The Duomo in Milan, Italy

Duomo di Milano view at night

The Duomo di Milano or Milan Cathedral is the most famous landmark in Milan, Italy. It is made of pink-veined white marble. The largest church in Italy measuring 520 feet by 302 feet. It is also the 5th largest church in the world, big enough to accommodate 40 thousand people. No wonder the construction works were prolonged over nearly six centuries.

This is me and the central door behind me. It’s a “stories from the life of Mary” and it was carved with floral Gothic reliefs in 1906 by Ludovico Pogliaghi.

It’s very impressive, inside and outside. Needless to say, it is really astounding. The Duomo sits on the grand Piazza del Duomo and it’s just beside the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, which is right in the middle of the city and easy to get to. The Duomo is on the grand square so you can really see the physical of the structure which may surprise you when you stand outside.

It’s free to enter if you just wander around inside. There will be a charge if you want to enter the Treasury or Crypt (located inside the church) or access the Duomo roof (lift and stairs access is located outside of the church).

There will be a queue outside the church to go inside, there are police guarding the doors who have to ensure you’ve dressed appropriately, no off shoulders, mini-skirts, and shorts so remember to take a scarf or have your shoulders covered otherwise you will not be allowed in. They will check your bags, food or drinks are strictly prohibited too. I also noticed the signboards to advise people to turn off cell phones or lower down the volume and not to take photographs with flash inside the church.

Statue of “St. Bartholomew flayed” wrapped in his own skin, by Marco d’Agrate.

Once you get in, you will see the church’s magnificent sculptures in the frames and windows, decorations on the facade, beautiful layers of architecturally detailed pinnacles and huge patrimony of statues approximately 1,100 on the inside and  2,300 outside, massive paintings and several tombs of archbishops.

To access the rooftop terrace of the Duomo, you can either use stairs to the top for 5 euros or take the lift for 8 euros, open daily from 9:00 AM  to 5:30 PM.

You can admire and take a wonderful panorama shot of the entire city of Milan from the rooftop terrace, you would be able to see more details sculptures and marble carvings. The number of statues at the roof and the craftsmanship is absolutely breathtaking.

Beautiful Milan is a big city and attracts attention for its rich history and devotion to fashion. We as a traveler we want to make sure our journey to the heart of northern Italy is as safe as possible. You have to be extra careful as you are more exposed to pickpockets and sellers especially in Piazza Duomo.

There are 2 types of the seller in this place that you need to be aware of. One is the corn seed seller and another one is the bracelet seller.

Pigeons are everywhere and they’ll be flocking around the Piazza Duomo and this is where the corn seed sellers come in, they are everywhere too! They tend to grab your hand and when you open your hand they will drop the corn seed and whistles. Next thing you’ll know your arms are covered by pigeons and the seller will offer to take pictures of you while the pigeons are busy eating corn seeds.
Your camera will be given back to you of course but they will charge you 20 euros for the experience, clever isn’t?!

Here come’s the bracelet seller. There will be men who will try to put a leather bracelet or some kind of string bracelet on your arm and when he’s tying the bracelet on you they will tell you it’s free. The moment you start leaving they will start chasing you and ask you to pay 20 euros. They are very sneaky!
They can be very pushy and demand you to buy, so beware of these sellers.
A polite no is normally enough for them to leave you alone.

I hope this would help to give you some ideas and not ruin your experience. You just need to be aware of the pitfalls of traveling but relax and enjoy.

Final thought: I’m glad that I experienced and visit this place and I would love to come and visit again.

Giethoorn, Netherlands

Giethoorn has such a simple beauty that it hardly seems real. A bohemian canal, small wooden bridges, vivid flowers and pretty thatched-roof farmhouses and a fairytale-like garden. I felt like I was in a completely different time period! It was absolutely stunning!

 

Giethoorn Village known as “the Venice of the North”, a magical Village in the Netherlands with no roads available but canals instead. The waterways or canals are the roads as it were.

A waterfront village located in the Dutch province of Overijssel and its 110km from Amsterdam. If driving will take about 1 hour and 30 minutes.

This place has about 2,620 citizens who live in thatched-roof cottages. Many of these homes are hidden among the trees and wooden bridges. These homes are connected by small rivers, a bike path and 176 wooden arch bridges as it’s the only way to reach many houses, other than by boat.

The only way to navigate most of the town is by boat. Even the postman still delivers mail to local residents by boat.

To explore the villages of canals and thatched-roof houses, you must either walk, cycle or ride a boat.

If you opt to explore around the village by boat, there are environmentally friendly whisper boats that can be hired. Whisper boats are open for rental which equipped with silent electric motors.

There are bikes to rent too if you want to explore the village on land.

The village is quite small. You could see everything in just a few hours but if you’d like to stay overnight, or even longer, there are several hotels and bed & breakfasts to choose from.

Cruising on the canals & lake is an unforgettable experience. Well worth a visit.

We were so thankful to have Cherry as our tour guide during this trip to Giethoorn. She’s very friendly and passionate about making the experience perfect for everyone, she speaks English fluently too.

Me and my husband with Cherry holding the wine glass and Pier our tour driver.

Highly recommended Cherry Travel & Tours if you want to visit this fairytale place.

A Must Have In My Bag When I Travel

Today’s post is “A Must Have In My Bag” which is basically the things that I carry around with me at all times when I’m walking around and exploring a new places or travel. I and my husband is going for a short trip soon and this is what inspired me to write this post and I couldn’t be more excited about it. I am not a frequent traveler by any means, but I’ve traveled enough to the point that I’ve completely listed down the essentials that I must have in my bag when I travel.
I actually don’t like to carry around too much in my bag mostly because I often switching bags and don’t want to deal with the entire transfer process each time because I always packed few bags (at least 3) whenever I travel. So let’s get into it.

Pouch 1: I actually have 2 pouches in my bag one is the pouch where I kept those small things such as band-aids, hand sanitizer, wet wipes, hairbrush and perfume as I don’t like too much clutter to overload my bag.

Pouch 2: My makeup kit. I literally know that I’m not going to be reapplying makeup while I’m walking around except for lipstick as it only takes a few seconds to reapply when it comes off after I eat. However, we never know when we might need it, so I always carry a couple of beauty products with me.

Wallet: This is actually a day to day essentials and I bet you can’t go anywhere without this right? I like small wallet as it can easily fit if I’m using a small bag.

Phone: I bet you also wouldn’t leave your house without this right?!

Power Bank: This is one of the important things that you must have whenever you travel, we never know when we really need it. So just in case your phone running out of battery you still have a backup.

Mint: Bad breath after a meal or a long sleep on a flight/bus is really a turn-off, so we should always have some mints or gum in a bag to smell fresh breath.

Pen: I always kept a pen inside my bag when I travel. Sometimes we need this when there are forms to fill up like the Embarkation Form required upon arrival.

Hair Brush: I’m sure you wouldn’t want your hair to be messed up after few hours sleep on a flight, bus or tube/train right? I love this compact Tangle Teezer brush because the bristles have a little cover on it so it won’t damage any other things inside my bag.

Band-Aids: Always pack this ahead. I remember during our trip to Macau last year. We walked and explored so many places by foot and I developed blisters and can no longer walk around as active as I could. Ended up we had to hunt for drug store just to buy band-aids. So if you are planning on an active vacation or just walking around and exploring, you need to have this always in your bag.

Hand Sanitizer: I’m just trying to be proactive as I can to avoid germs which lead to minor cold after being exposed in a confined space for hours. When soap and water are not available we can use this to kill bacteria and virus present on our skin. Bought this sanitizer from Bath & Body Works.

Perfume: Travel-sized perfume or body spray – you wouldn’t want to smell like the cabin after a long plane ride. So pack your travel size perfume.

Wet Wipes: These works wonder especially for ladies and when you are walking around all day and just want to cool off. Use this to wipe your arms and legs it will help to freshen you up in the middle of the day.

Hopefully, this was helpful and have given you a few ideas of what item you might need to pack and prevent some troubles on your upcoming trip.
If you’ve done this post please don’t hesitate to share it below, I would honestly love to read it.

Much love and thanks for reading!

Welcome to this marketplace of ideas, where brain puke is merrily-peddled!

I sat in my car for less one and half hour yesterday watching the “Presidential Debate” from start to finish, intently, by myself, with no distractions.

And today I read through loose transcriptions, adaptations, and notes of the proceedings.

I just cannot seem to get what the multitude have. I simply cannot see any glimmer of brilliance in his discourse. At most they were mere motherhood statements, generalizations meant to impress with populist epithets– that in truth, if you listened to with discernment, utterly failed to answer the question and merely repeated the same. At best he was amusing, needed in a debate perhaps, full of sound and fury– signifying nothing. I may be going senile. First, trying to hitch his wagon to Senator Miriam, maybe in fear of being slain by her sharp tongue and brilliance, so tries to curry favor with her early on and avoid the trained sharp-shooting crosshairs of her aim. Or perhaps in panic on a nationwide Presidential Debate stage, his thoughts couldn’t help wander off to the speaker who spoke immediately prior to him and include her in his opening statement. Either way, not very brave.

Second, motherhood statements with no clear platform on how, ah, yes 3 to 6 months, and then? Third, lack of foresight, fresh ideas, and creative problem solving, this is nothing new, of course we all know drugs, corruption, and criminality are ruining the nation. Duh? It bears not stressing every time the tongue speaketh.

Third, simplistic generalization again ‘give me 3 to 6 months’, oh okay.

(Well that’s par for the course for him, the usual. Nothing new, no innovation, no new ideas, nothing earth shaking. In other words, no food for thought worthy of an evening’s pause and pondering.)

At the end of the day I was sincerely hoping he’d wow me in this debate but all he did was preach to his choir, the same old choir, the same old sermon, the same old epithets, the same old antics. It does nothing to convert, it draws no new follower to the flock, it opens no new eyes, it just confirms to me that this, what he preaches, is not my church. To me the sermon is full of sound and fury. But that’s just my opinion, my two pennies’ worth, go freely disagree without being disagreeable.