WHERE THE HECK IS MARIO?!

Buon Juorno guys! is how you can say hello in Italy with a :D on your face.
Of course, being the troublemaker we are, the middle finger still applies but works well with the :D face too. Just get ready to make a D: face.
Speaking of which, the peace gesture is an awesome accessory for cute photos right?

Aww look at how cute she's doing! It's a she right? Dammit.

However, doing it with your backhand facing viewers is a long-established insult in Italy. You should be able to figure it out by yourself. Hint: Put your nose in between the two fingers.

Before the Mafia. After the Mafia. He's sorry.

Seems like Bel's already given the summed up view of whats been going down in the lives of our PotatoSLAMmers, crudely explained in the previous post so I'll just attach a scope to my pen and give you a guys a little rundown of my recent spring vacation in Italy! :D

FIRST OFF!

MILANO - Milan, home to the AC Milan FC and the city of fashion. Nearly every man is wearing a business coat or blazer even if it's just an afternoon walk in the park, gotta be prepared cuz' you'll never know when an important business client will pop up! or not.

I'm working today. Just kidding.

Ow yeah Milan has Duomo di Milano, meaning Milan Cathedral took nearly six centuries to complete. It is the fourth largest cathedral in the world!

Duomo di Milano! 4th largest in the world, JB and some say Batam!

The Square at where Duomo di Milano is situated is a tourist hotspot so there's a need to spend all that foreign cash! Where else but at a huge shopping complex just right beside it. Within, there's branded franchises like Prada, Louis Vuitton, Mercedes Benz and even McDonald's.
The ironic thing is that in shops like Prada and Louis Vuitton, you can only find ASIANS browsing through their wares (even Malaysians are among them...haiyo of coz i can sense them la).
Owh yeah did I mention that there are dozens of classy sassy restaurants right beside these franchises? What's even more ironic is that when the ASIANS come out brandishing their purchased LV/Prada/Trashbag...they turn to McD's for lunch. LOL?

When LV's bags are exploding, so are your pockets. BOOM.BOOM.BOOM.

Well that's pretty much about it in Milan...

Right.

MOVING ON!

VENEZIA - Venice! The beautiful city of river veins and streams of water that circulates the traffic in and around the islands. Venice is actually an island connected by rail with the mainland of Italy. There are other notable islands around Venice like Murano, known for its Murano Glass, and Burano, known for its narrow line of houses washed by different shades of colours.

There's also the Carnival of Venice, a masquerade festival where people wear masks of various shapes and colours! I'm surprised why superheroes or supervillains aren't born in Venice when it's so easy to hide one's identity there.

There are even masks that are worn by the doctors in Assassin's Creed!

Woody Woodpecker looks sick.

The masks, either for display or play, are pretty cool to have. Great for playing Batman.

Batman agrees.

Then there's the Murano Glass. This type of glass is famous for its shape, colours, design and form, and the art of glass-making used to craft it. From paperweights and room ornaments to pendants, rings and jewellery, Murano glass is one of the main trades in Venice.

THEY BREAK RAINBOWS FOR THIS!

And I stumbled upon colourful pasta too which is also an attraction in Venice. They sell for 3-5times the usual price of normal pasta >.>
Not only are they colourful, but they're very shaped after real stuff like hats and...well..stuff.

It's written NOT SEXY for a reason. Zoom in for some...stuff.

OK for the island of Burano, it's when their town planner got high on weed while watching Care Bears and said "I LOVE A CITY OF RAINBOWS" but the closest idea to his delusional plan(besides breaking rainbows and Murano glass) is to negotiate with the Care Bears to wash the whole town with their rainbows and loving hearts. But the Care Bears don't give a F*** and gave him their leftover Dulux Weathershield and Nippon Colour Paint instead. So the Italian town planner gave the Bears a backhand peace sign, in which the Care Bears mistaken it for a peace gesture.

The Care Bears Show was replaced by Teletubbies the following day.

Care Bears + weed gives you...

Burano, where the rainbow's on the ground instead.

There's more to see in Venice like Piazza San Marco and other interesting places which I won't go over here cuz' they're a sight to personally behold by yourself :D

FINAL STOP!

ROMA - Rome is the capital of Italy with many phrases and expressions amounting from it like "All roads lead to Rome", "Rome wasn't built in a day", "When in Rome, do what the Romans do" and "THIS.IS.SPARTAAAAA!!!". No wait the last one didn't come out right. But yeah you get the idea how famous Rome is that it got pretty much its own name in sentences like:

"Hey my phone's on Roaming now".

Alright that didn't come out right either. But hey you don't hear like New York's nickname coming out as the Big Apple in usual phrases...unless there's "A(n) BIG APPLE a day keeps the doctor away" then HELL YEAH I LOVE NY! GUHUHUHUH.

Speaking of which, I noticed there's a lot of peeps wearing I <3 NY and the S for Superman shirts in Rome... modern propaganda huh.

Oh and there's the famous Vatican City also made popular by the movie Angels & Demons. It's where the Pope lives and home to only 500+ residents and the church there is currently the largest in the world! Here's a picture of the entrance to the church, Vatican Square on Easter Day and Sunday Mass. There's thousands of people attending.

I saw the Pope! On a huge screen instead -.-"

Here's a shot of the Vatican Square from which I took from the Cupola (the huge dome up there). As you can see, sculptures of saints line the rooftops' edges. Wooo..

So dude, where are the Demons?

Next when you think about Rome, you gotta think about the fabled Colosseum. It's as colossal as the name adheres. To my disappointment though, it wasn't anything like the movie Gladiator(what? that's bullsh**!!) but pretty much like the movie Jumper( o.o )

From the outside. Looks like something you can eat XD
hungry bah >.>

On the inside. That's the arena?!
LET'S GO PAINTBALL!

Likewise, many other beautiful sights & sounds for your own adventure :D
I haven't mention food now, have I?

AND WHERE'S SUPER MARIO?!

IT'S A ME! MARIO & PIZZA!

Ironically, Mario being Italian, Pizza being Italian gives you Mario's Pizza which is a restaurant that exists only in New York (why am I comparing Italy and NY anyway?!)

Well at least there are other famous Italian foods to try out in Italy itself like:

WARNING OMG FOOD TOUR!!

Pizza with mushrooms, ham, artichokes, and mozzarella cheese


Pizza with cheese and 3 slices of ham in tabasco sauce


The classic Spaghetti & Meatballs!


Spaghetti Carbonara (with pepper,eggs and bacon)


Homemade Lasagna (layers of pasta and meat)


Bucatini Amatriciana


Bucatini Roma Style >.>


Assorted cookies & bread


Cappucino (smooth blended coffee)


GELATO!!! (smooth tasty ice-cream)

So voilà, more to find out for yourself xD I've only filled in a few holes to your knowledge about Italy and hopefully instilled some cravings for you to go there. I've not listed the dangers and precautions to take as I meant this to be a fun post but hey do always take care bah XD

Guess my next trip will be back home to Miri for the summer break. WO YEAH LOOKING FORWARD TO IT! That's when the Po-SLAMmers can meet up again yo :D so till then guys and readers! Take care and remember to eat your tomatoes so you can grow up to be fat and strong like Super Mario!
It's a he! Mario!

Uh oh porridge's on fire!
hach