Italy Trip 2011 - Day 8 and 9 (End)

This was our last morning in Florence of our Italy trip. We woke up early, had our breakfast. With our luggage packed. We took a walk nearby. Actually, our B&B is near to the food market building. But we missed the opening time previously. We talked with a Chinese shop keeper, a day before, in the market which sells clothes, bags and other souvenirs, knew that the food market would be opened in the morning till 4:00 pm. Thus, this morning would be our last chance to visit there.

Visiting food market is a very interesting experience. You could know the life styles and habits of the people in that place. Inside the market, there were many people buying meat and vegetables. There are some shops that sell herbs and ingredients. You could find many kinds of pasta with different colors there. We bought some, of course, as you could not find it easily in Hong Kong.

We took train at noon and reached Milan around 2:00 pm. Our return flight would be took off from Milan. Thus, we decided to stay in Milan for one night so that we could catch up the morning flight.

Got off the train, we walked to our hotel and checked in. It was not far from the station. We dropped down our luggage in the room and went for a walk nearby.

Milan is also an old city. But obviously, it is more modern than Florence. In the main street, we could see a lot of branded name shops and lots of people were hanging around. I could not remember the name of the street but it is a long one. I think 1-2 km long. Buildings are old, transportation is old, but shops are grand and stylish. A very interesting contrast, indeed.

We had our afternoon coffee there and rest a bit as the long street made us very exhausted, really. Just windows shopping would tired you, definitely.

Afterwards, walked for a longer while. Dinned in a quite nice restaurant. Went back to our hotel and took a good rest. 

The other morning, we checked out the hotel and went to train station for the train to bring us to airport.  We ended our Italy trip at the airport with beautiful memories, and returned to our real world.

Italy Trip 2011 - Day 1 - Part 1

The first day. We did not have much plan on it, because it was filled with travelling. Starting from taking plane from Hong Kong International Airport to Milan Malpensa Airport. There is 6 hours difference between Hong Kong and Milan at that time (September). We took a mid-night flight which was taken off at 01:00. It took almost 13 hours to there. The landing time was around 07:50.

After taken our luggage, we find our way to Milan's Central Railway Station. There is an express rail, Malpensa Express, which takes visitors to and forth airport to the Central Station. It costs 7 euro for a single journey. The price is claimed to be a promotional price. The frequency is twice an hour. It is an approximation, as there is a more precised schedule which is not necessarily half hour for each train.
It is also not necessary to buy train tickets in advance. Just go to the ticket office and get one, easy. Or, you can also buy one from the machines there. Just remember to change the language to English from the main screen if you did not know any Italian.

The express train took us about 45 minutes to the Central Station. The reason why we needed to be there is that we need to get the train to Florence, our focal point for this trip. There is no direct train from Milan Malpensa Airport to Florence. Thus, this is the only way.

Milan Central Station is a very busy station. It is a railway hub for travelers. Many people standing there and starring the schedule board to check when the train come. Some were sitting to wait for their trains. Including visitors from different countries, it makes the station alive. You can feel that place is really energetic. The station is very huge. There are more than 13 platforms. However, it is a bit old. You can see and feel that. There are paintings on the wall with carving pillars. Just like a museum. To me, it is amazing.

In this busy train station, to buy tickets is no easy. Thus, we had bought train tickets online from the web. And, you can buy a cheaper ticket if you can buy on time from the web. However, we could only manage to buy at a medium price. Anyway, the point is, do buy tickets in advance for long trip trains.

Our train started at 11:15 and arrived at 13:00. The train ran on time and arrived on time. That train is the same class of EuroStar. It is pretty high speed and comfortable. The feeling is good. Just the seating arrangement seems a little bit complicated. For us, it is totally fine as we took the seats from the first station to the end. What we saw is for those people got on train in the middle stations, seems always could not get their seats correctly. I don't know why.

Anyway, we got down the train around 13:00. Florence SMN Station is, also, a huge station with 13 platforms or more. I believe it is also an important hub for commuters. The first thing we did was to check-in our booked hotel. Actually, it is a Bed and Breakfast type accommodation.