Phone Diary: Traveling in Europe

While studying abroad in London for the spring semester, I traveled quite a bit. Prior to my semester abroad, I had never left the United States, so getting to visit several European cities was extremely exciting for me. I had a huge list of places to visit and managed to get to seven cities. My travel list is still really long, but I did get to visit some really beautiful and fun places over those four months. Along with the thousands of photos taken on my camera, I took so, so many photos on my phone. I could only post a fraction of them on instagram, of course, so here is my phone diary of my travels around Europe!


P A R I S













B E R L I N











V E N I C E










F L O R E N C E







R O M E








E D I N B U R G H







P R A G U E

Phone Diary: London

If you've talked to me any time in the last six months, you definitely know that I miss London. I really miss London. As much as I love New York, I keep thinking (and talking) about London, remembering days there, going through my many photos, and wishing I had been there for more time. So I'm making another blog post (maybe these blog posts will end one day) out of the many photos I took during my semester there, as I took a ridiculous number of photos on my phone. While I did not always have my camera with me, I had my phone when I went to museums and tourist spots, walked to class and shows and shops, and explored cute little streets and the many parks as the weather warmed up.

J A N U A R Y - F E B R U A R Y

M A R C H

A P R I L

M A Y

London, I miss you and all your photogenic buildings and beautiful museums and pretty parks. See you soon.

Rome

The last main leg of our trip was Rome! The big, busy, and crowded city was a shift from Florence and Venice, but we still loved it. Plus, the weather was amazing - so sunny and very warm. We also walked so many miles each day, so I suppose it made all that pasta, pizza, and gelato okay. Our long weekend in Rome was spent exploring the ancient Roman sites, Vatican City, and beautiful old churches, as well as walking around the squares and twisting streets.


Our first stop was the Colosseum. Kristen and I are both really interested in ancient history, so spending hours in the Colosseum and later in the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill was a great way to start our time in Rome.





















After a long time walking around the Colosseum, we crossed over to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. We walked so many miles this day, largely because of this start to our trip as we walked around what remains of the ancient buildings.


































When we were finally done over there, we stopped for lunch and then headed over to the Pantheon, the former temple and now church with an oculus at the top of its dome.












Piazza Navona















We went to the Trevi Fountain after dinner, where it was packed and difficult to get to the edge of the fountain. We made sure to throw a coin in according to tradition.






Our next day was also a long one: we got up early and took the metro to Vatican City. Luckily, we were early enough that there wasn't much of a line for St. Peter's Basilica.

























After spending a long time at St. Peter's Basilica, we ate paninis on the sidewalk before walking over the Vatican Museums. We wandered through, trying to find the Sistine Chapel, where I snuck a few secret pictures in the middle of the crowd while the guards yelled at people for taking pictures and that everyone had to be silent in the chapel. Sorry, guys. Couldn't help myself. I did spend a lot of time in the chapel, craning my neck to look up the Michelangelo's ceiling frescos and The Last Judgment on the alter wall. Seeing these works of art was one of the most incredible moments of my time in Italy and abroad in general.











Walking around Rome, past the Castel Sant'Angelo and over Ponte Sant'Angelo.








One of the churches we visited was the Santa Maria della Vittoria, a beautiful baroque church where Bernini's Ecstasy of Saint Teresa resides.









On our last day, we went back to the Trevi Fountain during the day. After we discovered another museum we had hoped to visit was sold out for the day, we spent the afternoon in the Capitoline Museums, which overlooks the Roman Forum and ended up being a great choice as well.









Most importantly, the best gelato we had in Rome, so good we went back the following day. I'm still thinking about it... and how I ate gelato every day for ten days. I miss the Italy diet.



We went to Pompeii the next day and stayed in Naples overnight, but I don't have any photos from that last day of our trip, so this is the last blog post (finished at last!). It was the best spring break I could have asked for. Italy was a dream, full of amazing food, art and architecture, and fun adventures. Take me back, please.