Itinerary and Accommodation reviews

Itinerary:

10 Dec: Depart Singapore 

11-13 Dec: Prague 

13 Dec: Munich (Munchen)

14 Dec: Day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle (Munich)

15 Dec: Munich
16 Dec: Salzburg

17 Dec: Venice (Venezia)

18 Dec: Day Trip to Murano, Burano (Venice)

19 Dec: Milan (Milano)

20 Dec: Milan

21 Dec: Cinque Terre

22 Dec: Florence (Firenze)

23 Dec: Day trip Siena, San Gimignano and Pisa (Florence) 

24 Dec: Rome (Roma)

25 Dec: Matera 

26 Dec: Day Trip to Alberobello (Matera)

27 Dec: Sorrento

28 Dec: Day Trip to Pompeii and Amalfi (Sorrento)

29 Dec: Rome 

30 Dec: Rome 

31 Dec: Depart Rome

1 Jan: Home Sweet Home

Accommodation:

1. Prague: Boutique Hotel Seven Days
2. Munich: Hotel Dolomit
3. Salzburg: Hotel Drei Kreuz
4. Venice: Hotel Colombina
5. Milan: ibis Milano Centro
6. Cinque Terre: La Scogliera
7. Florence: Hotel II Guelfo Bianco
8. Rome: Hotel Touring / Hotel Ivanhoe
9. Matera: Sexantio Le Grotto Della Civita / Hotel Sassi
10. Sorrento: Hotel Mignon Meuble

Sourced for my accommodations through Tripadvisor. From there, it helps source for the best deals and gives you the links to them, like Hotels.com and Expedia. Generally, from past overseas experiences, the reviews are fairly accurate and for Europe, Tripadvisor's reviews are held in high esteem. Restaurants will even put up decals (though in Italian) notifying its customers that it has been reviewed on Tripadvisor. You'll have to be careful on that though, because reviewed doesn't necessarily mean good. Those who win the excellence awards on Tripadvisor are safer options. 

Back to the accoms part, 2 particular hotels which I can still remember vividly and was most fond of is Hotel Sassi and La Scogliera. Not sure if it was because Sexantio Le Grotto was too cave-like that Hotel Sassi won extra brownie points because of that... but truth of the matter, I think it's the most value for money, and all-rounded hotel that we stayed in during our Honeymoon. 

All hotels didn't provide toothbrushes and toothpastes, so be sure to bring along your personal ones if not you'll be wasting a considerable amount of time looking for their local supermarkets. It's way bad if you touch down late at night where all the supermarkets are closed, leaving you with the only option of convenience stores... which are a risky bet. You might have to go without brushing your teeth for the first night or so if you take that risk... I for one, sure am glad we brought our own ones as backup. 

Most hotels provide the bare amenities, such as cups, shower gel, shampoo, soap and toilet paper. But few provide tissue paper, almost rarely. Also, the bins tend to be at their minimal, with some hotels having more sense to have 2 rubbish bins instead of only 1 in their toilets. 

Quality of their shower gel and shampoo varies slightly, a bit on the lousier side... pathetic amounts, difficulty in tearing those little packets with our wet hands, and they don't foam well. Hair feels dry, body feels... ok, not too bad. Thankfully, it's winter, when our bodies were feeling too cold to feel dirty enough. 

After the trip, it struck me that choosing a hotel that's near to the train station makes more sense and is more practical than choosing one near to the city centre. Even though that's where all the happening stuff normally occurs, I can always take a train down or walk over when I'm carrying less stuff. Dragging your luggage while finding your way to your hotel tucked far away from the train station wasn't the wisest thing we did, considering our load (of souvenirs) keeps increasing with each leg we completed. 

Unless you don't mind flagging down a cab (and take an 80% risk of being ripped off) to take you to your destination, just get a hotel near the train station you'll be arriving from (usually the main train station). 

With all these criterias, as well as the cost, comfort and spaciousness of the hotel, that's where Hotel Sassi fairs better than most others. While it's not that near the station, it was spacious, clean, and easily accessible (if you know how; top down's always better than bottom up). The reception closes at 9pm though, but they serve decent breakfast, a pretty important point considering Matera is quite the ulu town to be finding anything to eat early in the morning. 

La Scogliera was also very memorable because it was located near the cliff. And since the prime essence of Cinque Terre was the coastal locations of the villages, it just rocks to be staying so close to the beating of waves. The interior decor was the best, nautically beachy, it awed both me and my dear throughout the night. However, since our trip there was during winter, it was terribly cold because the air-conditioner heater couldn't keep up with the "heat" if there was any, and both of us were semi-freezing the entire night. Toilet was a bit cramped, and the owner/s didn't speak much English, but strangely enough, thankfully they had free wifi which aided in our communication with the owner/s. Despite these cons, the location and decor itself easily made the accomm more outstanding than the rest. 

Hotel Touring (Rome) and Hotel Dolomit (Munich) were more budget hotels, but had great locations, so I'm not complaining. Obviously no breakfast and no wifi provided but thanks to their locations, they made transiting so much more convenient. 

Hotel Ivanhoe (Rome) was memorable also because of it's huge room space and delicious breakfast, but it's toilet was so freaking small, yes, FREAKING small that it lost a lot of points from me. I mean I could open the shower doors, but opening them made the entire toilet wet... as much as I could I tried not to... but even my 3 year old nephew would find it difficult bathing himself in that claustrophic toilet, if he could bath himself that is... 

The most awesome breakfast we had was in Prague, at Boutique Hotel Seven Days. Our first.. and only most sumptous breakfast we had in Europe... *drum roll*... wait for it... wait for it... Breakfast... was in the form of... an INTERNATIONAL BUFFET! SERRRIIOOUSSSLLLYY??! I mean who would have thought... the bad thing was it set an expectation that was never met for the rest of the other hotels. There, I tried some of the best cheese slices and tomatoes, super crunchy ones, that even now as I type, am salivating over... 

Hotel Drei Kreuz felt like a small cosy hotel set up by a small family, similar to Hotel Touring, and provided the bare minimum. Location wasn't that good though, it was near to the Town Centre but quite a walk from the train station. Their reception also closes early, isn't 24hours and we had to carry our key around. Oh.. Oh!! And before I forget, another important factor is the having a Safe in the room. 

The budget hotels, if I'm not mistakened, generally don't provide safes... which sadly, even the bigger hotels like Hotel Sassi and Hotel Ivanhoe did not provide either. Definitely a plus factor finding a place to stay in Europe since pickpocketers are rampant on the streets. 

However for Hotel Drei Kreuz, their receptionist (a very friendly aunty) provided one of the most detailed informations we recieved, followed by Hotel Ivanhoe. Hotel Ivanhoe had the most professional staff.. perhaps too professional.. so much so that it was very task-orientated, no talking cock, just pure "business". 

ibis Milano Centro was the most commercialised Hotel... reminded me of Genting's First World Hotel. Very huge, but very un-personalised. They even had a security guard based at the lobby... 

Hotel Colombina will be remembered as one of the most expensive accoms we stayed over there... in terms of value for money... not so... Service wise was ok, they had some extra "perks" like free shuttles to Murano and helped linked us up to a cheaper Gondola cause it was shared with other hotel guests but overall not a very good experience. Despite it having a private water-jetty, it wasn't that accessible and the first time we made our way there was the greatest ordeal I underwent during our Honeymoon. I'll save the details for later.

Hotel Mignon's (Sorrento) location was pretty good, probably also owing to the easy roads of Sorrento and had its own balcony, though not overlooking much, just a carpark. It was pretty small and pretty forgettable. 

Hotel II Guelfo Bianco's (Florence) location was near to the Duomo, however, I would have preferred one nearer to the train station. That too, was pretty forgettable. 

Last but not least Sextantio... Sextantio Le Grotto Della Civita.. with it's kinky name, it's located in Matera, and basically this hotel is like no other because it's a cave. Literally. Yes, a cave. I wouldn't even call it a hotel. My dear looovveeedd it, but it was so impractical that it made one of my most unforgettable, not very pleasant accom experiences yet.   

The dim lightings, mostly lit up by candles, the lack of a shower head (they only provided a bathtub with a tap, and a heavy ceramic jug for bathing), and the presence of ants crawling all around our room was simply not the experience I was hoping for. I knew what I signed up for... but didn't expect it to be... so realistically primitive. Privacy was a major issue with holey doors (yup, they had 2 main wooden doors) which made me rather paranoid during shower time since there's no other privacy doors in the room. 

Even controlling the temperature of the water was such a feat that I just went by "feel". I wasn't even sure if it was the "right way" since the bath tap had no indicators and seemed like there's only 1 way to turn it on. But somehow moving the handle with surgical precision from right to left seemed to change the temperature of the water. It's not as common sense as you think, regretably, I didn't take a photo of the tap, but it was really one of the toughest taps to crack. The same formula unfortunately didn't apply to the sink (made of natural rocks) tap and I was brushing my teeth in ice-cold water all the time. Talk about prrimmiitttiiveeee... And in this case, pun intended, it just rocked too much for my liking.