My Italy Travelogue with the Huawei P9

It’s been a month since Huawei announced its flagship phone, the Huawei P9 in India. I was one of the lucky few to get my hands on the device even before it’s official launch in the Indian market and had the opportunity of taking it along with me on my trip to Italy.

The main USP of the Huawei P9 is the Dual-camera unit developed in collaboration with Leica. The Leica dual-camera module, with a two 12 megapixel lens system with f/2.2, combines the black and white camera with the colour lens, which supposedly offers better contrast, light sensitivity and image quality.

Swipe right, and a selection of modes appear, ranging from HDR and video, to time-lapse and night shot settings. Swipe left, and less often used features come up, such as a timer, camera grid settings, and GPS tagging. The manual mode, called Pro, appears when you drag up a small menu on the main screen. When it’s hidden, the phone is in auto mode. It’s easy, convenient, and intuitive to use the manual mode on the P9.

The Huawei P9 offers manual shooting controls for people like me who prefer to create photographs just the way we do it with DSLR. Here are some of the pictures I clicked with this phone during my 2 week long trip to Italy.

Turkish Airlines Boeing 777-300ER #OO #ClickedWithP9

We had been planning this trip since a year now and had already booked the flight tickets 6 months in advance at a good rate. Our stays were booked on AirBnb. My trip was scheduled from the 7th of August, 2016 until the 20th of August, during which I was to cover Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome, Sant’Agnello and Palermo. My wife missed out on the first leg of the trip when she lost her passport just 3 days before the trip! The story was to go viral few days later when our MEA Minister Sushma Swaraj stepped in and offered to help us with the passport and visa within 2 working days!

I flew from the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi to the Malpensa Milan Airport with a stopover at Istanbul, Turkey. The entire flight journey lasted 11 hours.

At the Milan Centrale Station

We had booked our AirBnb stay within walking distance of the Milan Centrale Station which helped us a big deal in saving travel time.

My AirBnb was within walking distance from the Milan Centrale Station

Selfie Time (Well not exactly)

Duomo di Milano

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II  is one of the world’s oldest shopping malls. Housed within a four-story double arcade in central Milan, the Galleria is named after Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of the Kingdom of Italy. It was designed in 1861 and built by Giuseppe Mengoni between 1865 and 1877.

Navigli

Our first meal in Italy was a slice Margarita Pizza, French Fries and coke at one of the restaurants in Navigli. The Navigli were a system of navigable and interconnected canals around Milan, Italy. The system consisted of five canals: Naviglio Grande, Naviglio Pavese, Naviglio Martesana, Naviglio di Paderno, Naviglio di Bereguardo.

Breakfast time at Venezia Santa Lucia Railway Station

Our next stop was Venice. We took a train from Milan Central Station to Venezia Santa Lucia Railway Station from where we took a ferry to main island of Venice. With its historical canals, gondolas, and winding streets, Venice is considered one of the most romantic and visited cities in the world. We bought a sim card with 3G data from the station for about 20 € to stay connected with Sana in helping her acquire a duplicate passport.

Bata Store in Venice

#Shoefie #Sketchers #OO #ClickedWithP9

Gondola ride #OO

Some may say the gondolas of Venice are a tourist trap, but so are a lot of other fun things! A gondola ride can be very romantic if taken around dusk, and if the price seems too high, split with ride others. A maximum of 6 people are allowed on the gondola. A typical ride costs 80 € during the day. We split our ride with another Indian couple. This ride of ours lasted 15 mins and we were left asking for more!

Selfie with the Huawei P9 #OO #ClickedWithP9. Clothing by AndamenLife

Piazza San Marco

Piazza San Marco, is the principal public square of Venice, Italy, where it is generally known just as la Piazza. It’s crowded, full of pigeons, and occasionally flooded but, despite the crowds, it’s a majestic place.

Gondola ride at the Piazza San Marco

Close to Venice, nearby Murano island is the tourist trap home of the famous glass blowers of the famous Murano glass. Although the island is filled with expensive souvenirs, it can still be an educational and fun afternoon learning and watching how the glass is blown.

Food: We spent an average of 80 € a day on meal which mostly comprised of pizzas and spaghetti. A cup of cappuccino costed us about 1.5 € which we used to have when extremely exhausted from our walks. Every other cafe in Venus has free WiFi, so don’t forget to ask your waiter for the password to access it.

#Shoefie Time #Sketchers #OO #ClickedWithP9

It rained on the last day of our stay in Venice

View outside the Santa Maria Novella Railway Station, Florence

Our next stop was Florence. We took a train from Venezia Santa Lucia Railway Station to Santa Maria Novella Railway Station. The journey lasted about 2 hours.

#Foodfie #LemonSwordFish #OO #ClickedWithP9

Florence is one of the most beautiful cities in the world.  If you love art, the amount of galleries here will keep you busy for weeks on end, although the big draws are the David and the Uffizi. Food was quite economical in Florence and you could also find yourself enjoying a Halal Doner Kebab on every street.

Florence was historically considered the capital of art and culture. It’s also a great jumping-off point for Tuscany wineries, food tours, and it also boosts a great night life. Since none of us drink, we skipped the entire tour of the wineries.

We had one of the most beautiful AirBnb stays in Florence. I simply fell in love with the house and just didn’t want to leave it! All the major cities in Italy charge you with tourists taxes ranging from 1 € to 3 € a night.

Duomo di Firenze

Florence also is big market place for leather goods. Make sure you do most of your shopping here.

Next day, we rented out a car and drove to the city of Pisa which is about an hour away from Florence. You could also opt to take a train to Pisa which takes about the same time. We had to submit our Indian license and passport copy to get a car on rent which costed us 80 € a day. It did take us a while to get used to the left hand drive but we did manage to survive through the day! We also did break a few rules (all accidentally) and filling petrol at the gas station was an adventure in its own!