NurulNadhrahZainal: Italy; Pisa, Toscana.

So despite not getting to see Rome and all its glory (with the exception of that quick tour of the Colosseum), our tour group moved on to our next destination; Toscana. Which is Italian for the more commonly heard of Tuscany around here.

I think the downside of touring Italy in a short time is that all the main attractions are situated in different cities / regions and it takes HOURS to get from each of those places to another. I mean, yeah it depends on the form of transportation you choose, but unless you're flying / get a cab (in which gila kaya kau coz the cabs there costs a fortune), then your journey will take roughly the same time mine did by bus.

Our hotel in Roma.

If I remember correctly, my journey from Rome to Pisa took about 5 hours, plus or minus.

Left Rome with a heavy heart. No backward coin toss into the Trevi, no sightings of the Pope at the Vatican City and no taste of the secret gelato place tucked somewhere nearby a famous tourist attraction that I read on a travel review article, claiming it to be The Best Gelato ever. Yes, even overcoming the popular Grom that people queue up to get a taste of.

Not gonna tell you the name of the place. Hah. Coz until I get to taste said gelato, you don't either. *cue annoying childlike chants of nyanyanyanyanyaaanyaaa*

Although luck was not on our side in the beginning, that shouldn't stop us from being ever so grateful for just having the chance to land our feet in this beautiful land. Alhamdulillah.

Views on the bus;

To be completely honest, I don't get the obsession with Nutella. I'm guessing Tumblr has a lot to do with over-hyping the brand, but I'm more of a PB and J person.

Sister found her wedding bouquet!

Our stop halfway to Toscana.

I know thats a lot of pictures of basically the same thing, but I can't help it! I'm a sucker for blue skies, fluffy clouds and contrast between land and sky, etc all that shiznat. If it isn't creepy; I was smiling nearly the entire journey. If it IS creepy... then forget I said anything.

After some time; We reached Pisaaaaa. It was cold I tell you. Nothing like Rome, thankfully. But still cold enough and to think I wasn't even wearing a proper outerwear given the weather.

Took a small bus to Piazza Dei Miracoli (Square of Miracles);

LOL no idea why everyone looked pissed in this photo.

Entrance to Piazza Dei Miracoli.

Battistero di San Giovanni (Baptistry of St. John), the largest baptistry in Italy.

The Duomo

The campanile (bell tower) famous all across the globe, nicknamed as The Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Its a long history of how the tower came to be, but I'm guessing you can just check that out for yourself by amassing the amount of information strewn over the internet. But I'll tell you one thing; The tower may look simple, but it actually took more than 10 years to complete.

Mainly because it was built during the times of war, and they always had to put the construction to a halt.

We didn't take photos when we arrived, but headed straight for lunch given that it was already noon. Good thing though, coz the place was packed.

Its entertaining to see the lengths people go.

The twins; Batrisyia and Aqilah. Don't ask me which is which coz I've forgotten who wore which coloured coat and I can never tell from pictures.

Outfit deets;

Joey Ramone White T (inside) | from KL Vintage Bazaar

Checkered shirt | ZARA

Vintage Denim Jacket | from Leftblock Junk Sale

Black leggings | Cotton On

The place where we had our lunch;

Rayyan, the ever adorable little boy.

Soooo many reasons why I'm friend-zone(d). My God.

Alhamdulillah, we were lucky throughout our stay in Italy because we somehow managed to meet a lot of fellow Moslems who helped us with performing our duties. Our waiter at lunch was a Moslem, and he felt more than inclined to lend us an un-filled space in the restaurant to do our prayers;

Then its back to the Piazza!

Overexposed like F. But theres little I can do about it, what with my very limited 'skills' in photo editing. And... JUST LOOK AT MY FACE! Obviously not ready for a photo.. (-___-)

Better la kot. But MY GOD my family can never take photos where everyone looks presentable.

Its nearly impossible. I was actually laughing with my mum about this, because she needed a family photo to use for a feature, and we had a hard time to choose one simply because there would always be at least that ONE person who isn't ready / making faces / looks depressed.'

Tsk. We're sad.

But that's us. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

#FAIL #Embarrassment

But apparently I had followers, coz when I turned my back I saw this;

The twins imitating me. Though I'm pretty sure they have little to no idea what they were doing and why they're doing it.

After that is just a load of random snaps;

And more overexposed ones (T___T);

Attempting a family pyramid;

Going...

... Going...

... Gone. Well, in my case.

Mama can never take a good jump shot... Unless we adjust the settings for her on our 50D.

I took this one. Am I proud of it? SURE la why not?!

:-P

We took SO MANY photos OMG. Insane. But we spent the whole day in Pisa anyways, and moved on to Firenze (Florence) straight after.

NAH I put pretty nice photo of myself. Cannot lahhh always put bad / embarrassing ones. I'm a girl oso. I oso want to look nice whatttt. (Ni dah kenapa?)

So we headed back to the bus stop;

Daddy!

And arrived at our bus with this view. A blood red sky.

Then its on to dinner. The intervals between all our meals are so short... I'm grateful I didn't gain any weight there. And this dinner was probably the largest one.