Dearest momma of mine decided to follow me on my trip to Milan, how happy I was to finally have my loved one with me on my work trip, for the first time. Staying at the Marriott Milan, one of my favourite hotels in the entire world, my momma had a free stay bunking in with me. It was a full day tour for us, despite the gloomy weather, we still insisted on going to Venice!

The concierge guy at the front desk was so friendly and helpful and we could also book our tickets from them and the tickets will actually be sent right to your doorstep! Payment could be made during check out! Ain’t that awesome? Trenitalia tickets costs about $62 euros one way for the express train which takes about 2hrs to reach Venice.

All set and ready to go, using her free wifi for a bit, I couldn’t help myself to snap a picture of her.

Ordered herself a coffee and she was amazed at how tiny the cup was, single shot expresso. See, it’s good to have tea once in a while (always have been a tea person at heart *winks)

We took the earliest train at 0805 in the morning Venice time, so we actually got up at about 0600 in the morning just to get dress and head down to the Milano train station.

Me and my momma about to take the train, what’s good about Europe is their trains that can lead you to any part of Italy within a day, good to have summer breaks where you can just free your mind and head to any destination if you’re sick of just Milan by itself. The next in the bucket list would be Verona, Florence and Burano, Italy.

Had a good nap in the train and the seats were comfy and clean, so it was ol’ good for us.

2hrs later, tadaaaaa…..

We were at the entrance of Stazione di Venezia Santa Lucia!

What I heard about Venice is that you just have to keep walking until you reach the end of Venice, you will see St Mark’s Square, where dozens of gondola will be placed along the sea. I really enjoyed the little passageway and the stray of shop houses along the canals.

This is rialto bridge and its beautiful canal, here you can visit the different types of café and also take a ride from these ancient Italian gondolas.

 

It was nice having my momma here with me on my virgin trip to Venice, the memories we shared here on this tiny island, are memories of a lifetime. I gotta reward her for being the best mother a daughter could ask for.

Here we are at Piazza San Marco, St Mark’s Square. It started drizzling when we were walking there and the sun was no where at sight, however, nothing stopped us from having a good time walking on the platform stilts! They say Venice is sinking, felt so good to be true, the water level was near our ankles if you were to measure that puddle. P.S excuse the plastic bag, Mr A wanted some good ol’ Risotto ingredients from Venice so I had to lug my way with these ugly bag in the rain just for him. The things you do for love *sigh

Climbing up Basilica San Marco, we needed shelter for the time being, we were so wet and dying of cold. Entrance fee was 15 euros.

Inside San Marco’s Cathedral…

Who would have known that they have a good view of the St Mark’s Square behind the tiny doors at the top of the cathedral.

The dark cloud have flown by and it was time to be close to those gondolas! *points above*

 

❤ Definitely worth the wait! We had some good thick hot cocoa before heading out to take some pictures!

 

Went around asking how much were the cost to sit in a gondola – it was 100 EUROS A BOAT for about 40mins ride! This was it, I couldn’t help myself to get another 3 more people together on the boat with us, 6 person per boat!

Meet my Indonesian colleague Christie who joined us on our trip to Venice and who was the one behind the camera for me and my mommy.

 

Postcard picture sent to Mr A. This was the only thing I loved about Samsung’s camera. Other than that, omg ._. don’t even get me started on the quality.

Not a historic person myself, couldn’t focus on what the gondola man was talking about until he said that Rihanna, Elton John and Angelina Jolie owned some of the houses here! damn that’s so awesome! I ended up taking lots o of selfies and videos on instagram during the ride instead of listening to him.

 

Despite the drizzle, I bet the gondola ride was the best moments here in Venice. We came all the way, we have got to seat on the gondola, right?! Rain or shine baby!

 

This was the Chinese family that we asked if they would like to join us and split the 100 euros, thank god they were willing!

Pretty much sums up our time here in Venice!

Had dinner at one of the restaurants before we headed back, by then it was all dark with very little light that lid up Venice.

 

Two foods that can never go wrong in Europe, pizza and pasta.

Came back to Singapore with a belated present for my baby brother. Spoilt by his sisters and mommy, this boy loves all things branded and gold.

There’s a factory outlet in Milan called FoxTown Factory Stores, which is located also on the border of Switzerland. Therefore they also accept Swiss francs currency. The Prada belt cost about 190 swiss franc, not including tax refund, so it was a good deal to get your items from the outlets, especially Prada in Milan! There is also another outlet called Space Outlet, check that out as well!

The best way to get there is of course to drive up, and don’t forget your GPS!

Besides Venice, we also visited Lake Como on our first touchdown day, with barely enough sleep, we rented a car from the concierge, alongside with my colleagues, Darren and Christie, we drove up to Lake Como, which was about an hour from Milan.

 

While waiting for the rest at the lobby…

 

My momma who eagerly walked out from the car just to ask me to take a picture. Wasn’t a good weather to be out but we did it anyway! The car behind my momma was the car that we rented, it cost less than 100 euros for a day, wasn’t so bad afterall if you divide it among the 4 of us.

 

If it was Summer, I am sure Lake Como is such a lovely place to just sit and chillax! Unfortunately the chill got to me and I only managed to sit on the freezing bench to snap a good picture of myself…for a good 1 minute!

 

….and with my momma, of course!

These weird looking trees got the best of us, we keep saying that the trees were too cute! Why we don’t have these nice looking trees back home?!

My momma loved Darren and Christie’s company as much as I did, she had additional 2 more children during the trip!

 

I hope to be back here someday to take a clearer view of what Lake Como is all about.

 

My momma shivering and freezing in the cold! Cutie! Get in the car already!

 

Brought my momma to Duomo, Milan’s Cathedral. Got some shopping done and some souvenoirs home. Venice and Milan will always bring good memories of me and my momma and I would say that it will never be the same if I were to come back here without her.

Til the next travel destination!

XOXO

LISAFEMME