Milan: World Expo 2015

Through my university, we got to spend a day in Milan at the 2015 Expo. It was a truly amazing, once in a lifetime experience, and from a designer's perspective it was just the coolest thing ever! The way each respective country was able to portray, explain, and showcase their heritage was unreal. With the overarching theme of food and feeding the world through sustainable practices, it was neat to see how each countries contributions can impact the world on a global scale. I took a million pictures throughout the day, so much so to where my cameras battery died! So I'll spare you by just sharing some of the highlights, specifically from a design perspective. My favorite Pavillions were Slovenia and Austria, but Turkey, EATALY, France, Brazil, and Vietnam had some cool features as well.

Overall it was a long, fun, hot day. I was definitely happy to shower and go to sleep at the end of it, but everything I saw gave me some sort of inspiration for future projects. I cannot wait to put what I've seen, what I've learned, to work in projects to come. 

--Caroline

Pisa & Venice

As I write this, I am watching the beautiful scenery of England pass by the train window. Yes, it's been a long while since I've posted... But I have to say, it's been nice to take a little break while I'm studying, traveling, and immersing myself in the Euopean cultures around me. Classes ended about a week ago, and I've spent the past several days exploring Scotland whilst staying with relatives of my friend. It's been so fun! I can't wait to share more about Scotland in a later post, because today talking about the day trips we took to Pisa and then Venice.

We had heard that both were cities you could explore in a day, and after doing just that I have to agree 100%. Pisa especially is a small city, and really the main things to do are shop and take the quintessential pictures with the leaning tower. We took the train from Florence, got in just in time for lunch at a cute cafe right next to the Keith Haring mural, TUTTOMONDO. After our little pick me up, we  walked in and out of many cute shops on our way to the leaning tower. None of us quite felt like paying to get into any of the Pisa churches or museums, but I felt like I had plenty to see and do without doing so. Overall it was a fun day! 

The next day trip we did was a trip through a student tour company to Venice. Of course we picked one of the hottest days possible to do such a trip, but it was still fun. In hindsight, we all wished we had just planned the trip ourselves, outside of a a tour company, because we spent a lot of time waiting for everyone to catch up. I wish we had been able to explore more, because I feel like I would have loved Venice more than I did had we had more time. We did go on a gondola ride, which was a ton of fun! Worth the price for the experience alone! 

Even though the wind has been making things a bit chilly here up in the UK, I certainly don't miss the immense heat that was in Italy during our last several days there! 

Hope you're having a great Wednesday!

--Caroline

Back To Praha

Man oh man, things have gotten busy! Between class, museum visits, sketching assignments, and weekend trips, it's been far too long since a blog post.... So today, I'm playing catch up by sharing my weekend jaunt up to Prague a couple weekends ago. If you've been reading This Styled life for any amount of time, you know that my first visit to Prague was last summer with my family, on our river cruise through Europe. I had no expectations for Prague, so I was wonderfully blown away! It is definitely one of my top 5 favorite cities in Europe, so you can image how excited I was to get the chance to go back with some of my classmates. We ended up doing to the trip through a student travel company, which wasn't my favorite experience but regardless I ended up in the city I hold so near to my heart! Just a few snapshots from our brief visit there...

We of course went to all the typical must-see places: the John Lennon Wall, Old Town Square, Charles Bridge, and Prague Castle. It was nice because we stayed in a different part of town, so I saw many new sides of Prague that I missed last summer. I don't know when or how, but I will be going back again! I just love it so much! 

Ciao for now!

--Caroline

Five Friday Favorites... Food Edition

So I know it's been awhile since I've done a Five Friday Favorites, but the reason for that is 1) normally we start our weekend trips Thursday night or Friday morning, so I don't have time to compose a post before we leave, and 2) there are waaayy more than 5 things each week that I'm in love with! Today, I've decided to share some of my favorite meals/snacks thus far, because of course the food over here is just so darn amazing!!! These favorites include pear-stuffed pasta from Natalianos, pumpkin ravioli from Tender in Moneglia, a crepe from La Milkeria, a yummy dessert from a boat restaurant we went to in Prague, and then traditional German fare at the English Garden in Munich.

Ciao for now, as I go continue to eat my way through Europe! Happy Weekend!

--Caroline

When In Rome Part 2... And Pompei

Part 2 of this mini-series continues with our second day in Rome, when we toured the Vatican Museums and the awe-inspiring St. Peter's Basilica. Again, it was so cool to see everything I've seen in textbooks or talked about during lectures right before me! When we walked into the Sistine Chapel I thought to myself, "Is this real life? Am I really standing right underneath this amazing work of art? Is that really Adam about to touch God?!" And then when we walked into St. Peter's my thought process didn't change much! To think about the architectural advancements made back then, the care that was taken into the decoration and the layout... It blows my mind! And then it hurts to think about how, more often than not, building buildings today is all about building it cheaply, cutting costs, and not caring about the details. What changed in our society? Why must it always be about the money? Anyway, that's a rant for another day, but regardless everything was so beautiful, and I felt honored to be able to see all this history in person. 

After Rome, we trained down to Pompei to check out the ruins there. I was especially excited about seeing Pompei (I will use the Italian spelling) because the eruption of Mount Vesuvius has always been one of those disasters from history that has intrigued me (in addition to the Titanic). Just thinking about being so close to the eruption gives me chills! Although the city of Herculaneum received most of the lava damage, it was very interesting to see how the damage from the layers of ash effected the town and the people inside. The size of the area they have excavated is much larger than I expected, and our tour guide explained the differences in the structure of the ruins and what they would have been like back in the day. Very interesting stuff, and it was neat to be able to walk around down the little streets of ancient Pompei. 

On our way back to Firenze, we stopped in Napoli with the hopes of seeing the Pompei exhibit at the Architectural Museum there, but the exhibit had closed before we got there unfortunately. We still enjoyed seeing the artifacts in the museum, and then were able to catch an earlier train back home! (Ahh, I just called Firenze home!!! I'm going to miss Florence very much when this program ends...)

I want to go back and explore Rome for longer and not in the pouring rain one day, but I still feel like I got the most out of my time there! 

Ciao for now!

--Caroline

When In Rome Part 1

I couldn't stop myself from making the title of this post cheesy and typical... We toured Rome a few weekends back, and it was so amazing! I wish we could have spent more time there, because two days was not nearly long enough, but it was still so amazing to see many of the historic art and architecture that I've been learning about for years. I'm splitting this post up into two days' worth, because I fear that the amount of pictures if I were to do it all in one would crash the not-so reliable WiFi in my apartment here in Firenze. (One thing I will say that's nice about America is strong WiFi connections, but at the same time it's nice that they don't really care about that so much here in Europe.) Anyway, I digress. On the first day in Rome, despite the gross rain, we made it to the ruins of the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, and the Pantheon. I have always been intrigued by the history of the Roman Empire, so it was especially interesting to hear the history and see it coming alive right before me. I walked where there Romans walked!

Check back tomorrow for details of my second day in Rome, and details on our day trip to Pompei!

Ciao!

--Caroline

Neutral Monochrome

The other day, I purchased a beautiful leather jacket, handmade in Florence by the lovely shop owner and his team. Already this trip I have purchased a nice leather bag, but after speaking with him and learning about his process I knew that I would regret leaving this city without a jacket of his! Today, I'm pairing it with a printed wrap dress, for the perfect neutral monochromatic look. My recent obsession has definitely been neutrals, and I love that it fits in so well in this historic city! I highly recommend you check out Michelangelo's Leather if you ever make your way to Florence... His level of craftsmanship and pride in his work is unparalleled! I love the surprise detail on the back of my classic jacket! I know that I will have this jacket for years to come, and I know that I can come to him forever for all my leather needs. Love that!

Ciao! 

--Caroline 

Weekend Travel Style

This past weekend we went to Rome and Pompei, and I am starting to just feel tired from all the traveling and exploring we've been doing. So for now, I'm just going to share a little bit about what I packed for a short weekend trip, and the outfits I wore. On the weekends I've been traveling with just a backpack and a small purse, so I definitely make sure I only bring the essential toiletries and just enough clothes. We've gone away twice now, and I'm sure by the end of my time abroad I'll have it down to even more of a science. But for now, this is what I set aside for last weekend's rainy trip to Rome and Pompei:

- 2 pairs pants (I traveled in yoga pants the first day, wore jeans the next two)

- 2 sweaters to layer over tanks

- 2 tanks (1 camisole and 1 stand alone tank)

- 1 rain jacket 

- 2 pairs of shoes (a pair of sandals and a pair of Keds) 

- socks, undies, pjs, etc

I could have definitely gotten away with packing one less sweater, but with rain in the forecast I wanted to make sure I had a spare in case I got drenched. But aside from the first day in Rome, we didn't get as much rain as we expected, so that was a nice surprise!

So there is a little glimpse into both my weekend and what I wore! I'm a little behind on blogging, so look for posts to come about Cinque Terre, Rome, and Pompei! I promise I'll share all my experiences in time with y'all :) 

Thanks for reading, and Happy Memorial Day!

--Caroline

Rain Rain, Go Away

Or stay, because I have a cute outfit! :)

This is what I for our rainy trio to Siena, and it was definitely a hit. Not originally intended, I didn't realize until others mentioned it that the print in my pants was very similar to the lining of my rain jacket! (Side note, shout out to my mom for spotting this awesome jacket in Macy's and suggesting I get it for Italy!) This was a no-frills outfit, but the beauty is that it looks like I put a lot of thought into it. My secret for a look like this is stick to classic colors, and you can never go wrong with a basic v neck tee paired with any kind of printed bottoms. Here I paired it with some of my favorite pants, this navy and ivory pair from Old Navy. I threw on the rain jacket because that's the only jacket I brought, and that's that! 

How do you dress for the rain, especially when limited to a smaller travel wardrobe? 

--Caroline