cornetto is a common pastry in Rome. Regoli's cornetto is huge with thick pastry crust. The custard fillings were very generous, thick and firm as well

Pistachio Cream Puff - Pistachio cream was thick and fragrant. Portion of puff and cream was just nice, but i find it too sweet to finish off the sugar icing on top. 

Chocolate Eclair - Another pastry which melts our heart. The fillings taste like dark chocolate, not too sweet and not diluted at all. 

Bavaresi 2.50 euro- This is another Italian dessert with thick custard alike light cream sandwiched with 2 piece of pastry crusty base and thick sugar icing on top. It melt right away in the mouth due to its icy texture. 

Verdict: 4/5

We visited this shop 2 times and both times did not disappoint us at all. All the pastries are reasonably priced at around 2.50 Euro, and they certainly worth its value for its given quality and quantity. Regoli is about 15 mins walking distant from the Colosseum and 10 mins walk from the nearest metro station. Other than the Colosseum, Regoli is another thing i remember for Rome!

B&B Bless & B (Air B&B)

Its our first time trying our B&B, the review online on this is very good, hence we decided to try it out. Good co-ordination from the owner as we received email on the time of arrival. The owner actually waited for us to arrive!!

Place of stay is the same as what we saw online, very nicely decorated 

Review: 5/5

Nice and friendly owner even give us a map and did a 15 mins sharing session on the place of interests and where & how we should plan the route to visit all these place.

Highly recommended, booking via agoda

2 Weeks in Europe

2 WEEKS EUROPE 2015 : SINGAPORE --> PARIS --> SWITZERLAND --> ITALY

A lot of time consuming planning is involved in order to make this Europe trip a fruitful, safe and rewarding trip. We covered a total of 5 cities within 13 days. Below are some of the pointers to look out for when drafting out this itinerary:

1. Airtickets

2. Itineary

3. Hotel

4. Train tickets

5. Attraction tickets

Air Tickets:

As soon as you have the plan to travel to Europe, start to sign up for newsletter from all the airlines that fly to the Europe country you are planning to go. Since it is along 15 hours journey to fly from Singapore to Europe, I would recommend looking out for flight deals from the popular air flight companies so that you have a comfortable flight and start your travel in the right mood. My preferred airlines company are SQ, Qatar airways and Emirates. SQ air tickets starts from S$1800 while Qatar and Emirates tickets starts from S$1300. Look out for two to go deal or super deal two to go from SQ as you could secure your tickets from as low as S$1300 for the best flight experience. As for Qatar and Emirates, fare deal can go as low as S$1000.  

Our air tickets: We book via Qatar airway 7 months before departure and paid S$1300 for the multi itinerary flight ticket.

Itinerary:

Use tripadvisor and tourism board of the respective country to note down the place of interest you are keen on visiting. In this way, you would be able to estimate the number of days you would like to spend on each country. With an accurate allocation of days, you would be able to start booking for your accommodation at various countries.

Our Itinerary: For this Europe trip, we spend 4 days in Paris, 3 days in Switzerland and 6 days in Italy.

Hotel:

The popular websites for searching accommodation are Agoda and Airbnb. Airbnb is a popular source to look for guesthouse. Guesthouse is a cheaper alternative as compared to hotel when travelling in Europe. Some guesthouses allow you to have the entire apartment on your own, while some allow you to stay together with the house owner. For those who are not comfortable to live in guesthouse, you may search for hotels through Agoda which allow you to find hotels at the most suitable area within your budget. If you are clueless on which area to stay, you could choose to stay at locations which are just beside the main train station for convenience of arriving and departing.

Our hotel: All our hotel reservations are made through Agoda and most of them are beside the main train station or metro.

1.       Paris: Luxelthe Hotel (Montmartre area, near Pigalle or Abbesses Metro)

2.       Zurich: Easy Hotel Zurich (near Zurich HB main train station)

3.       Venice: Hotel Marte e Biasin ( near Venezia Santa Lucia railway station)

4.       Florence: Albergo Bencidormi (near Firenze S.M.N main train station)

5.       Rome: B & B Bless and B (near Roma Termini station)

Train Tickets:

As soon as we finalise the hotels reservation, we move on to booking the train tickets. You could start your train tickets reservation as early as 3 to 4 months in advance. Subscribe to the train alert schedule so that you can book immediately when the train schedule is out. Another way is to diligently check out on the booking websites. Booking early allow you to secure good timing tickets at the cheapest rate. These are the websites for our train tickets reservation:

1.       http://www.trenitalia.com/

2.       http://www.italiarail.com/

3.       https://www.capitainetrain.com/en

Do note that when you reserve tickets for travelling into Italy, you would need to pay a ticket delivery fee of 25 Euros via DHL. When travelling intercity within Italy, there is no extra charge for ticket delivery, the electronic tickets are available in PDF form for self-printing at home. Loco2 is a British company and thus the currency is in pound.

Our train tickets:

1.       Paris à Zurich (loco2) £20.5

2.       Zurich à Venice  (italiarail) €41

3.       Venice à Florence (italiarail) €19

4.       Florence à Rome (italiarail) €19

Attraction Tickets:

After finalising the air tickets, hotel tickets and hotel reservation, it is time to look into the attraction tickets. Book these tickets in advance so that you can better price online and save time on queuing at the ticket counter. Queuing for tickets can be very time consuming especially during summer season when most of the Europe cities are packed with tourist all over the world. We did not book any tickets for visiting the museums in Paris and Rome. If you are interested in these attractions, remember to pre book them in advance to avoid disappointment at the ticket booth.

Our attraction tickets:

1.       Paris Disneyland 1day 1 mini 49€

2.       Palace of Versailles 12€

3.       Switzerland Mount Titlis Day tour via viator USD373

Europe 14 days Free & Easy Itinerary (Paris -> Zurich -> Venice -> Florence -> Rome)

Hi Guys, was busy preparing my wedding and honeymoon, thus, did not have the time to update my blog. I would like to share with you our Europe honeymoon trip from Paris to Zurich then finally to Italy. You can refer to my itinerary below. I have chose to do free & easy instead of taking a tour. Some of you might have heard stories about their Europe trips or from people retelling their friend's "exciting & dangerous" stories. So why free & easy?

Here are a list which I find it advantageous:

• You get to see more stuffs - scenery, buildings, people
• More interaction with the locals
• A chance to visit the local's neighbourhood
• Time is at your favour - you can choose to plan and do what you like
• More transportation choices - Railway, Train, Public Bus  

A rough draft on the 14 days Free & Easy Europe Itinerary. Details will be shared later.