Italian love affair - Roaming Rome

I love love love Italy! The food is yum ( though I ate mostly pasta .. but I love pasta) , the weather is fantastic, the old towns of Florence and Rome are full of interesting nooks and crannies filled with sculptures and palazzos and museums and of course... there's plenty of shopping to be done :)

When in Florence, how can one not visit the house of Gucci and Ferragamo? Even though we weren't exactly buying anything, it was still fun to walk through the "hallowed" halls of the original flagship shops and take a peek at this season's latest wares.

If you ever go to Florence, aside from the historic and art sites, you really have to visit The Mall. It's a factory outlet located 1hr's bus ride from Florence. This is one glam outlet located in the tuscan valley, hidden among hills and vineyards. Here is where you'll find Gucci, Ferragamo, Tod's, Hogan, YSL, Armani and Zegna outlet shops. Each brand has its individual shop done up just like the boutique. It sells off-season stuff at remarkably low prices. It seems loads of Taiwanese have heard of this place cos when we went there, the bus was filled with Chinese speaking couples. From their speech and dressing, they seemed to be Taiwanese. Most of them zeroed in on Gucci and it was scary to see people picking out items as if they were free. You would see them hanging on to 4 bags and grabbing wallets. Wallets for 100€ and bags starting at 200€ should be pretty cheap I guess...Several items were 1 or 2 pcs only so I could see why these women grabbed everything in sight.

We were only in Florence for 2 days and I feel almost poor already...Maybe by the time we reach Milan, I'll have to sing for my meals...

Tonight's the 3rd day of our trip and our first day in Rome. We went to see the Trevi fountain and thrwe our coins in to wish for a return trip to this city! Tomorrow, we hit the Roman forum, colosseum and Pantheon. The day after, the Vatican, where I need to seek some salvation for my soul... especially given how much cursing and swearing i've been doing in the last few months over work!

Look out for pix another time and more updates !