The European Chronicles - Italy

So, here we go with Italy...


How does it feel when you travel the entire day in a bus just to finally find a crooked building with nothing great in it?


This is how we started our travel experience at Italy, with our first stop at Pisa. And the 'crooked building' mentioned is none other than The Leaning Tower Of Pisa!

This tower at Pisa is seriously not worth the hype and hoopla!

Our next stop was at Rome, the capital city and an historical one too! 

Rome is seriously a beautiful city with ancient artefacts, monuments, pillars and other structures dating to a thousand years back. In fact, you get a feeling of being in a city with ancient stuff scattered here and there! Re-visiting Rome would only be a wish of an art lover, a historian or an architect.

Shown below is the Colosseum, an amphitheatre mainly used for gladiator fights:

After Rome, we set out for Florence, the richest and the largest city in Europe in the 12th century.

Florence has been the chosen home for eminent figures like Leonardo Da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Michelangelo, Dante, Machiavelli, Salvatore Ferragamo, Amerigo Vespucci etc.  It is widely known for its extensive art and architecture, specially in the Renaissance period. Florence is regarded as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, thanks to it's artistic and cultural heritage.  It boasts of more than a hundred museums and many palaces around the place. 

Here is an aerial view of Florence city:

We next moved to Venice, a very beautiful and romantic city. It stretches across 117 small islands, accessed by boats and gondolas. It attracts a lot of tourists due to its pleasant climate, picture-perfect looks, luxury shops and boutiques, gondola rides and canals. According to Wikipedia, Venice is one of the most important tourist destinations in the world, due to the city being one of the world's greatest and most beautiful cities of art.

View from a Gondola!

Though endowed with so many buildings and monuments, Italy is a rather boring country which can anytime be skipped in any tour. It's people are outright manipulative, shrewd and perfect liars. There have been many cases of tourists being cheated here in Italy. In fact, once, a few years ago, even my Dad was robbed of his money. Italians are not at all trustworthy. And the worst part is, coffee shops charge their customers even for the music being played in the background. Air Italia, their national airlines, is also disgusting with unco-operative crew members.

The reason Italy attracts so many tourists, is only because they aggressively market their tourist sights and attractions. There are clothes, souvenirs and other items with monuments and structures printed on them. There are also a lot of 'I love Italy', 'I love Rome', etc. T-shirts that are the best way of marketing their cities. This feature is the only thing we need to develop in our India... Let's preserve our heritage sites and let's publicize them well!

That's all for Italy. Our next destination is Austria.. So, do stay updated!

P.S. I shall be again away for a week, since am travelling to my native Ahmedabad. So, the next update shall possibly come around 4th or 5th June.

The European Chronicles - Monaco

Reminds us of the biscuit name, but in reality, Monaco is just like a tiny biscuit...

Monaco is the 2nd smallest country in the world with an enormous area of 1.95 square kilometres. It is basically a principality surrounded by France from three sides. It's small size doesn't stop Monaco from constructing skyscrapers every now and then.


Monaco is simply famous for 2 things - the Formula One Grand Prix races and the grand casino at Monte Carlo. It is a tax haven country, and people here are ridiculously rich and usually possess high-end sports cars.


Even though this is a pretty tiny place, it serves as a beautiful tourist destination with awesome hotels overlooking the gorgeous Mediterranean Sea!


The below image is of the very famous casino at Monte Carlo..

Monaco is a very well maintained monarchy with the head being Prince Albert II. It features a smooth administration, excellent city planning, crystal clean Mediterranean waters and no crime rate at all!


That's all for Monaco, a small post for a small biscuit nation. Coming up next is Italy, the home ground of the pizzza and the UPA Prezzzident... So, stay tuned!

The European Chronicles - France

How does it feel when something you've always desired finally comes true? 
For me, it was a foreign trip. Pending since 8 years!


Date: 2 May 2010
Place: Charles De Gaulle Airport, Paris, France
Local Time: 1400 Hours
Tour Operator: Thomas Cook India
Mission of Tour Operator: 11 countries in 18 days

"I don't believe it! Is this sort of a dream?", said something inside me....


Why didn't it all look the same? There were roads there. There were cars. Traffic. Farmlands. People. Food. Hotels. We have all of that here, as well. Then why didn't it look the same?


On my way to the hotel from our airport, I noticed every single detail of the city with obvious curiosity. Paris didn't look like Mumbai or any other city in India. Forget Paris, the entire continent of Europe was something different and unique. It was appealing! Back there up in Europe, words like discipline, precision and rules hold a lot of heavy meaning. We have cars that follow a speed limit. They fear changing lanes. At the first glance, such kind of a system looked amusing and automatic at the same time. There were farms edited to perfection. There were trees organized with meticulous planning. There were punctual transport systems. Nature was taken care of. This kind of disciplined city planning extended to such an extent, that at the end, it seemed like a beautiful piece of art!


Coming back to France, I had a lot of expectations from this country. Being a French student, I had learnt a lot about this nation. France was delightful and Paris, even more! Paris is a treat for every art student, every history buff, every romantic soul and every tourist. It is a city which shines with elegance and grins with sparkling bright colours through the night. For me, Paris is the most charming city in the world! 


The Paris city cruise on the river Seine is quite renowned and appreciated. It explores some of the most artistic bridges, public building on the river side, cathedrals, monuments and museums. Louvre Museum, known to be the longest museum in the world, was on my wishlist and it still does. Courtesy the tour itinerary! Anyway, after our cruise tour, we were treated to the Lido Show. The Lido Show is a an excellent cabaret event with incredible performing artists. We, including our entire tour group of 40 people couldn't enjoy it to the fullest since we were all dead tired and sleepy by then.


New day. New show. Disneyland was our destination. Though we went through amateurish rides and experiences, that place did remind me a little of my childish self. Disneyland is every child's dream and paradise place. WOW! Wish we could have something similar in our metro cities. Meanwhile, Notre Dame, Arc De Triomphe, Champs-Élysées and other buildings played cameo roles. The evening was the best part. That did tell me we were really in Paris - The Eiffel Tower!

The Eiffel Tower is a magnificent piece of engineering. We went right up to the top, at the summit. 276 metres high, the city of Paris looked beautiful as ever. You've got to really experience that stunning view from the top. One can never imagine Paris without the Eiffel Tower. It's what you call, the very foundation of the beauty of this city. No wonder, Paris was the most beautiful city in my entire tour.


Next stop was Nice, a coastal city to the south of France. The TGV - France's fastest train - was our transport route. Known as the train à grande vitesse (High Speed Train), it can clock speeds up to 320 km/h. Seen below is the TGV beside me!

The TGV is not only reputed for its speed, but also for its luxurious and comfortable ride. Just unlike our Mumbai local trains. I wish we could have such brilliant train systems here in India!


Nice (pronounced as the English word 'niece') was definitely nice! Pristine beaches, novelty shops and a beautiful place to stay. It's coast was just the ditto version of our very own Marine Drive!
Here's another snap with trams going round their way...

Our next destination was Cannes. Cannes is basically a tiny city, but is extremely famous for its yearly Film Festival which is held in every May. We reached Cannes about a week before the International Film Festival were to take place, but we could definitely witness the ongoing preparations for it. The city mainly boasts of a lovely seafront and 5 star hotels usually reserved for celebrities and film stars who throng to the annual Film Festival.


I hope you enjoyed reading this experience in France. Coming up next, is a small, pretty principality named Monaco. So, stay updated!

India, Europe and Me!

Hello Everyone, I'm finally back to blogging and it feels great!


Why do we perceive India as we do? Why do we admire its greatness and rubbish its drawbacks? Why is India a country that goes through so many changes, and yet remains the same old India?


India remains the same. Only our perspective changes. Our beliefs and our values modify. That's obviously all because of our circumstances and situations, right? For those who are unaware of, I recently made a trip to Europe and experienced it for about 18 days. That was the time when the India in my mind slightly changed. One of my friends, Sahil puts it wonderfully - 

We realize the importance of things only when they are temporarily not available.

This is the only factor that makes NRI's sometimes respect India more than we do. My voyage had its unique share of twists and turns, which is what made me value India even more. Having visited 11 countries in 18 days, I have many experiences to share with all of you, my dear readers. So, from now onwards, I start a 11-post series, a post for each country, narrating my accounts, uncovering facts and understanding new ideas, along with running parallel to the Indian counterpart.


I hope you all enjoy this 'European Chronicles' series.


[Image Source]