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Europe 2022

May - June 2022
Post-grad trip to Italy, Spain, and France Read more
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  • TravelerEurope 2022
    Day 1

    First day in Rome

    May 19, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 81 °F

    I did much more exploring on day 1 than I thought, considering I did not sleep on the plane at all… but once you start walking around here it’s impossible to stop. Every corner has some historic site, church, fountain, or something else that would be the crown jewel of any other city. Rome is really amazing with so many layers of history.Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2022
    Day 2

    St Peters basilica

    May 20, 2022 in Vatican City ⋅ ☀️ 73 °F

    This was the highlight of the Vatican for me and easily one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been. It is a church built around St. Peter’s tomb at the site where he was crucified. Most of the popes are buried here, most in underground tombs but some are embalmed on the main floor. Pictures don’t do this place justice - it is so massive, detailed and ornate that it is difficult to look at, there is too much for your eyes to focus on. It is more than 2 football fields long and about 150 feet high. According to my guide from the pantheon, most of the building materials were taken from ancient Roman monuments, which the Catholics essentially destroyed because they were Pagan and using up valuable resources. So much of the metal comes from the colosseum, forum, etc. so it is very historically interesting. Most of the paintings (I think all except 1) are actually mosaics which is incredible.Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2022
    Day 2

    Vatican Museums

    May 20, 2022 in Vatican City ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    This museum is absolutely incredible and has many, many exhibits from all over the world. It was impossible to see everything. I was fortunate to have a guided tour because everything feels very mixed together - you take one turn and the art changes centuries and continents with no warning. I especially liked seeing the work of famous artists like Michaelangelo, Raphael (my new favorite artist, was also a great dude), Dali, Van Gogh, and even Francis Bacon. There was also a large section of 16th century maps of the Italian region (not yet Italy, but apparently these maps were one of the first written references to the area as such) that are incredibly detailed and amazingly accurate. Of course I loved that part! There was also a postmodern exhibit of the artist Jean-Michel Folon that I really liked, it was a bit dark and not what I expected to see in the Vatican. The Sistine chapel is also in the museum which was so amazing to see but unfortunately you can’t take pictures of it. It was a bit weird because they say it is too holy to take pictures but then they make you walk through like 5 gift shops to exit it… strange.
    One of the coolest aspects was Raphael’s “apartment” where he was in residence and painted all of the walls. Originally it was thought that he did all the sketches and his pupils did the coloring. But it was recently discovered - like, literally a few months ago in late 2021 - that two of the figures were painted completely by Raphael. Not sure how they figured that one out. So I got to experience that a little differently than most people who have visited before. Cool little fact.    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2022
    Day 3

    Pantheon

    May 21, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    The Pantheon was incredible, but not as photogenic as many of the other attractions. The history is very interesting - it was built in 100 something BC (multiple times because it burned down twice in the first few years) as a Roman temple, and was then later converted into a church around 600 AD. Because it was converted to a church it is one of the only ancient Roman structures that wasn’t destroyed. The dome is one singular piece of concrete, it is insane to think they were able to build that so long ago and get it up there (almost 150 feet in diameter). It also contains tombs of the first two (of four) Italian kings from the 1800s, as well as the painter Raphael. I learned that Raphael was basically the first person who advocated to start preserving ancient Roman monuments instead of destroying them, which was heavily influential and changed the way that Romans viewed and appreciated their heritage. Pretty incredible. Fun fact, he was both born and died on Juliana’s birthday.
    The hole in the ceiling allows the sun in and at mid day it lines up with the main doorway. They even had a drainage system in the floor which still works. The floor is the original floor from when it was built. It is the best preserved (basically the only preserved) ancient Roman structure. I had a great tour guide who was really passionate about the history and had a lot of great info!    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2022
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    Day 3

    Colosseum

    May 21, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    The colosseum was easily my least favorite attraction in Rome. This was in part my fault - I went in the afternoon when it was hot, packed to the brim, and opted for an audio tour instead of an actual guide because I had already purchased so many guided tours in Rome. Beyond that, though, I found it very strange as a tourist attraction. It was a very deeply screwed up place where prisoners, including lots of Jews, were executed for public entertainment, as well as countless animals like lions and tigers. I saw online that over 400,000 people were executed there. I think if we didn’t glorify Rome so much this would be considered a stain on history and an embarrassment rather than a tourist attraction. It is also quite sad that the structure was basically stripped of all of its metals by Catholics in order to build other monuments like the Basilica.
    With all that said, it is still an amazingly impressive structure and it’s wild that it is so ancient yet so similar to modern stadiums. It held 60,000 and apparently could have been emptied in 12 minutes. The structure and design is remarkably similar to what you would see today at a football game. One of my favorite aspects was seeing stones that “fans” had carved their names into thousands of years ago - wild that they have lasted so long. Also, a fun fact: Caesar never would have actually been to the colosseum because it was built about 100 years after he died, despite popular belief.    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2022
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    Day 4

    Palatine Hill

    May 22, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 72 °F

    I absolutely loved the Palatine hill, in large part for the opposite reason that I disliked the colosseum - I went early (around 9 when it opened), so there were very few people there and it was not warm out yet. The hill has a lot of history behind it - according to mythology, and somewhat backed up by archaeological evidence, it is where Romulus, the founder of Rome, lived. Later it became the site of many emperors’ palaces and the bourgeois neighborhood for Roman senators. It was very cool to think that I was walking where so many of Romes leaders had. They also have a very nice garden up there now. The best part is the unbelievable views of the city you get up there - you can really see everything and you also look right down at the ruins of the Roman Forum.Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2022
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    Day 4

    Roman Forum & Jewish Ghetto

    May 22, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    Putting these two together because I went through both fairly quickly (and consecutively) and did not take many pictures.
    The forum was apparently the commercial and social center of Ancient Rome, so it felt very cool to be walking around, and while there are some columns of old temples still standing I didn’t feel like there was a ton to look at. It’s wild to think those are the same avenues where ancient Roman’s spent their time. The place is very surreal and it is hard to believe how old the structures are.
    The Jewish ghetto was very interesting and I went into the museum there as well to learn about the history. Jews became confined to the ghetto in the 1500s as part of the counter-reformation and were confined there for hundreds of years. Interestingly, during the era of Napoleonic wars, the French liberated the Jews (they were big on freedom, at least on paper, at the time as this was right after their revolution), but once the Romans got the city back they sent the Jews back to the ghetto. Jews finally got freedom in the late 1800s and did very well for a time - despite being a small population they were leaders of the Italian wars of independence (Risorgimento) and there was even a Jewish mayor of Rome. Of course that went downhill during the fascist era.
    It was interesting to see the area was very touristic and modern, there were lots of restaurants with names like Kosher, ebraico, gerusalemme, etc. but looking at their menus most served non kosher food and even foods like sushi and poke that are completely unrelated. Apparently a legit traditional Jewish food here is fried artichoke, coincidentally some Dutch guys I met told me that is a traditional Dutch food as well. Doesn’t sound very good to me!    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2022
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    Day 5

    Assorted sights and friends

    May 23, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F

    On my last morning in Rome I want to make an entry of the sights that didn’t get their own entry as well as the friends that I made here.
    My favorite thing about Rome is anywhere you walk you’ll pass several churches that are far more ornate and enormous than anything you’d see in the states. They are so beautiful and I love the atmosphere in there. It is different than seeing other sites because they are not just historical, they are living and breathing with a mix of tourists and actual churchgoers, priests and nuns. The art is mind blowing in all of them.
    The hostel I stayed at was great and it was very easy to make friends sitting out in the garden at night. I had a great time and it was so fun meeting people from all over - UK, France, Netherlands, Singapore, and Morocco to name a few. It was interesting to compare cultures and the anti-American sentiment I expected was really not present at all. Lots of people told me Chicago was on their bucket list, everyone loves Michael Jordan, and they know a lot about American politics and events and are genuinely interested in asking questions. The only people shitting on America were myself and the other Americans, and everyone else made fun of their own country.
    I made some great friends here and went out with a big group one night. I got close with an American couple a year older than me - who got engaged at the colosseum a few days ago - we did a lot of stuff together and I even switched hostels in Venice to theirs as we will be there at the same time.    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2022
    Day 5

    First day in Florence

    May 23, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 84 °F

    Getting on the train here was quite an experience! I went to the station and they had a screen showing all the trains and which gate (not sure what the right word is) they were at. My train was at 12:10 and they didn’t assign a gate until 12:07! I ran there, couldn’t figure out how to get into the gate because they wanted me to scan a barcode, which I never got. Once on the train a family was sitting in my spot and they only spoke French, I was trying to tell them I could switch with them so they wouldn’t have to split up but it was not getting past the language barrier. Fortunately someone else came over to translate and resolved the issue. From then it was a quick and smooth ride to Florence!
    So far I’ve just been walking around the city, it is very pretty, and much much smaller than Rome. I walked around the whole touristy area in about an hour. I also explored some residential areas which were nice and quiet. There are lots of fancy shops here selling jewelry, gold, antiques and designer clothes. I bought a new wallet at an outdoor market. There is a river right through the center and the views on the bridges are amazing. The hostel is also way nicer than the one I was at in Rome. I am excited to explore the city more over the next few days!    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2022
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    Day 6

    Uffizi gallery

    May 24, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 77 °F

    It was cool to see some very famous paintings and painters at the uffizi gallery, although it is all medieval and renaissance art so I did kind of have to force myself to enjoy it. After seeing 700 versions of “Madonna and Child”, the concept does tend to get a bit old. However, I liked the way the museum was organized - unlike the Vatican museums it was very chronological which made it easy to see the progression of art over the years and how different trends evolved. So on the other side of the same coin, so many paintings of the same things make it easy to compare how the styles evolved. It was very cool to see such old artwork and think about how long ago it was made and how many people have looked at it. Most of the art was 14-16th century but there was also Roman stuff from the first couple of centuries as well. The gallery itself has been around since the late 1700s which is crazy. I noticed that one of the wings in the museum was dedicated by the Pritzker family. There were also some great views of Florence from the gallery as it is several stories above the ground.Read more

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