Category: Travel
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[ROME] 10 SNAPSHOTS OF VATICAN CITY
![[ROME] 10 SNAPSHOTS OF VATICAN CITY](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/p1050095.jpg?w=1024)
Bringing to you a quick showcase of the world’s smallest independent state – all 109 acres (44 hectares) around St. Peter’s Basilica and the palace of the Vatican. In and around are beautifully preserved cultural sites, lush green gardens, and museums which feature some of the world’s most famous sculptures and paintings. Home to architectural…
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[ROME] VATICAN CITY – A VIEW FROM THE TOP
![[ROME] VATICAN CITY – A VIEW FROM THE TOP](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/p1050003.jpg?w=1024)
The view from the top of Vatican City’s St Peter’s Basilica was exhilarating, breathtaking, and worth the claustrophobia-inducing flight of stairs we had to take to the top. Once in your life, or perhaps through somebody else’s eyes, you should see Vatican City from its proudest heights. Here are some pictures I snapped, enjoy! xoxo, Viktoria…
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[ROME] ST PETER’S BASILICA
![[ROME] ST PETER’S BASILICA](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/p1040920.jpg?w=1024)
We were both blessed and unlucky to have arrived in Vatican City the day before a huge and important event for the Catholic Church. Many parts of the basilica were closed due to preparations for mass. On the upside, we got to witness the procession which arrived to prep the church up. There were massive…
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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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[SYDNEY] THE UNIVERSITY OF
![[SYDNEY] THE UNIVERSITY OF](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/20140722-231051-83451490.jpg?w=1024)
Beautiful campus on a brilliant part of town, right out of the page in Harry Potter’s Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. “Go on . . . Go out with me, and I’ll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again.” “I wouldn’t go out with you if it was a choice between you and…
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[SYDNEY] BOURKE STREET BAKERY
![[SYDNEY] BOURKE STREET BAKERY](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/20140719-204734-74854484.jpg?w=1024)
Tarts and tea at the Bourke Street Bakery on a weekday afternoon. Surry Hills is home to a flourish of yuppie bars and cafes where misfits are the new chic. People no longer go to cafes seeking lattes. Instead, we pay more physical attention to the space we spend time in. Naturally, we want to surround ourselves in a creative, culturally-inspiring, aesthetically…
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[SYDNEY] AUSTRALIA’S BEST-LOVED GELATO
![[SYDNEY] AUSTRALIA’S BEST-LOVED GELATO](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/20140719-203421-74061765.jpg?w=1024)
I’ve finally tried Messina, voted the best gelato in Australia by the Good Food Guide! Our double-scoop picks: Salted Caramel and White Chocolate: salted caramel gelato with white chocolate chip, and Tiramisu: egg, marsala and mascarpone gelato with lady finger biscuits soaked in espresso coffee True to form, the combination tastes much better than it looks i.e. heavenly…
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[SYDNEY] DARLING HARBOUR
![[SYDNEY] DARLING HARBOUR](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/20140719-203845-74325571.jpg?w=1024)
A weekday morning nonetheless sees throngs of students, tourists and locals alike flocking to the harbourside. Gastronomically, they only have the best! The best raved-about restaurants and eateries on UrbanSpoon, Australian Good Food Site, and TripAdvisor can be found this side of town. Winter at Darling Harbour: chilly, breezy and picturesque. Named after Lieutenant-General Ralph Darling, Governor of New South Wales from 1825…
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[SYDNEY] ADRIANO ZUMBO’S OTHERWORLDLY DELIGHTS
![[SYDNEY] ADRIANO ZUMBO’S OTHERWORLDLY DELIGHTS](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/20140717-161937-58777020.jpg?w=1024)
So I caved in to macarons. Or zumbarons to be more accurate. But how could you not, after stepping into Adriano Zumbo’s at The Star, Sydney, only to be consumed by sight of an array of beautiful sugary goodness and crazy exotic macaron flavours? I’ll allow you to feast your eyes on foodporn ahead. Adriano…
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[SYDNEY] BRUNCH AT SYDNEY FISH MARKET
![[SYDNEY] BRUNCH AT SYDNEY FISH MARKET](https://viktoriajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/20140717-141414-51254918.jpg?w=1024)
Australia’s Home of Seafood, the Sydney Fish Market, is apparently the “…largest market of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and the world’s second largest seafood market in terms of variety outside of Japan.” Brunch after touching down in Sydney and meeting up with Cassandra (yay!) was a seafood platter for one (but damnnnn look…
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SEOUL DIARIES 035: 자장면 JAJANG MYEON
Pre-boarding, transit passengers may delight in a quick bowl of super awesome korean black bean noodles from DeliSky at Incheon International Airport. My last meal in Korea before heading home: 자장면 Jajangmyeon! Have always loved slurping up these gooey mash of black bean paste with neverending strands of chewy noodles. Back when it was winter…
Viktoria Jean 