Venice : The city of Love

Venice: The city for lovers. Aptly said. I missed my sweetheart. The city of canals. Every where you see water. You walk in any direction for 100 mtr and you find your way is blocked by a canal. People have steamers parked outside their homes like we park cars.
Reaching there: Checkout Google.
What to see: Again lots of sites giving this info. I suggest take a Grand Canal Pass for 9 euros. Now you have two ways either by walking or by steamer. The city is very small. Do visit Murana Iceland and its Glass Factories. I missed it. Wait till night in Venice. The city looks marvelous in water. The lights twinkling in water. Enjoy the cool breeze at the port. Just watch setting sun. Too many things to do too short a life.
Gondola: This is special kind of Boats in Venice. The charges are too high. For 40 minutes and up to 5 people they charge anything from 80 euros to 150 euros. Do bargain.. I prefer to go on gondola ride in evening but its up to you.
Gifts to buy: You can buy the masks of PoP. Don’t buy from shops on main streats. Go inside on smaller Gallis and you find things cheaper. Silk ties and Murana Glass items are other things to go for.

Milan

Milan: The city of fashion, fashion capital of world, the city of culture fused with modern values. I happened to be here for a while. I will share my experiences in few lines below. Don expect it to be informative but its just my experiences.
City : The main city is very small, probably within 10 km from 1 end to other but like other big cities if world, the sub urban area is developed and quite large. Starting from Monza in North to Turino in east. By the way, turino is the place from where Sonia Gandhi belongs to. City is full of medieval period monuments and Italian know the art of preserving their cities. I have seen it in Pompeii.
Traffic: The traffic inside Milan is very busy. You will find signals every 100 mt. The lights are never synchronized. So you clear 1 light and wait for next one. Its better you use ATM (Azencia Transport Mialno) metro services. Very good and very fast. Many roads are single ways so even you make mistakes and find yourself lost.
Eating: My favorite. Being an Indian, I prefer to eat Indian food and you have plenty of Indian restraints in Milan. I visited around 7 or 8. The best one is Rangoli in Via salferino. Take a metro to Mascowa(on green line near Garibaldi FS). From there its walking distance. Wonderful ambience along with warm reception from host makes you feel like being in India. The food is good. The owner Mr Mohan Chauhan is a nice person who make it sure that he take care of each customer personally. Second rank holders are Sukriti(1st Indian restraint in Milan), Just Indian and Angan. The worst ones are New Delhi, Taste of India, Tandoor. For list of all restraints checkout http://www.indiandinner.com/. Apart from Indian food, I tried Mexican(DixiLand near Garibaldi), Italian(all other) and Chinese(very bad). There are Mc Donald all over so no problem if you eat non veg. For vegetarians, Pasta and Marghrita Pizza is good option.
Shopping: three kinds of markets. First one is very costly. These shops are located near Duamo(central Cathedral). Le Rinnasante, Zara, Upim are famous ones. Second level is medium budget. Try shopping at Corsa Bunes Aires near Loreto. Checkout sale at UCB shop near Lima Metro stop on Corsa Bunes Aires. Just get down at Loreto and walk straight forward on this road. You have so many shops with reasonable prices. The road side market is cheapest one. Try a Saturday road market on a street near Corsa Buenes aires(Right if u r going from Loreto to Lima). For electronic goods, Mediaworld and Euronics are good chains. Caution, checkout prices of any product on to or three shops before buying. The prices vary on shop to shop.
NightLife: There are plenty of bars and discos in Milan. Most of them are near Garibaldi. I went to one near corsa Sampione. Its name is bhangrabar. They have a happy hour in which you can get indian buffet with 1 drink in 5.5 euros. The food is rice and pakoras with a dal mixed with pork that too cold. Good place to drink but not good for food.
Things to see in Milan: Aah, you can find many on Google.
Tips: If you want to roam around Milan in train, check the Trenitalia website (Trenitalia.com). There are some schemes by which you can purchase tickets at damn cheap rates.

Pisa

Pisa is another 100 Km from Florence. If you want and you dare then you can cover both the cities in 1 day. We started at 6 in morning from milan and we reached in Florence around 10. After 3.30 we left florence for Pisa. Pisa is a very small town only famous for its leaning tower. You dint find any thing else.
Leaning tower is situated near a cathedral, which is again a master piece. The leaning tower is wround 150 ft high(there are so many sites to tell you about it) and you have to pay 15 euro to be on its top. Notmuch to say so I am attaching some of the photos. Enjoy!!

Florence

Hello dosto,
This time I took a long leap and fly few thousands Km to reach Italy, the country of great Roman civilization. Obviously I was on a official trip but I managed to visit some cities in the wekends. The First weekend was Florence and Pisa. I was stationed in Milan from where Florence is around 350 Km South east. Its a straight 330Km Auto Strada(Toll Road) taking u to Florence or firennzia as they call it. Try www.expedia.com for finding driving directions if you want to drive. The site is fundoo and accurate.
The way from Milan to Florence is through hills. Florence lies in tuscon region of italy which itself is like Himachal or Uttranchal of India. The beuty is immense and if you have some time, do visit tuscon villages. Florence lies in a valley.
Florence is a city of Rensessance period. Most of the artists and sculptures werer based here. Even the city is preserved as it was in medival times making it impossible to drive car. Most of the roads are 1 way. The best thing will be to reach a place called Michelangelo Piazza. This is a place at some height from where you get full view of city. Park the car here and you can roam around. The city is full of meuseaums, cathedrals(called Duamo) and old style buildings. There are very long queues for entry in meuseams. Also very famous is a bridge(see in pic). There are so many jwellary shop on that bridge. Also there is a statue on which people were putting Locks with their names written on that. I suppose it was for fulfiling their wishes.
You can buy some soveniours from the city. I bought some mouse pads with pics of city, statue of Michelengelo, a calender. Just a piece of advice, dont buy them from any main shops. You will find same thing at cheaper rates inside city. Food is a problem so better carry fruits and biscuits.
Overall a old city with so many monuments. In Italy they call it a dead city whereas Venice with old monuments a live city.