Category: Europe
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[ROME] LIVING, BREATHING ART
![[ROME] LIVING, BREATHING ART](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/p1040856.jpg?w=1024)
Ancient art, very much still alive today. The pure gold in reflecting sun’s rays ignites a sense of silent power that only a calm basilica would bring. Mass in this majestic interior must have been a truly empowering and significant event. Am amazed at how this Panasonic Lumix GF6 of mine was able to capture…
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[ROME] INNER TRIMMINGS OF THE VATICAN CITY
![[ROME] INNER TRIMMINGS OF THE VATICAN CITY](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/p1040831.jpg?w=1024)
Be amazed at what human beings have achieved. Some dedicate their lives to creating art – intricate gold and bronze details adorn every inch of the ceiling at the St Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City. How did they get there, you ask. How did the people of the past achieve incredible feats like these. Patience, loads…
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[ROME] THE VATICAN CITY
![[ROME] THE VATICAN CITY](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/p1040822.jpg?w=1024)
We arrived, early summer morning, at the smallest internationally recognised independent state in the world! Dan Brown aficionados would undoubtedly link Vatican City to Angels and Demons, in which our all-time favourite Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon fights to stop the Illuminati from destroying Vatican City with the newly discovered antimatter. I loved every sequel, but Angels and Demons…
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[ROME] GRAN CAFFE ROMA
![[ROME] GRAN CAFFE ROMA](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/p1040794.jpg?w=1024)
Breakfast was pepperoni and salami pizza at the Gran Caffe Roma via Vittorio Veneto in Rome, Italy. Alfresco dining in the morning summer breeze gave us plenty of room for people-watching, which brings me to remembering the blatant stares we’d throughout our journey received from patrons of pavement cafes and restaurants. Sometimes I wonder if we’re…
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[ROME] THE COLOSSEUM
![[ROME] THE COLOSSEUM](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/p1040782.jpg?w=1024)
Rome was not built in a day. Pardon the cliche but it’s all I could think about right here and right now. The Colosseum is the icon of Roman masculinity being the site of many heroic battles fought within its colossal proportions. I’ve had the nagging suspicion that the Colosseum’s root word comes from Colossus,…
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[ROME] IN ALL ITS RUINED BEAUTY
![[ROME] IN ALL ITS RUINED BEAUTY](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/p1040617.jpg?w=1024)
What everyone should love about Rome: its historic ruins and scatters of exquisite shambles. Much of this city appears discarded – as if picked apart by fickle historians and deemed unworthy of more than an afterthought. Centuries of time gone by lay preserved in these archived sites, untouched by restoration, that are as common in…
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[ROME] PIAZZA DEL POPOLO
![[ROME] PIAZZA DEL POPOLO](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/20140727-155212-57132625.jpg?w=1024)
Flanked by the Via Flaminia, Piazza del Popolo was an important entry point to Rome’s city centre for travellers entering the city via the Adriatic Coast. Today, the piazza still hums with a steady stream of travellers eager to check this off their travel itinerary. We took mandatory shots with Rome’s iconic obelisk which was initially erected to…
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[ROME] THE SPANISH STEPS
![[ROME] THE SPANISH STEPS](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/20140727-155528-57328731.jpg?w=1024)
We took the best part of an hour to conquer the celebrated Piazza di Spagna, otherwise more fondly known as the Spanish Steps, which rises up towards the Church of Trinità dei Monti. Summer was shrouding us all in killer heatwaves. Nevertheless we managed to revel in the refined, eighteenth century atmosphere, once home to…
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[ROME] THE PANTHEON
![[ROME] THE PANTHEON](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/20140727-154811-56891549.jpg?w=1024)
Let there be light! Through this massively gaping hole, summer was infiltrating the cool granite dome. Indeed, you haven’t seen Rome if you’ve never been to the Pantheon. This gaping hole right at the center of the majestic relic is what we call the oculus at the dome’s apex, which allows the only natural sources…
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[ROME] PIAZZA NAVONA
![[ROME] PIAZZA NAVONA](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/20140727-154029-56429017.jpg?w=1024)
Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi or Fountain of the Four Rivers (1651), topped by the Obelisk of Domitian, brought to Rome in pieces from the Circus of Maxentius. Still pretty much awed by the beauty that lay in ruins all over Rome, scattered amongst the masterpieces that bring in the bulk of the…
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[ITALY] When in Rome…
![[ITALY] When in Rome…](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/20140701-051514-18914728.jpg?w=768)
Do as the Romans do! Arrivederci We found our way to the Vatican City and it was amazing. It’s like living the Dan Brown/Robert Langdon dream! Every minute spent walking along the ancient grounds was a sacred moment for devout Catholics, and a fangirl moment for anybody who loves Dan Brown’s works. I love Rome,…
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[AMSTERDAM] Keukenhof Gardens Part Eight
![[AMSTERDAM] Keukenhof Gardens Part Eight](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/20140503-150959.jpg?w=1024)
| Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five | Part Six | Part Seven | From Amsterdam, with love. Keukenhof Gardens Stationsweg 166A, 2161 AM Lisse, Netherlands xoxo, Viktoria Jean
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[AMSTERDAM] Keukenhof Gardens Part Seven
![[AMSTERDAM] Keukenhof Gardens Part Seven](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/20140428-001557.jpg?w=1024)
| Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five | Part Six | Outside of Keukenhof Gardens, there was this beautiful, seemingly endless plot of tulips in neat rows – a farm to which we had to mount a fence to gain access due to its privacy, emulating a…
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[AMSTERDAM] Keukenhof Gardens Part Six
![[AMSTERDAM] Keukenhof Gardens Part Six](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/p1040330.jpg?w=1024)
| Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five | Looking at’cha~ Keukenhof Gardens Stationsweg 166A, 2161 AM Lisse, Netherlands xoxo, Viktoria Jean
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[AMSTERDAM] Keukenhof Gardens Part Five
![[AMSTERDAM] Keukenhof Gardens Part Five](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/p1040260.jpg?w=1024)
| Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Flowers and fields of tulips aside, Keukenhof has this little niche shops where they sell bulbs, seeds, seedlings and pots of yet-to-blossom flowers. I brought home a tiny pot of water hyacinth and some mauve tulips to grow on my own, but…
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[AMSTERDAM] Keukenhof Gardens Part Four
![[AMSTERDAM] Keukenhof Gardens Part Four](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/p1040290.jpg?w=1024)
| Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Gorgeous Black Tulips Keukenhof Gardens Stationsweg 166A, 2161 AM Lisse, Netherlands xoxo, Viktoria Jean
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[AMSTERDAM] Keukenhof Gardens Part Three
![[AMSTERDAM] Keukenhof Gardens Part Three](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/p1040304.jpg?w=1024)
| Part One | Part Two | Keukenhof Gardens Stationsweg 166A, 2161 AM Lisse, Netherlands xoxo, Viktoria Jean
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[AMSTERDAM] Keukenhof Gardens Part Two
![[AMSTERDAM] Keukenhof Gardens Part Two](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/p1040184.jpg?w=1024)
More floret eye-candies from the Netherlands! You can view Part One over here: https://viktoriajean.com/2014/04/24/amsterdam-keukenhof-gardens-part-one/ Keukenhof Gardens Stationsweg 166A, 2161 AM Lisse, Netherlands xoxo, Viktoria Jean
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[AMSTERDAM] Keukenhof Gardens Part One
![[AMSTERDAM] Keukenhof Gardens Part One](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/p1040154.jpg?w=1024)
With 7 million flower bulbs planted annually, Keukenhof Gardens is the world’s largest flower garden! The sheer amount of photographs I took at Keukenhof is evident of how enthralled and captivated I was by 79 acres of flowers in all colours, shapes and sizes. Open only in mid-March to mid-May, I was so thankful to…
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Caffe Vergnano 1882
A while ago, I got to enjoy some much desired me-time in London! Originally from France, the British branch of Caffe Vergnano 1882 sits right across from Chancery Lane station, a short walk away from the likes of Prufrock and Department of Coffee and Social Affairs. Everybody else was shopping at SOHO or Oxford Circus…
Viktoria Jean 