Hello my precious little readers!

My sincere apology for the hiatus in the “Summer In Italy” series ever since I’m back from the trip and back to reality nearly two months ago. So here is the world famous fashion city – Milan or Milano, where I managed to play tourist and shopped the whole day!

Little cars spotted at Milano’s train station.

Kept the train ticket for my travel scrapbook!

The city with statues

It was still early when I first arrived in the concrete jungle, many shops and stores weren’t open yet. But I was enjoying every bit of the fresh and clean crisp air while strolling down the street and scanning through every details of the architectures around the city in awe.

Sidewalk cafes

The theatre

Don’t be jealous, we already have one in the heart of KL, right opposite Pavilion if you haven’t known yet.

Lacoste summer sale! Too bad I’m not a big fan of the iconic crocodile brand.

Trams along the urban street

Makes their daily routines in the city so much more easier and convenient

The light rail

Monument to Parini in the Piazza Cordusio, Milan.

Beautiful fresh flowers selling on the street

“Duomo di Milano”, the most famous cathedral church in the heart of Milan city.

Magnificent view of Duomo

Decided to have McD for breakfast, just to see whether there is a difference or not. Heh

Instant fast food order. Why can’t we have this here in KL?

Tempted to try the Italian Fillet O’ Fish and they tasted pretty much the same. lol

But they have a McCafe which serves warm croissants!

And creamy chocolate cakes too!

Grande Freddo. I thought the gassy Coke tasted a little different though. No kidding!

Red public buses

Giggity!

Pigeons and tourists gathered around Duomo Milano

Believe it or not, the extraordinary Gothic Milan Cathedral took more than five centuries to complete.

Look closely at the carvings on the big entrance door of Duomo

The majestic cathedral is 157 meters long and approximately 20-30,000 people can fit comfortably inside.

The real body of the late pope many many years ago

Blessed Cardinal Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster Archbishop of Milan (1929 – 1954)

So grand, so vast, so graceful, and so delicate!

Some renovation going on near the shopping square. I love how thoughtful it is to cover the working sites with a transparent partition.

Happily walking around the city

Gucci Cafe right in front of the Gucci outlet.

Leonardo da Vinci in Milan

All the pharmacies in Italy has a LED green cross like this. Pharmacy is called a “Farmacia” in Italiano. 

More sidewalk cafes

I took the tram!!

Little boy with soft golden curly hair staring at my camera

Rumour has it this museum has the ORIGINAL piece of “The Last Supper” painting by Leonardo Da Vincci.

With Lisa in the tram, heading to H&M.

My lovely lunch at Coppola, overlooking the magnificent Duomo.

Authentic Italian pasta and pizza to savour

Spot the golden Virgin Mary at the tip top of the cathedral, also known as the Madonnina.

Sexy orange Lambo spotted

And this adorable baby Maltese. The owner was a hottie too!

Some event going on near the shopping square, which kinda looked like a protest to me.

The armed forces of Italy, policing both military and civilians.

Cute vintage bicycles

You can see stalls that sell cut pieces of coconut meat like this along the streets of Piazza Duomo

The gorgeous Zara outlet which looks like a grand hotel lobby eh?

Every tiny detail of the building is just breath-taking

Clean drinking water for the public

With the sweet and lovely Clara at Abercrombie and Fitch

Is it just me or she looks very much like Miranda Kerr?

Don’t you just love his smexy body?

Last but not least, with my very own Clark Kent in Milano.

Probably my happiest moment throughout the trip! Oh how I miss you so.

Till my next Italian series…

❤

Love lots, Esty.

Read the rest of my “Summer in Italy” stories in my Travelbook HERE.

And the Milano outfit post HERE.

Click to see my short clip in Milan. 

Hungreehhh 

Slurrrpppss! 

My very first Pizza in Italy, and it was super good no doubt! From my favourite Pizzeria near the apartment hotel.

Fresh ingredients, fresh dough, grilled beef slices, crispy thin crust, hot melted cheese, flavourful dressing…what more can I ask for in this hot.off.the.oven.authentic.Italian.pizza I ate? I feel blessed. 

The Italians love pizzas. We Malaysians usually share the slices of pizza from the big pan, but the Italians here can finish one whole piece by themselves! Lunch, or dinner. Whoa! 

So..how many slices of pizza can you eat?

❤

Eat Love Share, Esty.

Read the rest of my “Summer in Italy” stories in my Travelbook HERE.

Blissful morning! After our grocery shopping here, we went straight to Lugano, Switzerland by car. A beautiful little city which borders Italy.

Stopped by at a petrol kiosk next to a lovely coffee shop overlooking the mountain to buy some snacks.

It means, parking lot is “Reserved to clients” and “Forced removal”.

Not sure about the other countries in Europe, but there are many petrol stations out there in Italy and Switzerland. It can be up to three or four stations along the same stretch of road. But they are all small and mini ones, unlike those gigantic Shell or Petronas station in Malaysia. So proud, heh

Around 40 minutes drive to Dogana Stabio (Custom Stabio), and then we crossed over to Switzerland! The best part is, no passport verification needed so we don’t need to go through all those hassles at the custom. No frontier controls, how cool is that! It’s really nice to see how the people can just visit their neighbouring countries within the EU anytime they want, going in and out freely. Wonder when is Asia gonna be the same?

Entering Lugano, where the railway is just right next to the highway.

People there love to cycle. I’ve seen many of them on the road, all very well-equipped.

Starting to witness the beautiful scenery with my own eyes. Clear blue sky, shimmering clean lake water under the sun, and houses or buildings on the green mountains. Huge mansion spotted right in front of the shore. Can you see?

It’s like a picture painted with the shadow of the mountain in front, but in fact, there are so many mountains all over Lake Lugano. Such picturesque sight!

Polizia Stradale (Traffic police).

Yes, the people in Lugano speak Italian too.

Fresh peach to munch while roaming around Lugano, also the 9th largest city in Switzerland.

Bought myself grilled chicken with bread. Too yummy!

A very old “Malaysia Boleh” spotted among the European cars!

There! Told ya their petrol stations are small. But they have it everywhere in town, and comes with different brand. “Agip” is my favourite, probably because of the scary looking fire monster logo they have.

And here’s another one, “ERG”. With only two petrol pumps.

Sunny sunny day weeeee!

Coming through coming through, she giggles.

Gotcha you pretty little sailor!

This green public water fountain can be seen not only in Switzerland, but also everywhere in the cities of Italy too! And it’s clean for drinking.

Lovely boutiques in the city centre

There was also a fiesta going on.

Our car parked right opposite the road. Love this shot really.

So huge and fluffy I just wanna cuddle it!

I miss Bubbles.

I love these flower balls, I’ve seen them planted in many houses in Switzerland and Italy.

A row of recycle bins

Lazy brown cows on the green grass. Next to the main road.

Car accident in front, blocking the traffic.

On the way back to Italy after spending a whole lovely day in Lugano. Now I know why the celebrities who visit there often like to call it the “Monte Carlo” of Switzerland.

Till my next travel post!

❤

Tanti baci a tutti, Esty.

P/s: Videos taken will be edited when I’m back in KL. 

Read the rest of my “Summer in Italy” stories in my Travelbook HERE.

Was all set and ready to go to Switzerland, then only we decided to do some groceries first at The Bennet which is located not far away from our place. In fact, so near we only need 5 minutes to walk there. But since we are lazy moozey Malaysians, we drove the car instead!

Fresh vegetables in the supermarket

Plastic bags and gloves are provided.

And then we also went to…

Carrefour!

Tubes of tomato paste from Carrefour! Why we don’t have this in Malaysia?

Pistachios to snack!

Bought bottles of mineral water.

Honestly, I feel like I’ve migrated there already. Grocery shopping and staying in a small cosy town in Italy, can you imagine?

Shooo heavy

Till my next post on what I did in Switzerland!

❤

Esty

P/s: It’s gross I know, but guess what is this

For those who guessed correct…

I have a little gift for you from Italy !

There will only be one lucky winner, do include an interesting sentence along with your answer and I will choose the best.

Good luck!

Where I am staying. A very nice neighbourhood comfortably nestled in Sesto Calende, a town not very far away from Milan Malpensa Airport. More convenient because this is where dad works.

A service apartment that I am happy and satisfied with. All their buildings are basically very clean and the colours painted on every edge of the walls look very new.

I would love to stay on the top floor. Straight under the roof! But I guess it might be a little too warm during summer.

This is us! Welcome, and let me show you around. ^^

The living room

The main door. All their doors are very thick, even thicker than the border itself. They have very special windows too! Those you can open it 2 ways, either from the side or the above. Might gonna do a video introducing you the apartment if I have the time.

For your coats and hats right next to the door, above the shoe rack.

Some parts of the ceiling

The hallway that leads to the bedroom and bathroom. And another door to separate the living room and bedroom.

Bedroom

Every door has a key to lock

Just the key itself, it’s not like our doors back at home which we can just press the knob. But their keys are cute tho!

The toilet and bidet. The Italians love bidet, seems like it’s a must have for all the bathrooms. If you don’t know yet, bidet is for you to wash your private parts right after you finished your dirty little business there. 

The heater

Template glass shower room

Basin with towel cupboard

View from the hallway

Kitchen

Cupboard filled with kitchenware and cutleries

The huge chandelier ball that I love most!

Dining table

Balcony in front of the bedroom and living room

Read a book, or drink a tea and enjoy the cool breeze in the morning.

Showered and feeling refresh after! It was around 2pm when we arrived, still enough time for us to go out and explore the town a little.

Warm weather, so I put on a thin cotton sleeveless and stripey top from Dorothy Perkins. I still remember I got this top from the warehouse sale two years ago and it’s only 10bucks. Dirt cheap!

Spotted a baby blue car right in front of the apartment. They have many cars like this in Italy. Cute, round edges and comes with nice colours! Just nice for us girls to roam around with it.

I want I want!

My super mom! Getting all excited to have an adventurous ride.

Colourful buildings I spotted along the way

Cottage-like.

Squarish blocks

Gonna have my risotto tonight! Till the next post…

❤

Esty

A very last minute plan to spend my summer in Italy and maybe, Switzerland? It was around 11pm when I arrived at KLIA, the flight was at 2am. 

To Terminal Three via the KLIA train

 *

After 6 hours

Arrived at Dubai International Airport

  Was a little surprised that Dubai’s airport is so crowded with people, all of them walking here and there probably waiting for transits too. Many shops around, but nothing special I’ve seen. Cosmetics and skincare like MAC, Kiehl’s et cetera, which we also have in KL. And oh! A middle Eastern guy accidentally knocked onto me when I was strolling along the shops, and he kept saying sorry to me after that, with a very weird and expressionless face, 2 eyes staring straight to mine. I was worried that the next thing he’s gonna say is “I keeeel youuu!” Freaky really. D:

Anyway, had to wait for 3 more hours to hop on the next flight to Milan. So I went searching for some junks to snack.

Dubai’s McDonalds. Everyone’s favourite.

The pasta looked more tempting from GoodToGo, so I got that instead. Tuna with chilli and olive oil, yums!

And also egg sandwich, which I thought was just average. But it looked so good! >.<

A mini bottle of red wine I got from the earlier flight. It was perfect to pair it with my bowl of takeaway pasta.

I couldn’t help, the lonely boy is too cute.

Heading to Gate 203, to Milan.

Newspaper stand at the waiting area

Finally onboard. Besides all the channels of movie we can watch, the little TV here right in front of me also has both forward and downward camera view from the aircraft itself. I am always so excited to watch the take-off and landing, can’t tell you how cool is that. Especially the landing part, it’s like I was flying the airplane myself!

Emirates Airline has this stickers in their headphone set. Choose one from the three and stick on your chair if you want to leave a message for the stewardess.

 Alone time with the iPod shuffle.

And then there came the menu! Letting us choose the maincourses from each of the meals.

I love Emirates Airline. The gorgeous stewardess pampered me with lots of delicious food and mini bottles of wine and whisky while I was watching “Gossip Girl” and “Just Go With It” by Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. It was my second time watching that romance comedy, and it still gave me goosebumps. You guys should watch it too if you are a fan of chick flicks.

You get what I mean now?

Another 6 more hours to go, to reach Milano.   

Milan Malpensa Airport finally!

Was surprised to see that the Malpensa is a very old airport, vintagey. And you need to pay for your baggage trolley as seen on the above picture. 1Euro per trolley, which is hilarious. 

And oh! Unfortunate me, I had to face a disturbing situation when I just got my luggage from the baggage carousel. The pincode lock was opened, and the zips were seen dangling on the handle. Means, someone must have opened it! Besides, I lost my luggage tag as well. Was so scared and worried I quickly pulled aside my luggage and opened it. Everything in it was in a mess, but thank God I did not lose anything. Wanted to make a complain, but I was too exhausted that time and just wanna go to the hotel as soon as I can. However, I have indeed learned my lesson: Never ever trust any luggages with those little pincodes on top, it’s NOT ENOUGH! It’s best you get another luggage belt, buy a bigger padlocks, or maybe sealed up the luggage at the airport, to be secure and for safety purposes. Just in case you lose some valuable stuff, or those bad creatures out there want to use your bag to smuggle illegal things. We don’t want to get ourselves in unnecessary troubles like this when we are in a foreign country right?

More updates coming soon if I manage to. Can’t wait to show you how lovely Italy is

❤Lots of Love from Milan, Esty.

9th of July,2011.             2.00am

 Flying off to Milan. 

 Do recommend me interesting places to go if you know any.

❤

Kisses, Esty.

Hello pumpkins!

Remember my little getaway to Malacca few months ago HERE? =) Yea, so above is a little something that we tried during the trip.

It’s undeniable that the weather was hot and humid that time when we were there and all of us were extremely thirsty after the little tour in Philea Resort. So Jason decided to bring us for some Coconut Shake to quench or satisfy our uncomfortable throats. He told us that there’s quite a number of coconut shake stalls in Malacca town, but the one that he brought us to is the best and the most famous one! Ahh lucky us, we had a Melaka Boy as our tour guide.

I was pretty amazed when we first arrived, by the amount of people that were queuing up dying to get their coconut shakes under the blazing sun. It’s like how people here are desperately queuing up for bubble milk tea from ChaTime no matter how poor their services are (Hint: SS2 mall has the best ChaTime!). I know, everyone is addicted to ChaTime recently and that definitely includes me. :/ Anyway, the big difference here is this is just a tiny stall right beside the road and next to a dirty drain while all the ChaTimes are located in nice shopping malls in the city. Yet, people are still queuing up for it!

It’s less than 3 bucks per coconut shake. The special one. And I think what people like most is the Wall’s vanilla ice-cream that they use to blend together with the fresh coconut juice in order to get that delicious taste of the drink. And then voila! A beautiful shake to satisfy our thirst.

* 

iRate: 6/10

*

Where is Klebang Coconut Shake?

Along Jalan Klebang Besar (Next to Caltex)

MAP here.

Opening Hours: 12.30pm – 6.30pm daily

 ❤

Drink Love Share, Esty.

• Sponsored by Philea Resort & Spa, Melaka

Had a hearty hi-tea buffet at Nusantara, and off we go to visit the Philea Resort with the girls!

The weather was burning hot and it’s definitely impossible for us to walk and tour the whole resort under the blazing sun. Lucky we had buggy!

Dearest Rachel and Jayne. So glad that we were having a weekend getaway together.

*

The Philea Suite

Philea Resort’s 19 signature suites provides a spacious area of built-up space. Each suite comes with a bedroom that are furnished with comfortable settees. To top it off, soak in their relaxing bathtub while offering you your own exclusive TV screen!

At the door

Newspaper holder

Ahh comfy bed in the wooden log cabin, reminds me of those cowboy movies we’ve seen on TV.

LCD TV

The bathroom that made us go undeniably crazy. Just LOOK AT THE GORGEOUS TUB!

Rachel said it reminds her of “American Beauty”.

I wanna stay in there all day/night long. Bubble bath!

The rusty antique shower

Hello? What? It’s not a phone?

Dumbo.

Hardwood Picnic Bench

So apparently the bench can be transformed into…

Another picnic bench without the table!

Photographers taking pictures of the Philea Suite right opposite while the buggy is waiting for us.

Spot my luggage bag on the buggy! =P

 Poor Sunny Twin, waiting under the hot sun.

Off we go again to our own cabin, the Pavilion Villa!

Safely arrived, thanks to buggy driver.

Ahh..So I guess that’s me. *drags luggage up on the stairs* My roomie wasn’t there yet that time, so it was pretty much my first time checking in a hotel/resort alone. Luckily I had Rachel and Jayne who stayed in a different cabin just down the path, 15 to 20seconds of walking distance. =)

Welcome to my room!

The Pavillion Villa

The 180 available Pavillion Villas stand elegantly with a few steps of nature’s abundance and features a spacious bath, private verendahs surrounded by spectacular views and state of the art amentities to make our stay a memorable one indeed. 

A welcome letter from the resort

As I was sitting down, wanted to have a good rest and unpack my bag…someone knocked on the door

What a pleasant surprise! A basket of fresh fruits for me to choose from.

A dose of Vitamin C a day keeps the doctor away

Then we girls decided to check out and explore the resort in the evening

Facilities spotted!

Exploring the pathway to find the hidden spa

Relaxing Spa Village for the ladies. Rachel went pampering herself in the spa, while Jayne and I went to Melaka Town with the foodie boys to hunt for food.

The Philea bridge

The magnificent view of the pool down below the bridge

Got off at the end of the bridge and heading to the pool

The pool overlooking the man-made waterfall is the highlight of the resort. The flora and fauna surrounding the resort as well as fresh air are bound to put one in high spirits and relaxing swim would be a great stress reliever.

Operation Hours : 8a.m. to 8p.m. daily

Chillin’ at the pool before we went hunting for food

There you go, a mini tour of Philea Resor & Spa Melaka. Stay tuned to see how we spent the Earth Hour night in the resort! In the meantime, Thank God It’s Friday and enjoy your weekend.

Love you cupcakes! Rushin’ out now, bye. =)

❤

See Love Share, Esty.

• Sponsored by Philea Resort & Spa, Melaka.

Prawn Pomelo Salad

Assorted Sashimi

Breads and Buns

Fried Prawn with Spicy Sauce

Lamb Kofta

Halal Dim Sum

Grilled Fish Fillet with Saffron Sauce  *My favourite!*

Hainanese Roasted Chicken Rice

Grilled Cod Fish

Laksa Johor

So here you go, Part 2 of my “Weekend Getaway to Philea Resort & Spa, Melaka”! Read Part 1 HERE. =)

Philea Resort & Spa warmly welcomed us upon our arrival and we were then immediately brought to Nusantara (one of their restaurant in the resort) to enjoy a splendid selection of decent weekend treats from their generous hi-tea buffets while spending good times with the foodie friends!

Besides the hearty regional and international cuisines to satisfy my every craving after a long drive from KL to Melaka, the snacks that Nusantara offered was a wide range of exquisite desserts like ice-creams, chocolate fondue fountain surrounded by a variety of fresh fruits and marshmallows and assorted cakes, and many other cakes and pastries that satisfied my sweet tooth after my delightful meal.

Desserts, desserts and more desserts!

Ahh. . . how irresistible. =)

*

How much is Nusantara’s Weekend Hi-Tea Buffet?

RM48++(Adult)     RM30++(Child)

*50% off for Senior Citizen & Birthday Freebies

*Only available on every Saturday & Sunday – 12.30pm to 5pm

Where is Nusantara?

Philea Resort & Spa, Ayer Keroh

Melaka, Malaysia.

*Browse http://www.phileahotel.com for more info.

❤

Eat Love Share, Esty.