Buongiorno Italia

Good morning from Italy! 

Our long haul flight arrived uneventfully at Milan Malpensa on time. The Italians have made inefficiency an art form. They had an attendant to man the 2 very slow automatic passport gates...Despite being only about 20 from the front when we joined the line, it took about 10 minutes to get through immigration. By the time we got to the luggage carousel, our suitcases were out. 

We had 5 hours to kill before our next flight and somehow managed to have to run to our gate to make our flight...we made it with 6 minutes to spare before the gate closed. Still not sure how that happened! Our last flight would see us land at Bari airport. We decided to chance it with Ryanair and our flight arrived on time, with suitcases coming out immediately. Super relieved that all 3 flights departed as scheduled and that all suitcases made it as well.

Sunrise from the plane

Our spot at Milan airport for 2 and a half hours while waiting for the Ryanair counter to open

Apparently the outfit that I changed into didn't make the cut for acceptability by Lara's standard. This was the offending feature...I looked like an out of date tennis player 😂 according to her and yes she made me fix my socks

The small Priority Pass lounge at the Schengen area of MXP. People seem to cycle through quite quickly so there was always seats available.

The food section

My lunch...

From business class to budget. We're definitely not snobs

Yes we made it. We are in Puglia

When I first looked at the Puglia leg of our trip, it was hard finding excursions that started from Polignano a Mare rather than Bari or one of the other bigger towns. Fortunately I found Pugliamare, a local company based in Puglia, and through them organised a transfer from Bari airport, a boat tour as well as a cooking class, a tour of Matera and Alberobello as well as a Bari food tour, all for less than other similar tours found on viator and the like. They were easy to deal with and the contacts I've dealt with had good English. Our driver was waiting for us at the airport and we were soon on our way for the 45 minute drive to Polignano a Mare. The drive reminded me why I refuse to drive in Italy...and we were also glad that we opted for the plane rather than train. By this stage (3pm!) we were really tired, we had seemingly been travelling forever. 

Our home for the next few days was Anfora Dei Segreti, a lovely ground floor studio apartment in Polignano a Mare. We were able to self check in and it was a bonus to discover that a breakfast coffee and pastry at one of the local coffee shops was included as part of our stay!

Lara and I struggled from here on to stay awake. We forced ourselves to go outside for natural sunlight exposure to combat jetlag, even if it meant getting hot sweaty. Fortunately our apartment was an easy walk to the main strip and view points. Even more fortunate, was that we were able to find some tasty focaccia to take back for dinner. Our aim was to stay awake until 6pm...as I type my eyes are slowly dropping...zzzz

So relieved to be driven to our apartment...

Our small but lovely studio

Large bathroom

The all important laundry

Streets of Polignano a Mare

Walking to a view point

The caves of Polignano a Mare

The Adriatic Sea. The water looked so blue and so inviting!

Our dinner. Simple but tasty and filling

Off To Italy...Again

If it seems like I have an infatuation with Italy, it is because I do! There is something about being in Italy that I love. This time around, it will just be Lara and I. Here is to us not killing each other over the next four weeks...This trip will see us going to Puglia, going on a G Adventures Living Like A Local tour in Amalfi as well as hiking in the Dolomites.

Just the 2 of us! Still smiling...for now

This trip is also a timely and much needed break. Since embarking on my travel business, I have unfortunately suffered with anxiety, to the point where I have needed to hit the pause button temporarily on the business. The thought of anything to do with travel had become a source of stress rather than bringing joy, a clear signal that things were not right. It was time to take stock and re-evaluate how best to reapproach the business. Most importantly, I wanted to re-discover what made me love travel in the first place. I'm hoping that this trip would re-ignite that spark.

Sydney airport on a Sunday at 5:37am had no lines...on anything. Browsing through the airport with a 19 year old girl without her brothers was interesting and educational. I clearly did not know a lot of things. The flight from Sydney to Singapore was also uneventful. There was NO ONE at immigration. We walked straight through, dropped our hand-carry and set out to look for Oma and Opa who only gave us vague descriptions as to their whereabouts.

Apparently really cool sunglasses brand. Who knew. I guess Raybans were yesterday's news

We sniffed and sprayed so many perfumes (I was the unfortunate reject strip holder) that my hands and pocket became a smelly mess very quickly

Singapore Airlines lounge closed for much needed refurbishment so the Air NZ lounge it was. Food was meh but space was excellent

A good selfie only has half your face

Smoked salmon

Asian comfort food. Teochew style rice porridge

Chicken fried rice

We finally found Oma and Opa and they had dutifully bought us kalamansi juice, durian ice kachang as well as chicken rice for Lara. After unsuccessfully trying to use Grab, Zip and Uber, we bussed our way to SunTec City for the remainder of our time outside the airport, although the bus ride did give us a free 15 min tour of Changi airport...T3 bus stop, to T1 bus stop, to T2 bus stop, then bus driver change and finally T4! The highlight of the day was my mother making me jay walk (IN SINGAPORE where one gets fined for it!) and leaving my very slow walking father to fend for his own life against the oncoming speeding taxi. Who is this woman?! Well we all made it across the road in one piece and ate bak kut teh, my favourite. It was lovely way to spend time in Singapore before our connecting flight to Milan. 

I'm typing this up in the lounge as we wait to board. Fingers crossed for another uneventful flight. Will post again once we arrive in Italy!

We found the T3 slide, if the line wasn't so long we would have gone on it to slide down to B2 to look for my parents

What we missed out on

They were somewhere on this level!

Found them! With kalamansi juice and durian ice kachang

soursop ice

Chicken rice

They know the public transport system like the back of their hand

Um...I'm sure she has enough claw clips but yup we buying some more

Yass!!! Bak Kut Teh

Getting my Asian food fix in before 4 weeks of Italian food

Barley drink

Thank you Singapore for a short and sweet excursion. Singapore flag cake in the lounge as it was the National Day on Aug 9!

Minute In Milan

Milano Centrale

I seem to always be at either Milano Centrale or Milan Malpensa without actually going to Milan itself. Today was the day. 

We chugged along at 300kph to find ourselves at Milan within the hour. As we were only here overnight, our hotel was the no frills but comfortable Glam Hotel Milano right near Milano Centrale. We thought we had limited time to feed ourselves lunch before our walking and food tour and so took the opportunity to try Macca's specialties in Italy. We needn't have rushed. Our guide was unfortunately unwell with Covid. As it was Christmas Eve finding an alternative guide at the last minute was a challenge. We were refunded in full with a special voucher for extra discounts on future tours, but by this time, 2 hours had gone by.

The very comfortable second class or "smart" class on Italotreno, Trenitalia's competitor

How can Macca's chips get even better? Add cheese and bacon!!

A surprise hit. The "snackbox" had delicious fried chicken, pizza pockets (the closest description we could think of) and chicken nuggets

We had to buy a happy meal. What is this toy?! We never knew that Wonder Woman had a pig sidekick!?!

Lara really wanted the kiwi popsicle...

Mal happy that there was beer at Macca's!

We were no strangers to DIY so formulated a quick speed dating plan with Milan's main attractions. No guide was not the end of the world as we had primarily come to see Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper. We had bought tickets to enter with an Italian guide as we were originally going to get the "spiel" prior to entry from our own guide. The guide was so kind and helpful, she stayed behind after the end of the formal tour to give us an abbreviated description of the features inside. She spend 10 minutes with us with pictures and cards! For those interested in seeing the Last Supper, tickets have to be purchased in advance. The number of people that came and were turned away was astounding. Tickets were sold out until January 10. Entry was in small groups and only with the official guides. Tours are in different languages at different times. There are numerous resellers but we bought our tickets directly from the official site https://cenacolovinciano.org/en/

With our main Milan mission sights ticked off, we returned to the Duomo to enjoy the Christmas festivities. Christmas markets are not really an Italian thing but it was fun nonetheless to stroll, look at all the interesting dogs, find yummy food and enjoy the lights!

Duomo. Tick!

La galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. Tick!

High end stores sponsoring Christmas trees. Swarovski

Dior...hmm. I'll give the benefit of the doubt as it wasn't lit up yet

La Scala. Tick!

The Last Supper. Tick! Miraculously survived bombing during WW2

We were always drawn to the food

Tum

Ready for Walt Disney World

Sucked in by marketing. Love Toast!

They were MASSIVE and not bad but probably wouldn't be my first pick for dinner next time!