Jacqkie | Travel and Lifestyle

So mum wanted to go to Rome and Vatican since the longest time. You know, being Catholic and stuff. So like all of our itineraries, I planned everything myself. I would usually ask mum for her feedback, like what she'd really like to see, or Jessy what she'd really like to experience. Mum said Rome and Vatican and Jessy said food and also Vatican. While I was sorting out our itinerary, we don't usually follow the itinerary through and through, there are days when we completely skip the entire thing, and because I am usually the ONLY person who knows exactly what we've planned - both of them wouldn't be able to tell if we had missed anything 🙊🙈🙉 So anyway, we were trying to decide when to go to Vatican, which was supposed to be after Venice. Look, this is crucial because we're buying the tickets online, tip: you should always buy the tickets online, the queue can be a bitch, so any purchases made online are non-refundable and just a matter of claiming it...

I have hundreds of photos of Venice but very few make it to daylight............... WHY AM I KEEPING THEM?!? Anyway, while I was updating my 2016 in pictures and seeing the photos of Venice reminded me of that lovely day out in town with Allesandro, our airbnb's owner's friend. Minus the fact that there were three of us ladies trailing him around, it would probably be a romantic walk for any for that matter.  Venice in, spring / summer is so beautiful.... 😍😍 We went out sometime around 10am, a habit  we cultivated over the years of appreciating what a good holiday meant. Some sleep in. It took us about 20 minutes from the countryside to reach town, and was then welcomed by the young kindred.  He promised to bring us into the heart of Venice, into the alleys and cobblestones of this small but beautiful canal city. From the main piazza, to the hidden gems of old settlements. Which we did. To the canals, the ever so famous canals, to the esplanade off ...

If Elizabeth Gilbert had dedicated a chapter of her life to the pleasures and delight of dining in Italy, and Dean Martin so much so longingly professed that your eyes could go big as pizza pie as amore,  synonym to finding one's mojo back in life, or being in love or better yet, better than love itself........ One can only imagine the passion, intensity and life the Italian meals can create in most of us, for them to profess their surrender to these delicious cuisines. 1. They love their sweet life  If we haven't already known, the Italians are notorious for being the world's most romantic, most pleasurable people in the world. They love a good life, and love a good way of living life. And what better way to celebrate life than through food. Italians usually start their day with dolce  which basically means 'sweet' or anything sweet. I don't really take sweet stuff in the morning.. but you know what they say, when in Rome....... If they're not puffe...

Sun lit alleyways, wooden windows, coffee smell, masquerades for sale, soft accordion in the background, stone pebble driveways, people drawing, flowers, fresh vegetables for sale, summer dresses, gondolas, Italian yells, glasses clinking, melting ice creams, chuckles and kisses. I always think of Venice as a painting , a distant painting impossible to get acquainted with. A travel myth, an illusion, that only the people in the myth tells the love stories. A dream that only one can dream. I mean why wouldn't I, so many emulations of this canal city everywhere in the world. From the casinos in Macau, to Vegas, to every other entertainment city in the world, creators creating an illusion of a place so synonym with love and dream. Until last May.  Everything I envisioned of Venice was unfolding right by my eyes from the moment I stepped out of the train station. A grandeur of a welcome by the iconically decorated gondolas, slowly cruising the green blue waters in between the br...

Yes you can!  We did just that without knowing that we could. Prior to executing our actual visits to Rome's main attractions, I was looking through online and found out that these places are "quite near to each other". So I took everyone's word for it, and decided a day for Rome's city centre. I had to decide only on 3/4 attractions, the ones that we really wanted to visit. Mum said, Spanish Stairs, I said Villa Borghese, Fontana de Trevi and city of Trastevere. Jessy chose Fontana de Trevi as well. We had only our map to equip us with the day, our phones are not on roaming so the option is out. And we reckon, that the crowd is our source of information. Our stay in Rome was very central. We're just by the side of a bus station that connects us to basically everywhere, so we decided to hop onto the bus to bring us to our first main attraction, Villa Borghese. Little did we know... this was the no 1 starting point of going into the road that would lea...

Some of you may have seen my instagram posts @jacqkierowena on my Italian trip and may have wondered whether any of the posts I shared were too good to be true. Well yes, they were too good, but still very true. Staying in a place that looks like it came straight out of a postcard, with the friendliest of furry friends that would rub against you and shake your hand (YES) and with the loveliest family that would be kind enough to bring you to church together with them. I don't usually endorse a lot of things, but I have gained so much from my experiences through Airbnb, that I admit it was what I have been looking for during all my travel years. To be able to meet locals from the places I've visited, ask questions, see them live. From Sri Lanka, to Japan, and now Italy. I'm just a young traveler, cool with innovations, and loving the idea to keep people around the world connected. So I'm always up for trying these things. I'm dedicating this entire post abou...

This post was 3 months in the making! (I know I owe other posts about Bangkok, which are in queue..) But no seriously.. I started this post end March so that I can be diligent with my posts and tips. I wanted to include all the numbers and facts first before I impart all the photos (from the actual trip) and here goes: 1) Return flight KK - KL (has to be accounted for since we had to fly from KK)  Total per person: MYR 350.40ne tt per person via Malaysia Airlines. They had the best deal for the best times at that time so it was a no brainer. And the whole trick of getting tickets, before and after the flights to Rome. Malaysia Airlines   Malindo Air  Air Asia  2) Overnight in KL (also to be accounted for because this is part of the cost)  Total per person: RM 56.10 per person. Including taxi and airport transfer to and fro. We stayed in Youniq Hotel because it was cheaper than anywhere else, plus it could host us 3. And I remember the airport tr...