Another adventure comes to an end. After a month of hopping in and out of planes, moving from one place to another, seeing familiar sights and rejoicing as entries on the bucket list are ticked off, I make a final luggage check in at the Singapore Airline counter in Charles de Gaulle airport bound for the P.I. via the Lion City.

Heading back home.

I bore an extra luggage this time, one I’m not checking in. It was packed and heavy but totally weightless. It was that of fond memories of this trip, all 30 days of fun and frolic, new ideas. Throw in a few unpleasant ones, which broadened my perspective and taught me a few more lessons about traveling. This trunkful of memories is the most precious of the lot I’m taking home with me. Weightless, priceless.

Europe is love.

It was great to see Rome, Florence, Versailles and Paris once more. It’s a few of the cities that one may never get enough of. There’s always something brewing, a new corner to discover, exciting destinations always.

Joy. The city of lights by day.

Sunset at the Vatican City

The king's bed at the Versailles Palace

Pisa was a new place for me, a short and pleasant getaway destination off Rome. I will be back for more.

Pisa was a new place for me, a short and pleasant getaway destination off Rome

Madrid, more than anything else, was a food destination. Ask me about Madrid and food will take the top story, the paellas most especially. The city I will always remember as having to eat a year’s worth of food. Gained weight I did, and it was only the second leg of a long journey across Europe.

Ask me about Madrid & food will take the top story. I'm not suprised that the famed Casa Botin's 'lechoneros' are Pinoys

Ticked off my list was a selfie with the famed astronomical clock in Prague’s Old Town Square. The Czech city is enchanting and easy to fall in love with. The fact that you can explore the old quarters all the way up to the magnificent castle grounds (where the St. Vitus Cathedral is also located) via the historic Charles Bridge and back down, at you own pace, makes it even more appealing. Praha’s history is rich and it is excellently preserved. The new age artworks, strategically situated, make an exciting contrast to the old world vibe of the city.

Ticked off my list was a selfie with the famed astronomical clock in Prague’s Old Town Square

As if the Versailles palace was not enough, I had to visit three royal palaces in the Scandinavia. If not for good friend Des, I wouldn’t have seen these attractions, along with the cities’ other top attractions—the Little Mermaid and the canal in Copenhagen, the Gamla Stan and Vasamuseet in Copenhagen, the Ekeberg and Frogner parks, the Scream at Munchmuseet and many more. Two nights in each of the Scandinavian cities is not enough. I will go back for sure.

Well, hello there. The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen welcomed me on the onset of my Scandinavian tour

Gamla Stan in Stockholm should top your list & make the Vasamuseet next

Interesting characters at Gamla Stan in Stockholm, Sweden.

The Ekebergparken is fabulous! It fuses art & nature for happy eyes & happy heart

The few nights left in Europe was spent in Paris with my cousins who made it their home. I would have though I have seen the attractions I wanted to check out, but no, they pointed me to a couple more. One was Pere Lachaise, the burial grounds of personalities. It was an eerie place to have selfies with the graves of Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison or Oscar Wilde.

Eerie tourist spot in Paris, the Pere Lachais. It has amazing mausoleums though & here lie the remains of Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf & other personalities

Good times will always trump the sleepless nights, tired body, unpleasant encounters and even the busted diet. I took it all back here and related my tales via this column. Yes, I could have added the #TBT on all the titles, but does the destination have an expiration date? Nope.

Thank you, Universe! Tales of another journey will find its way on this page next.

Europe is always fun when toured with friends you can call family. Thank you Tenny for taking me along this memorable ride.

Thank you Des for a great trip around Scandinavia.

Expect impeccable service when taking Singapore Airlines.

For more photos about this story, & other travel & lifestyle stories, visit http://jeepneyjinggoy.blogspot.com/ and http://apples-and-lemons.blogspot.com/

This will the first of many “picture book” travel stories of places I was/will be lucky enough to visit. Aboard a train, boat or hop-on-hop-off bus or whatever mode of transportation that’ll provide photo-worthy snaps, I will freeze the moment in pixels because there will be (plenty) of times when the chance to stop, wander and explore will be unavailable due to differing circumstances—lack of time, not on the itinerary, or I’m just hitching a ride. This is the “drive-by shooting” (of the good kind) tales of JeepneyJinggoy.

The hop on, hop off bus is the best way to check out a city's popular attractions

Rome, an ancient city filled with wonders that should be explored. It will take a lifetime to go through the list of must-sees. However with limited time in the area, only the main attractions can be “stop, look and listen” points. The rest will have to be admired in its superficiality.

The Colosseum is the largest amphitheatre of the Roman empire & one of Rome's most visited attractions. Colosseum bus stop.

The most asked questions I receive about the places I have visited would be, “What are the best places to visit?” I would always reply with, “Take the hop-on-hop-off bus tour, an open tour that allows you to see the city at your own pace. It will be the most economical.”

Tenny & I at the upper deck of the Hop On, Hop Off bus.

There are different companies offering this service at varying price and itineraries, and will list the top sites to see with an audio guide on board to give a brief history of the attraction it passes by. In a few hours, you would have seen it all (the popular ones, at least) and know its history in brief (if your memory can retain the information). From the list, choose the sites you wish to see extensively, get off the bus and explore! This will also give you the chance to venture into the streets where more attractions are, those that can’t be seen from the main roads.

Fountain of the Naiads in the Piazza della Repubblica. Viminal Hill.

If there’s a hop-on, hop off bus stop near your hotel, you’re lucky. In our case, we stayed in Barbareni and just around the corner is Piazza Barberini, one of the designated stops in the map. This was where my tour (and drive-by shooting) of Rome commenced.

Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli e del Martiri, once an imperial Roman bath. Viminal Hill.

From hopping on, these were the bus stops that followed and some points of interests of each. At the summit of the Viminal Hill next to the Termini Station— the Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, built in the remains of Rome's grandest public bath, the Baths of Diocletian; Fountain of the Naiads in the Piazza della Repubblica; and the Palazzo delle Esposizioni which opened in 1883.

Palazzo delle Esposizioni. Via Nacional.

Quirinale—The Torre delle Milizie aka Nero's Tower from which Emperor Nero watched the Great Fire of Rome; the Santa Caterina a Magnanapoli; Quirinale Obelisk in front of Palazzo Del Quirinale, the official residence of the president of the Italian Republic.

The Santa Caterina a Magnanapoli & the Torre delle Milizie aka Nero's Tower (right). Quirinale.

Quirinale Obelisk in front of Palazzo Del Quirinale.

The Colosseum, the largest amphitheatre of the Roman empire. Piazza Venezia— the Palazzo delle Assicurazioni Generali & the 16th century church of Santa Maria di Loreto; Vitorio Emanuele II Monument or the Altare della Patria built in honor of the first king of a unified Italy; The Trajan’s Forum and the Trajan Column, the last of the imperial fora to be constructed in ancient Rome; the Roman Forum, which for centuries the center of Roman public life; Piazza del Campidgolio, Michaelangelo’s trapezoidal piazza with the cordonata leading to it. St. Peters in the Vatican City.

Palazzo delle Assicurazioni Generali & the 16th century church of Santa Maria di Loreto. Piazza Venezia bus stop.

The Trajan's Forum. Piazza Venezia bus stop.

The Roman Forum. Piazza Venezia bus stop.

Vitorio Emanuele II Monument. Piazza Venezia bus stop.

Piazza del Campidgolio. Piazza Venezia  bus stop.

We hopped off a few stops that took us to the spots we wanted to see up close— Colosseum; St. Peter’s where the Vatican museum and St. Peter’s Cathedral are, Piazza Venezia to see Piazza Navona and the Castel Sant’Angelo. The Fontana Trevi and the Spanish Steps, and stopping for gelatos along the way for some sugar boosting and cooling off.

Hop on the bus and see a city. That’s always my first tip to my fellow world wanderers.


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For more travel & lifestyle stories, visit http://jeepneyjinggoy.blogspot.com/ and http://apples-and-lemons.blogspot.com/


Published in the SunStar Davao newspaper on June 12, 2014.

The Pantheon is one of the best-preserved buildings of Ancient Rome.

It’s a short walk from Piazza Venezia through cobblestone alleys to this next must-see spot in the Eternal City. If you feel lost, worry not for tourists fill the city streets day in and out and the movement from one major attraction to another is pretty much like a pilgrimage. “Ride the tide” so to speak, and you’ll arrive with them at the next ancient marvel. Or, you can ask for directions, whatever makes you feel more secure.

You might chance upon this piazza heading to the Pantheon-- the Basilica di Santa Maria sopra Minerva & the Pulcino della Minerva, the famous elephant sculpture by Bernini & Ercole Ferrata, making the base of one of Rome's eleven Egyptian obelisks.

If you can't find your way around, go ask directions from these guys.

The Museums of the Capitoline Hill at the Piazza del Campidoglio designed by Micahelangelo. Palazzo Nuovo (left), the Palazzo Senatorio (right) & the equestrian statue of Maximus Aurelius at the center of the piazza.

It’s like a buffet of must-see spots that can be enjoyed in single stop. Although this is not uncommon in an ancient city such as Rome where just at every street corner a cornucopia of surprises unfold. But consider this “buffet” something special—the offerings are lip-smacking, so to speak.

It’s one of the seven hills in the city— the Capitoline Hill, a citadel (like the forum to the Greeks), where, once, one of the largest and the most beautiful temples of early Rome sat on. What sits on the hill today is a piazza with Medieval and Renaissance palaces converted into museums, an ancient church and a controversial monument.


The Piazza del Campidoglio.


Commissioned by Pope Paul III “to build a symbol to reestablish the grandeur of Rome,” Michaelangelo designed the Piazza del Campidoglio and redesigned the surrounding palazzi, plan that was executed over a period of more than 400 years. It can be approached via the cordonata, a sloping road composed of transversal stripes, from the Via del Teatro di Marcello.

The Cordonata, a sloping road composed of transversal stripes, leading to the famous piazza.

Voila! This is the way up? Under the heat of the Roman sun (& tired), the cordonata may look like this…. LOL

Enclosing Michaelangelo’s trapezoidal piazza were once two official buildings of Rome's civic government—the Palazzo dei Conservatori (built in the Middle Ages for the local magistrate on top of "Maximus Capitolinus," a 6 BC temple dedicated to Jupiter. Annexing it is the Palazzo Caffarelli Clementino where short-term exhibitions are held) and the Senatorio (a 13-14th century palace that housed the archives of ancient Rome and now the Roman city hall)— and the Palazzo Nuovo (built in the 16th century). At the center of the piazza is a replica of the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius in bronze (the original is in the Palazzo dei Conservatori).

Statue of Castor at the top of the Cordonata.

The columns of a palazzo.

Santa Maria in Aracoeli


The monumental flight of stairs left of the cordonata leads to the highest summit of the Campidoglio where the Basilica di Santa Maria in Ara coeli al Campidoglio or the Basilica of St. Mary of the Altar of Heaven is situated. The church was famous in Rome for the Santo Bambino, a 15th century wooden statue of Jesus Christ of olive wood from the Garden of Gethsemane, which was stolen in 1994 and never recovered. A jewel-encrusted copy can be seen in the church.

The Museo Centrale del Risorgimento & the Basilica di Santa Maria in Ara coeli al Campidoglio at the top.

Inside the Museo Centrale del Risorgimento

The relics of Constantine the Great’s mother, Saint Helena, and the remains of St Juniper, one of the original followers of St. Francis of Assisi, are in this church.

Holy men making their way to the basilica at the summit of the Capitoline hill.

The Altare della Patria (The Altar of the Fatherland)


Also known as the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II (National Monument to Victor Emmanuel II) or "Il Vittoriano," the monument erected to honor the first king of unified Italy, is the controversial addition to the Capitoline Hill. Why? Because to create this, the largest monument in white Botticini marble ever built, a large area of the historic hill, a Medieval neighborhood included, had to be “chopped off” or “destroyed.” The boxy structure (the Romans commonly call it "the typewriter") was perceived as “pompous and too large,” and glaringly white against the predominantly brownish hue architectural landscape.

Controversial. The Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II or "Il Vittoriano

Conceived by Giusspe Sacconi in 1885 and finished in 1925, the eclectically designed Vittoriano features an equestrian statue of Victor Emanuel, two statues of the goddess Victoria on chariots, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with an eternal flame, Corinthian columns, fountains and stairways. It also houses the Italian Unification museum.


Around the foot of the hill.


Across the Vittoriano is the Piazza Venezia, the central hub of the city where major thoroughfares intersect. It was named after Pope Paul II, a former cardinal from Venice, who built the Palazzo Venezia near the Church of St. Mark, the patron saint of Venezia.

Behind the Capitoline Hill is the ruins of the Roman Forum, used to be center of Roman public and commercial life for centuries where elections, public speeches, processions, criminal trials and gladiatorial matches were held.

The ruins of the Roman Forum

Jacks & Jill went up the hill. In good company with Tenny & Jinky.

The Trajan’s Forum, on the left of the Il Vittoriano, was the last of the major fora to be constructed in ancient Rome with more extravagant structures than the Roman Forum. This was where much of the Forum’s economic and judicial business transferred. Within the forum is a smaller piazza (still in use today as a public space) is the 38-meter high Tajan’s Column.

Trajan’s Column at the Trajan’s Forum, the last of the major fora to be constructed in ancient Rome.

Exploring the area in detail can take an entire day (or more) but if you are pressed for time, admiring the area and its structures can be a visually fulfilling as well. Just don’t do it in the middle of the day in summer, the Roman heat can be very punishing.

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For more travel & lifestyle stories, visit http://jeepneyjinggoy.blogspot.com/ and http://apples-and-lemons.blogspot.com/


Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on May 29, 2014.