After 44 hours traveling, I finally arrived to the OTHER city that never sleeps: Barcelona!

While strolling Las Ramblas with my new brazilian friend Giseli, I stumbled upon "dirty dancing" flamenco and drunken Spaniards singing "Besame mucho".

Walking, busing, shopping and museuming was a lot of fun today!

One of my favorite paintings was a 12th century Romanesque portrayal of Jesus' ascension upheld by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and beautifully inscribed with "Ego sum lux mundi".

For those of you who have visited Barcelona, it is no surprise I completely fell in love with Gaudi.

I'd love to live in a magical house decorated with beautiful and colorful mosaics!

La Sagrada Familia is testimony that Gaudi is a true visionary and genius!

It felt like Alice in Wonderland meets Hansel and Gretel in a spiritual world with millenary trees and dragon eggs. Too much?

I can't wait to visit Casa Batllo tomorrow!

This is a postcard painted with acrílico and acuarela by Toni from Andalucía.

It's the best I have seen in Barcelona!

A Spanish version of the French one?

Paraguayos!

My favorite fruit of all times is durazno. Paraguayos are a little sweeter and chatos.

La Boqueria is a fruit, veggies, nuts and meats paradise :) I

This is the ceiling to one of the main rooms in Casa Batllo built by Gaudi.

This has to be the coolest house ever made!

This is a present for the apple lovers.

Without any destination in mind and mainly relying on locals and curiosity to find my way, I embarked on an adventure during my first day in Rome!

The first stop was a remarkably ostentatious church covered in gold. Crazy!

From what I remember from the Yale online course on Roman architecture (I know...) this is the Roman Forum.

Then again, I have fish memory so I could be mistaken. Either way, I need to brush up on Roman history or else ruins are just old rocks!

Hopped on a Tiber boat cruise!

It was lovely to rest my feet and learn about Rome's history.

I ordered this Carbonara dish in a quaint little restaurant in Trastevere just for you Yehjin :)

I think I've been eating over cooked pasta all my life. This is amazing!!

Drinking a cup of cappuccino at 7am after a morning walk and stretch in the park overlooking the Colosseum.

It's great to be on vacation!

An Italian lady was thrown into this beautiful fountain by another Italian lady.

After 3 minutes of slapping and scratching, the carabinieri finally intervened. It was hilarious!

Only in Italy :)

I love the little streets and gems of Rome's shopping district.

No. I didn't buy the hat! But I did find a beautiful long dress I will wear when I go to the Vatican :)

Ostello Di Concordia is a quaint restaurant hidden in a gallery near Piazza Di Spagna.

My new favorite food is eggplant a la parmesana. So good!

Why o why don't we use this?!

In the museum, I watched an hour long Italian documentary on Da Vinci's life. While I understood less than half of it, it was a nice break and a fun way of learning about his personal life and geniality.

One of the great things about being lost is that you may go up a hill and unexpectedly bump into the Colosseum!

Giovanni took me on a four hour Vespa ride around Rome: la ciudad eterna!

This is the main entrance to ancient Rome before the Mura was built. It is part of the aqueduct that brought in fresh water to the Baths of Carcalla, some sort of ancient spa for plebeians and patricians alike.

This is one of the most beautiful panoramic views of Rome.

While coming back to the hostel last night I bumped into Bea and Cori from Kentucky, so we grabbed dinner at a great place that Giovanni recommended called Maid in Naples.

It was great to meet them and talk about super interesting things :)

I bought this book about the history of Rome in a little bookstore in Via Corso :)

So nice to take a break while reading in the park.

One of my favorite rooms in the Vatican (besides of course la Capilla Sistina) is the one with all the beautiful maps!

Augustus' Ara Pacis is one of my favorite monuments thus far!

It beautifully depicts the religious and political transformation during Augustus' reign.

This particular face is of Mother earth abounding with fertility and life.

Bernini - The Rape of Proserpina

I have to admit that before coming to Italy I knew next to nothing about sculpture.

Bernini turned me into a sculpture enthusiast! This is his first work that I saw and it left me speechless.

Pablo and I decided I'd be fun for him to climb the duomo and me the Giotto and take pictures of each other!

Unfortunately, he didn't see me cause I'm too short and I took a pic of him but he's a speck in the grand scheme of the photo :P

Florence is my favorite Italian city so far. It feels like we're actually on vacation since there are a lot less tourists and no lines!

Florence is indeed the epitome of "chillax" :) Love it!

This is a beautiful Romanesque church of Benedictine monks and one of the few places in Italy that you can listen to Gregorian chants that have been sung everyday for hundreds of years.

It was a beautiful mass and music :)

Beautiful sunset (or sunseto in my strange Italian) and great indie music!

Amazing insalata caprese in a lovely hole in the wall in Florence.

Espresso (not Expresso as Pablo kindly reminded me)!

Great street musicians playing With or Without You :)

As the hub of trade, banking and pilgrimage in the 14th century, it is not a surprise that Siena's cathedral is an exotic mesh of Romanesque, Gothic and Turkish art and is the canvas for epic artists like Bernini, Michelangelo and Rafaello.

We're overlooking the Chianti region from a tiny 7,000 people medieval town, after having a yummy lunch and wine tasting at an organic farm and vineyard!

It really can't get any better :)

Pablo geniously found a yelp approved Morrocon restaurant for dinner. It's gorgeous and it's the best Morrocon food ever!

There were many memorable quotes and conversations on our trip to Lake Como, such as...

Pablo and I see a little stream that looks like a river on the map and trying to be sarcastic I say, " it's so grandoise!!"

Pablo: "You mean grandiose..."

If I were ever to have a vacation home it would be in Varenna! It's also Pablo's favorite place so far!

You can get lost in the cobbled stone streets, trek through the green forests and sail on a beautiful summer afternoon!

After writing up an Italian Riviera Pilot and Copilot Manual for our driving adventure, Pablo came up with a hilarious poem that sums up our relationship with bugs on this trip.

We've been eaten by bugs
I ate a bug
The circle of life goes on.

Aided by the GPS and Pablo's navigating skills, we arrived safely to Camogli in 2 hrs!

It's a fisherman's town in the Italian Riviera that is mostly visited by Italians in the summer.

p.s. The ocean here doesn't smell like ocean ocean! Weird.

Pablo is halfway drinking a lemon cello which is less than a tiny shot glass of a lemony gin (?) and he already can't breathe properly!

Pablo: "It's not my fault I have a mutated aldehyde dehydrogenase 2". In other words...that he's Asian.

Yummy tuna!

On a complete whim, Pablo and I decided to drive to Venice!

It really isn't that romantic. It's full of graffitti and tourists piling on gondolas.

Nonetheless, it was cool to walk around and see parts of the city underwater! It's surreal.

Most expensive meal we had, but it was so worth it :)

This has been the BEST audio guide tour so far. I highly recommend this!

While Pablo is taking a jazz dance class, I'm at a baroque and classical flute, organ and mezzosoprano concert in this beautiful church!

Geneva is amazing!

A beautiful, walkable and green city that embodies democratic ideals and European lifestyle, yet is quite international and modern at the same time.

Thank you Fena and Charlie for a lovely, restful and fun stay! :)

I couldn't have come to Geneva during a better time!

During La Fete (a 3 week kermess!!), Geneva hosts an amazing fireworks competition that lasts for one hour!!

These were the best fireworks I have ever seen :)

Reunion between besties!

This is my favorite French sculpture (Italian sculptures are unparalleled to that of the French, but still...the Louvre collection is impressive!).

Cupid is delicately handling a butterfly. It is reminiscent of the soul's frailty when in love.

This is happy me after 7 hours touring the Louvre!

It was AWESOME! I only got through 1/5th of the museum, but I learned a ton and look forward to coming back one day :)