romantic vigan

if you should ever go to vigan, make sure it's at night, when you stroll down with the faint lights shining on crisologo--it's as if you're in italy. think "only you". i had visited the place around 10 years ago with my family. but whereas then, it just felt like a very well-preserved old, sleepy, quaint town; now, it's much more "staged"--but still very beautiful. i just found it weird that when you stepped outside the bounds of heritage village, there's a bustling city that, though not ultra-modern, is definitely present-day.
when we got to the plaza at night, straight from laoag, i couldn't help but do a double take because of the similarities between the 2 places. check out the capitol:

the spacious plaza was also across it. love those fountains!

oops! i'm getting ahead of the story. anyway, when we got in around 9 pm, we visited the capitol building for photo ops. cely wanted to go up on the balcony, and asked the guard for permission. meanwhile, i waited outside, so i could snap the picture. finally, after more than a minute, she emerged on the balcony and told me to come up. i asked permission from the guard downstairs. when i got to the social hall on the second floor, there was another man there who took us around, showing us where the vice-gov. and the gov. held office. we were even able to enter the office and see chavit's desk!!! those people were nice. and, as i would later find out, every one of the people we dealt with in one way or another there were really nice. super nice.
we proceeded to find a hotel room, but only after walking down crisologo, with me exclaiming more than once: "i love it! it's like we're in italy!"

we were a bit disappointed that there were mini-malls and fast food outlets near the church. but i guess it's also a source of revenue for the city. check out the chowking with a chandelier!

we stayed at a bed and breakfast called giordon inn. after checking inn, we went in search of food. at cafe leona, we had bagnet. i've tasted it before, but at least this one is "authentic".:) served with sliced onions and tomatoes in boneless bagoong.

it was there too that the next day, a cold rainy day, we had vigan tsokolate. wow!
i really loved walking several times up and down the street, with hardly anyone else in sight. and in a comfortable silence. we were imagine how the place looked 2 centuries ago.