Traveler Stories — page 20

richword Expert

Italy · September 25, 2026

Verona is the city of Romeo and Juliet

After Bologna, our route continued further north. The next stop was Verona, a city that I had imagined before the trip primarily as a place of the story of Romeo and Juliet. But it turned out that this famous story hides a very beautiful and cozy old town, which is pleasant to just walk around without haste. Arrival in Verona We arrived in Verona in early February 2026. After Bologna, the city seemed a little different - there was more of a feeling of medieval Italy, and the narrow streets of the historical center gradually led us to large squares. From the train station, we headed towards the center, left our things and almost immediately went for a walk. The weather was cool but dry, so the end of January and the beginning of February turned out to be quite comfortable for a walk. Bra Square and Arena The first big stop was Bra Square. It is here that the famous Verona Arena is located - a huge Roman amphitheater, which immediately reminds you of how ancient the history of this city is. Arena di Verona After the Colosseum in Rome, it was difficult to surprise me with such a structure, but the Arena in Verona has a completely different environment. It stands right in the center of modern urban life - surrounded by cafes, restaurants, shops and ordinary streets, so the ancient monument here is perceived not as a separate archaeological zone, but as part of the city itself. Streets of the old town We continued walking from Bra Square. After a while, we came to the Erbe Square, one of the most famous squares in Verona. I just wanted to stop here, look at the old facades and sit in a cafe for a while. Then we went to the Piazza della Signoria, and from there to the river Adige. On the way, they deliberately turned off the main streets several times. That's exactly how, in my opinion, Verona is worth exploring: without a clear route, allowing the city to tell you where to go next. Erbe Square Juliet's Balcony Of course, we couldn't avoid Juliet's courtyard. The place is quite touristy, and there were noticeably more people here than on the neighboring streets. The balcony has long been one of the symbols of Verona, although the story of Romeo and Juliet itself is literary. Juliet's House We didn't stay here for a long time and went for a walk around the center again. By evening, Verona had become especially pleasant - the lights turned on, the squares became quieter, and the old buildings took on a completely different look. Verona turned out to be exactly the stop I need between big cities. I didn't want to make a list of dozens of attractions here. I just wanted to walk, look around and enjoy the atmosphere of old Italy. But our trip was coming to the main goal. After Verona, the last section of the route was Venice. That's where we were heading for the main event of the trip - the Carnival of Venice.

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Vlad Discoverer

September 25, 2026

The place that turned out to be better than the photos: Lauterbrunnen Valley

There are places that I've reviewed so many photos of in advance that it felt like I'd already been there. The Lauterbrunnen Valley in Switzerland was just one of those: green meadows, neat wooden houses, huge mountains and waterfalls that fall directly from the cliffs, and in the background it all looks like someone specially painted the perfect landscape for a tourist calendar. I looked at these photos and prepared myself in advance for a little disappointment, because the camera can do a lot, especially if the photographer knows the right angle, the light and knows how to remove everything unnecessary from the frame. Therefore, I went there in a rather calm mood and mentally repeated to myself that nothing supernatural should be expected. Well, Switzerland is beautiful, of course, but I've already seen these mountains on the Internet dozens of times. As it turned out, the Internet did me a disservice in this case: it showed me beautiful photos, but it completely failed to prepare me for what I would see in reality. The first minutes in Lauterbrunnen When I first saw the valley with my own eyes, I literally had to stop in the middle of the road and just look around for a few seconds. A huge green valley opened up in front of me, surrounded by almost sheer cliffs, and waterfalls flowed down from different heights, which in the photos just seemed like beautiful white stripes. It all looked so big in person that I suddenly felt like a man who had accidentally wandered into the set of a very expensive movie and was now afraid to admit to the crew that he didn't have a pass. The funniest thing happened when I took out my phone to take the first photo. I pointed the camera, looked at the screen and found there was just a beautiful landscape, although in front of me was something completely different in feeling and scale. I took a few more shots from different angles, zoomed in, moved away, zoomed in again, and eventually realized that the problem wasn't with the phone, but with me: I was trying to cram an entire valley into a palm-sized rectangle. Waterfalls that are impossible to photograph properly One of the main impressions for me was the Staubbach waterfall, which falls from a great height directly from a cliff. It looks very impressive in the photos, but in reality its scale is perceived in a completely different way, because you stand below and see how the water from a height of about three hundred meters turns into a thin silver ribbon, and then dissolves somewhere below. At the same time, you don't just look at the waterfall, but you hear the water, feel the cool air and realize how huge the rock is in front of you. Of course, I started photographing again, because a person who came to Switzerland and did not take a photo of a waterfall will not forgive himself later. I took one shot, the second, the third, looked at the screen and realized that in the photo the waterfall looks much more modest than in real life, so I decided to just put the phone away and watch. It was probably the first time during the whole trip that I realized that sometimes the best photo is the one you didn't take at all. When nature decided to spoil my plans a little I came to Lauterbrunnen hoping for a beautiful clear sky, because I had already drawn the perfect picture in my head: a green valley, blue sky, sun, mountains, and I was somewhere in the middle of this splendor, preferably without signs of fatigue on my face. Nature apparently decided that it would not be too easy for me, and gradually began to cover the peaks with clouds. At first, I was upset because I was already mentally imagining photos with perfect light, and then I noticed how the fog was slowly starting to descend the slopes. And then the unexpected happened: the valley became even more beautiful. The clouds hid part of the mountains, the waterfalls turned almost silvery, the light became soft, and the whole valley acquired a completely different atmosphere, a little mysterious and even fabulous. I was standing under a raincoat that looked much less romantic than I had imagined before the trip, and I was thinking that nature had just explained to me quite convincingly why you shouldn't plan your perfect photo too carefully. Switzerland, where everything looks too neat I actually liked how harmonious everything looks in Lauterbrunnen. Small wooden houses, green fields, mountain roads, waterfalls and cows with bells seem to have existed here for several centuries and are not going to adapt to tourists with phones at all. Even the cows looked like they understood the local philosophy better than I did: take your time, chew grass calmly, and don't try to check every five minutes whether you look good enough in a photo. I walked through the valley and several times caught myself thinking that if I saw such a picture on the Internet, I would probably think that the photographer had overdone the processing a little. But then I turned my head and saw almost the same thing in front of me, only even more beautiful and voluminous. At some point, I even began to suspect that the Swiss had deliberately built all this so that tourists would feel like losers with their phones. The moment when I stopped taking pictures The most interesting thing happened towards the end of the walk, when I realized that I already had enough photos, but none of them conveyed the main thing. There are mountains, waterfalls, houses and green fields in the pictures, but there is no feeling of air, silence, coolness and that strange feeling when you stand in the middle of a valley and realize how huge the world around you is. A photograph can show a place, but it doesn't know how to convey how you feel in it at all. So I just put my phone in my pocket and walked for a while without taking anything off. For a man who came to such beauty with a fully charged phone and big plans for photos, it was almost an act of inner maturation. The place that turned out to be better than the photos When I went to Lauterbrunnen, I was sure that I already knew about what was waiting for me. I saw dozens of photos, knew about the famous waterfalls, imagined the valley, and even chose the places where I wanted to take pictures in advance, but the reality was still completely different. It was louder, more spacious, cooler, bigger, and for some reason much more emotional than any photo I had seen before the trip. That is why Lauterbrunnen remained in my memory not as another beautiful point on the map of Switzerland, but as a place that made me stop looking at the screen for the first time in a long time. I went there to take photos, and I left with a memory of that morning when I stood in the middle of a huge valley, looked at waterfalls and mountains and thought of only one thing.: "That's really something that photographs can't convey."

#Lauterbrunnental #Switzerland #journey #hobby

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richword Expert

Italy · September 25, 2026

From Florence to Bologna: we continue our journey

After Florence, our route continued north. The next destination was Bologna, a city I knew much less about before the trip than I did about Rome or Florence. But that's why it was especially interesting for me to come there. I didn't want to see another city from the list of the main tourist destinations in Italy, but a place with its own atmosphere. The road from Florence From Florence we went to Bologna by train. The journey took quite a bit of time, so after some time after departure, the Italian cityscape appeared outside the window again. At the end of January, the weather was cool, but it was quite suitable for a walk. When we got off the train at Bologna Station, the first thing we did was leave our things and set off on foot towards the historic center. The first streets of Bologna The first thing that catches your eye in Bologna is the long covered galleries. The porticos here literally accompany you through the streets, so even in cool weather you can safely walk without thinking about every gust of wind or light rain. We gradually reached Piazza Maggiore, the main square of the city. There are several famous buildings located almost nearby, so you don't have to look for sights for a long time. The Basilica of San Petronio towers over the square, and nearby are the old palace and the famous fountain of Neptune. Two towers After the square, we continued our walk to the two towers - Asinelli and Garizenda. They have become one of the symbols of Bologna. It's especially interesting to look at them from below: you immediately notice how much the towers are tilted and how unusual they look among the surrounding houses. Asinelli and Garizenda Towers Then we just walked along the historical streets without any strict route. I liked that feeling in Bologna - the city doesn't constantly try to surprise with huge monuments. It's more interesting to look at the details here: old facades, arches, small squares, doors and endless porticos. A city that is remembered for its food Of course, it would be strange to come to Bologna and not try the local cuisine. It is here that the birthplace of bolognese is located, although in Italy itself the traditional sauce is more often called ragù alla bolognese. Bolognese We found a small place in the center and ordered pasta. After several days of traveling, such a lunch turned out to be very useful - a hot meal, a glass of wine and the opportunity to relax a little before a further walk. By evening, Bologna had become even more cozy. We walked around Piazza Maggiore again, looked at the illuminated buildings and gradually returned to the hotel. Bologna turned out to be completely different from either Rome or Florence. There is less of the feeling of a huge tourist city and more of the usual Italian life. And ahead of us was the next destination on the route - Verona, after which we had to go further north to the main destination of the trip - Venice and carnival.

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Stanislav Discoverer

Norway · September 25, 2026

Как одна случайная остановка в Норвегии изменила мое путешествие

Я ехал по Норвегии уже несколько часов и честно мечтал только об одном – скорее добраться до гостевого дома, бросить рюкзак, принять душ и наконец перестать смотреть на дорогу, которая после очередного поворота снова обещала мне гору, водопад и очередной фьорд. Норвежские пейзажи прекрасны, спору нет, но через несколько часов за рулём я поймал себя на мысли, что мой организм уже перестал понимать разницу между «вау, как красиво» и «где бы мне выпить кофе». Погода тоже решила не церемониться: сначала пошёл мелкий дождь, потом он стал серьёзнее, а потом небо вообще выглядело так, будто кто-то сверху случайно оставил открытым кран. Я увидел небольшой съезд с дороги и решил остановиться буквально на пять минут. Никакого великого плана у меня не было, достопримечательность я не искал, маршрут менять не собирался и даже фотоаппарат не доставал, потому что в тот момент больше всего на свете мне хотелось размять ноги и найти в машине сухую куртку. Я припарковался, вышел под дождь и уже собирался возвращаться обратно, когда заметил между деревьями воду, а за ней – горы, которые почти полностью скрывались в тумане. И вот тут произошло то, ради чего, наверное, вообще стоит иногда сбиваться с маршрута. Я постоял несколько минут под дождём, смотрел на этот совершенно неожиданный пейзаж и вдруг понял, что никуда пока не хочу ехать. Пять минут превратились в час Я спустился чуть ниже по тропинке, хотя сначала собирался только посмотреть издалека. Конечно, обувь промокла практически сразу, потому что человек, который говорит себе «я только немного пройдусь», обычно заканчивает именно так – с мокрыми носками, грязными брюками и абсолютно счастливым лицом. Через несколько минут я уже стоял у воды и пытался фотографировать пейзаж, который выглядел так, будто его специально собрали для заставки к фильму о путешествиях. Самое интересное было в том, что вокруг почти никого не оказалось. Я привык, что самые известные места в путешествиях часто приходится делить с десятками людей, которые одновременно пытаются сделать одну и ту же фотографию, поэтому эта тишина показалась мне почти роскошью. Был только дождь, шум воды, ветер и горы, которые периодически исчезали в тумане, а потом снова появлялись, словно специально дразнили меня. Я просидел там гораздо дольше, чем собирался, и именно в этот момент впервые подумал, что мой тщательно составленный маршрут, возможно, не так уж и важен. Я ведь ехал в Норвегию ради впечатлений, а не ради того, чтобы поставить галочки напротив заранее выбранных точек на карте. Забавно, но иногда именно тогда, когда перестаёшь куда-то спешить, путешествие наконец начинает происходить по-настоящему. Разговор, которого не было в моих планах Когда я уже собирался возвращаться к машине, рядом остановился небольшой автомобиль. Из него вышла пожилая пара, и мужчина, заметив, что я стою у воды с фотоаппаратом, спросил, понравилось ли мне это место. Я ответил, что случайно сюда заехал, и он улыбнулся так, будто услышал именно то, что хотел услышать. Мы разговорились, и он рассказал мне о небольшой дороге неподалёку, которую я вообще не планировал включать в маршрут. По его словам, если у меня есть время, мне стоит проехать ещё немного дальше, потому что там есть место, откуда открывается совсем другой вид на фьорд. Он даже показал мне направление на карте, а я в тот момент ещё не знал, что этот короткий разговор изменит мои планы на следующие два дня. Я поблагодарил его, вернулся в машину и какое-то время просто сидел за рулём. В голове у меня было две мысли: первая – что я промок и хочу кофе, а вторая – что ехать дальше по первоначальному маршруту почему-то уже совершенно не хочется. В итоге я включил навигатор, посмотрел на предложенную им дорогу и сказал сам себе: «Ну хорошо, пять минут мы уже сегодня нарушили, почему бы не нарушить ещё пару планов». Норвегия, которую я не планировал увидеть Следующие несколько часов я ехал практически без остановок только потому, что каждые несколько километров мне хотелось остановиться снова. Дорога оказалась гораздо красивее той, по которой я собирался ехать изначально, а самое смешное заключалось в том, что ещё утром я был уверен, что мой маршрут продуман идеально. К вечеру я понял, что до запланированного гостевого дома уже не успеваю, поэтому пришлось искать другое место для ночёвки. Здесь путешествие решило окончательно проверить мой характер: свободных номеров почти не было, интернет в телефоне периодически исчезал, а я стоял на парковке под дождём и пытался одновременно найти жильё, не потерять машину из виду и не наступить в очередную лужу. В итоге я нашёл небольшой гостевой дом, который оказался гораздо уютнее того места, где собирался остановиться изначально. Хозяин поставил передо мной кружку горячего кофе, спросил, откуда я приехал, и через десять минут мы уже обсуждали дорогу, погоду и места, которые стоит посмотреть неподалёку. Я сидел у окна, смотрел, как дождь стучит по стеклу, и думал о том, что если бы я не решил остановиться возле того случайного съезда, этого вечера вообще могло бы не быть. Иногда лучший маршрут начинается с ошибки На следующий день я уже не пытался строго придерживаться своего первоначального плана. Я оставил себе только несколько обязательных точек, а всё остальное решил выбирать по дороге, и именно тогда путешествие стало совершенно другим. Я начал обращать внимание на небольшие указатели, просёлочные дороги, деревни, смотровые площадки и места, которые раньше наверняка проехал бы мимо, потому что спешил к следующей достопримечательности. Конечно, не каждая такая остановка оказывалась удачной. Один раз я свернул на дорогу, которая на карте выглядела очень перспективно, а через двадцать минут понял, что еду неизвестно куда и разворачивать машину на узком участке дороги будет отдельным приключением. Но даже такие моменты теперь воспринимались иначе, потому что я уже не злился на то, что что-то пошло не по плану. Когда поездка закончилась и я вернулся домой, фотографии из Норвегии я пересматривал несколько раз. И знаете, что оказалось самым неожиданным? Самыми ценными для меня стали вовсе не фотографии тех мест, которые я заранее отметил в маршруте, а снимки той самой случайной остановки, где я промок, испачкал обувь и совершенно неожиданно решил изменить свои планы. Теперь я вообще стараюсь не бояться таких остановок. Иногда мы слишком старательно планируем путешествие, расписание, гостиницы, дороги и достопримечательности, забывая, что самые сильные впечатления часто появляются именно там, где в нашем плане написано большое и совершенно скучное слово «ничего». И если бы меня сейчас спросили, какой момент той поездки я помню лучше всего, я бы, наверное, даже не стал долго думать. Я бы рассказал про дождь, маленький съезд с дороги, мокрые ботинки, чашку кофе и несколько часов, которые вообще не должны были случиться, потому что именно одна случайная остановка однажды показала мне Норвегию совсем с другой стороны.

#Norway #travel #story #vacation

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Adam Discoverer

Greece · September 25, 2026

The most unexpected place on my trip to Santorini

When I was first planning a trip to Santorini, there was a very definite picture in my head: snow-white houses, blue domes, narrow streets, incredible views of the Aegean Sea and, of course, that famous sunset, for which a huge number of people come to the island every year. I imagined myself with a cup of coffee somewhere on the terrace, looking at photos of Santorini and already knew about which photos I would take, although I understand perfectly well that a person who plans photos in advance will still take three times as many shots as he intended. But among all these beautiful plans, there was absolutely no place for an ancient city hidden under a layer of volcanic ash, and it eventually became the most unexpected place on my trip. When I first heard about Akrotiri, it was hard for me to imagine that on such a picturesque island you could find something so different from the usual image of Santorini. I came here for the sea, the white houses and the feeling of eternal summer, but instead one day I went to see an ancient settlement and did not expect at all how much it would impress me. That's probably why I remember Akrotiri especially strongly, because the most striking discoveries in travel often happen where you originally did not intend to go at all. The road took me to a completely different Santorini Before the trip, it seemed to me that Santorini was primarily about beautiful towns on the edge of the caldera, endless staircases, terraces overlooking the sea and photos that look like they were specially processed for a tourist catalog. But the further I got away from the most famous places on the island, the more the impression changed, because behind the usual tourist pictures, a completely different Santorini gradually opened up, more peaceful, ancient and somehow surprisingly real. It was then that I realized that the island is much more interesting than it looks from the photographs, and that behind its white facades there is a story that I had hardly thought about before. I remember driving towards Akrotiri and thinking that I would probably watch everything pretty quickly and then return to my usual walks around the island. I generally have this wonderful habit of underestimating certain places in advance, and then wondering why I didn't set aside half a day for them, because it turns out that's where I want to stay the longest. At that moment, I didn't know yet that in a few hours I would be walking around an ancient settlement and trying to imagine what life looked like here thousands of years ago. The city that was under the volcano Akrotiri turned out to be completely different from the places I used to see when traveling, because here the story literally lies in front of you in the form of streets, buildings and preserved details of an ancient settlement. This is an archaeological monument of the Minoan era, which was buried under volcanic ash after a powerful eruption, and it is thanks to this that many elements of the ancient city have been preserved to this day. When you learn this story, you begin to look at everything around you with completely different eyes, because you realize that this is not just ruins, but a place that was once a real city, where people lived, worked, walked the streets, built houses and completely did not suspect that thousands of years later travelers would come here. and try to imagine their lives. The most amazing thing for me was the feeling of time that almost physically arises here, although it sounds a bit pretentious, and I usually try to avoid such formulations. But when you stand among the ancient walls and look at the preserved elements of the houses, you really begin to feel how huge is the distance between your life and the lives of the people who were once here. I even caught myself thinking that my usual problems like a lost ticket, a dead phone, or another search for the right road look completely ridiculous against the background of the history of this place. I didn't expect to see houses here at all. I was especially surprised by how developed this settlement was, because in my head the ancient city looked very different. I imagined a few stones, a couple of walls, and a plaque with a long historical description, which I would read about halfway through, and then move on, because tourist concentration sometimes lives by its own laws. But Akrotiri turned out to be much more interesting, and gradually I began to notice the layout of the streets, multi-storey buildings, rooms and various details that made it possible to imagine how difficult life was for people here many thousands of years ago. I especially liked that here you can not just look at individual artifacts, but try to mentally reconstruct the whole city, and this completely changes the impression of the tour. You walk along the ancient streets and realize that once upon a time there were people walking here who were in a hurry about their business, talking, cooking, meeting with neighbors and, perhaps, also sometimes getting annoyed because of some completely everyday trifles. And it was this thought that for some reason made ancient Akrotiri much closer to me, because history ceased to be a set of dates and became the history of ordinary people. The most unexpected discovery of my trip It was probably here that I finally realized that travel rarely gives us what we expect from it, and this is one of the main reasons why I love it so much. I came to Santorini for beautiful views, the sea, white houses and photos, and in the end, I was most impressed by a place that I knew much less about before the trip than about the famous streets of Ai. It turns out to be quite funny: I could choose a beautiful postcard from Santorini for a long time, and then the most valuable memory turned out to be the ancient city, which thousands of years ago was hidden under volcanic ash. I came out with a completely different feeling of the island, because now Santorini was no longer just a beautiful setting for photos and romantic walks. Behind the white houses and blue domes, a huge story suddenly appeared, in which there were volcanic eruptions, ancient civilizations, cities and people whose traces have been preserved after thousands of years. And I liked this discovery precisely because it happened completely unexpectedly and made me look at the island I already knew from photographs with completely different eyes. After Akrotiri, I looked at Santorini in a different way. Later, when I found myself among the white houses and narrow streets again, everything around me was perceived a little differently, because now I saw beyond the beautiful landscapes not only a modern tourist island. I looked at the volcanic landscape and thought that it was he who once changed the fate of an ancient settlement, and the sea, which travelers admire today from the terraces of restaurants, was a part of the lives of people who lived here long before the first tourists appeared. Even an ordinary walk now seemed like a small time trip to me, although, of course, I still continued to photograph beautiful doors and stop at each particularly good view or temple. And that's probably where the real value of travel lies for me, because sometimes it imperceptibly changes our perception of familiar things. Before the trip, Santorini was for me a beautiful Greek island that I had seen many times in photographs, and after Akrotiri it became a place with an incredibly deep history, where the beauty of nature coexists with the memory of an ancient civilization. I came for one impression, but I got a completely different one, and that's why this day has remained in my memory much more vividly than many pre-planned points on the route. A place I wasn't expecting at all If you ask me now which place turned out to be the most unexpected in my entire trip to Greece, I will name Akrotiri without much thought. Not because there were the most spectacular photos or the most famous views, but because it was there that I went without any special expectations and it was from there that I left with the feeling that I had accidentally discovered a completely different side of Santorini. Sometimes it seems to me that such places become the main memories of a trip, because we don't have time to think in advance what our impression should be, and therefore we perceive everything much more honestly. Now, when I remember Santorini, I see not only white houses, blue domes and sunset over the Aegean Sea, but also the ancient streets of Akrotiri, the silence of the archaeological complex and the feeling that there is a history that is several thousand years old under my feet. And if they had told me before the trip that the ancient city would be the most unexpected place for my trip, I probably would have just smiled and replied that I was definitely going to Santorini for something completely different. And now I understand that it's these unexpected turns that make traveling really interesting, because you never know which place will suddenly stay with you much longer than everyone else.

#Santorini #Greece #vacation #travel

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richword Expert

Italy · September 25, 2026

Florence Trip

After the first days in Rome, we went further north. Our itinerary was designed for several weeks - from the end of January to February 9, 2026, and the main purpose of the trip was the Carnival of Venice. But there were several more cities I wanted to see before Venice, so Florence was the next stop. The road from Rome to Florence In the morning we packed up and went to Roma Termini train station. After the hustle and bustle of Rome, the train seemed like an almost ideal way to continue the journey: I sat down, put my suitcase away, looked out the window - and after a while the urban landscape began to gradually change. The trip from Rome to Florence took about an hour and a half. We decided not to take a car in advance, because in the historical centers of Italian cities it hinders rather than helps. In addition, the Firenze Santa Maria Novella train station is located almost in the center, so after arrival you did not have to waste time on a long journey. First impression of Florence When we left the station, we immediately felt a completely different atmosphere. After the large-scale Rome, Florence seemed more compact and calm. There is no need to constantly use transport here - many of the main places are within walking distance of each other. It was cool, as it should be at the end of January, but the weather turned out to be quite comfortable for a walk. We left our things and almost immediately went to the historical center. I didn't want to build a detailed route, but just to get a little comfortable in the city. The first evening in the city The first thing we did was go to the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Even after the Colosseum and other impressive places in Rome, the Florence Duomo was able to surprise. Brunelleschi's huge dome towered over the surrounding buildings, and the square itself was filled with people, despite the winter season. Interior From the cathedral, we continued along the narrow streets to the Piazza della Signoria, and then to the Arno. By evening, the city had become even more interesting - there were fewer tourists, the buildings were illuminated, and dusk was gradually falling over the river. I found myself thinking that this is the format of travel that I like the most: not trying to see everything in one day, but leaving time just to take a walk and feel the city. We had a few days ahead in Florence, followed by Bologna and Verona. And with each passing city, we had to get closer to the main goal of this trip - Venice and its carnival.

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richword Expert

Italy · September 25, 2026

Rome. Which started my journey in Italy

I decided not to try to see Rome all in one day. This is simply impossible here - the historical center is so full of monuments, squares and ancient streets that sometimes it is enough to walk a few hundred meters to stop again and realize that you are looking at another place with a centuries-old history. That's why I made the first day as simple as possible: no transportation and a complicated plan, just a walk through the center of Rome. I just wanted to walk from one historical place to another and gradually get to know the city. Colosseum - the beginning of the route In the morning, I started walking by the Colosseum. Even if you've seen him dozens of times in photographs, he makes a completely different impression in person. Especially when you approach it on foot and gradually understand the scale of the structure. Nearby is the Triumphal Arch of Constantine, and then the huge archaeological zone of the Roman Forum begins. I didn't try to go through it all quickly, but just lingered a bit, looking at the columns, ruins of temples and the remains of ancient buildings. It's especially easy to imagine how massive ancient Rome was. Rome Colosseum From ancient Rome to Venice Square After the Colosseum, I walked towards Venice Square. The road itself became part of the walk here - old buildings, churches, small squares and fragments of ancient structures were literally constantly encountered. I made my first big stop at Venice Square. The huge white monument to Victor Emmanuel II immediately stands out from the surrounding architecture. After the ancient ruins of the Colosseum and the Forum, a completely different Rome is before our eyes - a later, large-scale and solemn one. The Pantheon Then I turned off the main streets and walked through the small alleys of the historical center to the Pantheon. This is where the walk became especially interesting. In Rome, sometimes you don't even need to specifically look for a landmark. You're just walking down an ordinary street, turning a corner, and suddenly a huge ancient column, fountain, or ancient square appears in front of you. The Pantheon turned out to be just such a place. It looks majestic from the outside, but it is especially interesting to go inside and look at the huge circular space and the dome with a large hole in the center. You stand inside and try to imagine how many generations of people have already seen this place before you. Trevi Fountain I continued my walk from the Pantheon to the Trevi Fountain. The distance is short, so I didn't use public transport again. The closer you get to the fountain, the more people there are. And then the street suddenly opens up, and Trevi appears in front of you. I stayed here longer than I had planned. Even if you don't attach much importance to the tradition of throwing a coin into a fountain, you still want to stand near it for a while and look at the details. It is especially impressive how large-scale the composition is hidden among the ordinary streets of the historical center. Navona Square The last point of my walk was Piazza Navona. After the narrow streets, the square seems huge. An ancient stadium once stood in its place, and the modern square has retained its characteristic elongated shape. In the center is the famous Bernini Fountain of the Four Rivers. I wasn't in a hurry here anymore - I just sat down nearby and rested for a while after a few hours of walking. Navona Square First day in Rome The result was a route of about 6-7 kilometers, but the distance was practically not felt. Every few minutes I wanted to stop, look at the building, go into the courtyard or take a photo. I liked the fact that all the main points of this route are quite close to each other. You don't have to constantly take the subway or look for a taxi - you can safely walk most of the way. By the evening, I already felt Rome much better than if I had just driven through it on a tour bus. The Colosseum, the Roman Forum, Venice Square, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain and Piazza Navona gradually formed into one big walk through the history of the city. That's how our trip to Italy began. Rome became the first point of the route, and then we went north to Florence.

#Rome #FountainTrevi

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Gilyana Guide

France · September 25, 2026

The most beautiful sunset of my life on the Seine embankment

Sometimes the most beautiful moments in travel happen quite unexpectedly, when you don't plan anything special and don't even suspect that you will remember this particular evening years later. This happened to me in Paris, when I calmly went for a walk along the Seine and did not even think that on that day I would see the sunset, which I still consider the most beautiful in my life. I just wanted to take a walk after a busy day, look at Paris in the evening, sit by the water and maybe buy a coffee somewhere on the way, because without coffee, I'm generally able to turn even a romantic walk into a search and rescue operation. Paris was especially beautiful that day, although, to be honest, I still didn't realize that something unusual was happening, because the city was just gradually shifting from daytime to evening mode. There were more and more people on the embankment, some sitting right by the water, some talking with friends, some taking pictures of bridges, and others, like me, just walking without a specific route and pretending that they knew exactly where they were going. The Seine was surprisingly calm, pleasure boats were slowly passing through it, and the light was getting softer by the minute, as if someone had deliberately started to dim Paris a little before the most beautiful moment of the evening. I stopped by the Seine by accident. I reached a place with a particularly beautiful view of the river, and decided to stay a little longer, although I had originally intended to go further. This is probably one of the most pleasant features of Paris: here you can just go for a walk and suddenly find yourself standing in the middle of a completely cinematic scene, and no one even warns that something beautiful is about to begin. I sat down by the water, looked at the opposite shore, and suddenly noticed that the sun was already starting to sink lower, turning the buildings a warm golden hue. At first, the changes were almost imperceptible, but just a few minutes later Paris began to look completely different, and I found myself not wanting to go anywhere anymore. The light gradually turned golden, the water reflected the sky, long luminous paths appeared on the surface of the Seine, and the old buildings on the shore seemed to become a little warmer and softer. At such moments, I absolutely don't want to think about how many more places to see, how many photos to take, and whether I'll have time to see everything I've planned today, because it feels like the most important thing is already happening right in front of you. Paris, which turned golden for a few minutes. The sun was sinking lower and lower, and I literally watched the color of the city change, and it happened so gradually that it was impossible to determine the exact moment when an ordinary evening suddenly turned into an incredibly beautiful one. The buildings turned golden, the sky turned shades of pink and peach, and that soft light appeared over the Seine, which is impossible to convey properly in any photograph, although, of course, I tried to do it about every thirty seconds. As a result, the phone turned out to have a huge number of pictures that differ from each other by just a few minutes, but now I can officially claim that I have documentary evidence of how Paris changed color. It was especially beautiful to look at the water, because at that moment the Seine reflected everything at once – the sky, bridges, buildings, lights and the last rays of the sun. A boat sailing along the river left a small wave behind it, which broke the golden reflection into hundreds of small highlights, and I caught myself thinking that if someone had told me right now that this was a movie set, I wouldn't even have argued. Paris sometimes turns on the "too beautiful" mode without warning, and all that remains is to stand by and hope that the memory will retain at least some of what the eyes see. The most beautiful was the sky But it was the sky that struck me the most, because it was literally changing before my eyes, and each new shade seemed even more beautiful than the previous one. The gold gradually turned into pink, then a delicate peach color appeared, and a little higher, a cold blue was already emerging, and it all looked so harmonious that for the first time in a long time I just stopped photographing anything and looked in front of me. This is probably the moment when you realize that sometimes the camera only gets in the way, because you try to capture a beautiful shot and forget that the most important thing is not happening on the phone screen, but right in front of you. I was sitting by the Seine and thinking about how strangely memories work, because we rarely remember the whole day, but years later we can quite clearly remember one evening, the smell of the air, the color of the sky, or the feeling of the place we were in. I don't remember all the details of that day anymore, I can't reconstruct my route by the minute, and I'm not even sure where exactly I drank the coffee I was going to buy at the beginning of the walk, but I remember that light over the Seine perfectly. And that's probably why I call this sunset the most beautiful in my life. When the city started turning on the lights. Gradually, the sun disappeared below the horizon, but the evening did not end there at all, because Paris began to turn on its lights, and the city changed again. It got a little darker on the embankment, warm lights appeared in the windows, boats continued to sail along the Seine, and the people around were still in no hurry to disperse, as if no one wanted to be the first to admit that this beautiful moment was over. I also sat for a while longer, although I already knew perfectly well that it was time to return, because there was a road ahead, and tired legs after a day of walking began to hint quite transparently that romance was romance, but tomorrow they would demand compensation. I still got up and walked further along the Seine, but now I was constantly looking back, because Paris looked completely different after sunset. I liked walking slowly, listening to the noise of the city, looking at the reflections of lights in the water and realizing that this evening turned out to be much more beautiful than any pre-planned one. Sometimes we try too hard to organize the perfect trip, schedule every hour and decide in advance where we will meet the sunset, and then it is a random walk that becomes the memory for which we want to buy a ticket to this city again one day. Why do I remember this particular sunset? It probably wasn't just the color of the sky or how beautiful the Seine was that evening, because similar sunsets probably exist in many parts of the world. For me, it became special because of everything that was happening around me: Paris in the evening, a leisurely walk, the sound of water, people on the embankment, old buildings that gradually changed color, and that absolutely rare condition when you don't want to rush anywhere and don't need to prove anything. I was just sitting by the Seine and felt amazingly happy that I was here at this particular moment. Now I sometimes think that maybe in a few years I won't be able to remember exactly the date of that walk, the name of the street, or even what I was wearing, but I'm pretty sure I'll recognize that sunset again if I ever see something like it. It remained with me not as a photograph, but as some kind of inner memory of Paris, which one evening turned out to be especially quiet, warm and beautiful. And that's why, if I'm ever asked to name the most beautiful sunset of my life, I probably won't even think for long, because the Seine will appear before my eyes again, the golden light on the water and Paris, which slowly faded into the evening. I want to see this Paris again. I know that one day I will walk along the Seine embankment again, and most likely I will look for exactly the place where I once stopped to watch the sunset. Perhaps the weather will be completely different, there will be more people nearby, some buildings will look different, and the sky will decide to arrange an ordinary gray Parisian evening for me, because the weather, as you know, does not have to cooperate with my memories at all. But even if that sunset never happens again, I still want to go back there, sit by the water and watch Paris gradually change under the evening sky again. Because some moments cannot be planned, repeated, or specially purchased along with a plane ticket, and that's why they become so valuable. The most beautiful sunset of my life happened when I just went for a walk along the Seine and had absolutely no idea that in a few hours I would have a memory that I would come back to again and again. It's probably for such casual gifts that I love traveling, because you never know what an ordinary day will suddenly become the one that you'll remember with a smile all your life.

#Seine #River #France #sunset #Paris

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Anna Explorer

Türkiye · September 25, 2026

Topkapi in Turkey: a place I want to return to

There are places that you visit, take pictures of, tick off your mental list, and after a while you can't remember what color the walls were or exactly how you felt that day. But there are places that for some reason do not let go, and the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul has become for me exactly the kind of place where I return to mentally much more often than I expected after the trip. It seems that I have already seen everything, walked through the palace courtyards, looked into the luxurious rooms, admired the views of the Bosphorus, and even got so tired that at some point my legs began to hint at the need to stop the historical marathon, but the impression remained so strong that now I want to return there in a completely different way. When I first found myself at the entrance to the palace, for some reason it immediately seemed to me that I was not just in a museum, but in a separate small world that exists according to its own rules and is in no hurry to adapt to modern Istanbul. Outside the walls of Topkapi, a huge city is buzzing, cars are driving, people are in a hurry, phones are ringing, tourists are trying to look at the map at the same time and not lose each other, but inside the palace it all seems to remain somewhere far away. Probably, it was this contrast that hooked me the most, because just a few minutes ago you were in a modern city, and then you walk through the gates and find yourself among the palace courtyards, gardens, old walls and incredible views of the Bosphorus. I didn't expect Topkapi to be so big at all. Before the trip, of course, I imagined a palace, but in my head it was something much more compact, where you can safely walk for an hour, see everything, take beautiful photos and go on about your Istanbul business. I was so wrong, because Topkapi turned out to be a huge complex that you can walk around for quite a long time, gradually discovering new courtyards, buildings, terraces and rooms, and at some point I stopped realizing exactly how much I had seen. The funny thing is that the further I went, the more I wanted to see more, although an inner voice was already quite reasonably suggesting that I find a bench and at least sit for a while. I especially liked the feeling of space that arises in the palace courtyards, because here you don't feel like you're just being led from one museum hall to another. You move from one place to another, go out into an open area, see greenery, old walls, a piece of the sea, and then suddenly discover an absolutely stunning view of the Bosphorus, and all this makes you stay longer than you planned. I've generally noticed a strange habit when traveling: if I really like a place, I start photographing it from all possible angles, and then at home I find about twenty identical photos of the same tree on my phone, but not a single photo of how I looked at that moment. A harem that is impossible not to think about I was particularly impressed by the part of the palace associated with the harem, because it is here that history begins to be perceived in a completely different way. Before that, you can look at the palace premises as beautiful interiors, consider tiles, ornaments, doors and details, but gradually you begin to think about the people who once really lived behind these walls, and then Topkapi ceases to be just a beautiful historical place. The thought of how many destinies, intrigues, conversations, hopes and disappointments have remained here is especially strong on the imagination, although almost nothing remains of the people who once walked along these corridors today. Of course, after getting acquainted with the history of the Ottoman Empire, it is impossible not to remember Hurrem Sultan, and I also couldn't get past this topic, especially after I once watched a popular TV series about Sultan Suleiman. But in Topkapi, everything is perceived a little differently, because you no longer look at the screen and do not see the actors, but stand among real walls that are several centuries old, and this suddenly makes the story much closer and more real. I found myself thinking that one day I would like to return here without haste, walk through these rooms once more and no longer just look at the beauty of the interiors, but try to imagine what life was like for people for whom this place was once not a tourist attraction, but an ordinary home. View of the Bosphorus, for which you want to stop But if you ask me what moment in Topkapi I remember most often, I will most likely answer – views of the Bosphorus. There is something very special about this: you stand on the territory of the palace, the history of the Ottoman Empire, old walls and luxurious buildings surround you, and the water opens before your eyes, along which ferries run, and modern Istanbul lives its usual life. At this moment, you realize especially well how amazing the city itself is, because the past and present here do not just exist side by side, but literally overlap each other. I could have stood there and stared at the water for a long time if I hadn't remembered that I still have a whole program ahead of me and actually I didn't come to Istanbul to spend the whole day at one point overlooking the Bosphorus. But these are the moments I love most when traveling, when you suddenly stop keeping track of time and no longer think about how many attractions are left before the end of the day. You just stand there, look into the distance, and realize that this is exactly the feeling you'll remember at home much more often than the names of all the halls you've visited. Why do I want to go back That's probably why Topkapi has become a place for me to return to, and I'd really like to do it not on the first day of the trip, when I still have a huge list of required places in my head, but when I can afford to slow down a little. I would go through the gates again, walk through the palace courtyards, look into the Harem once more, and then I would definitely find a place with a view of the Bosphorus and just sit there without taking out my phone every two minutes. I think I could see the Topcaps much more deeply the second time, because the first visit is always a bit like trying to embrace the whole city at once – I want to see everything, remember everything and not miss anything. And, of course, I'm pretty sure that on my second visit I'll be walking around the palace again with the expression of someone who knows exactly where he's going, and ten minutes later I'll take out the map again and start figuring out exactly where I am. I guess this is already my personal travel tradition, because no matter how detailed the route is, sooner or later I still go somewhere wrong, but that's how the most interesting places are sometimes located. After all, a trip without small adventures would be too suspiciously ideal, and I prefer to return home not only with beautiful photos, but also with stories that are pleasant to remember later. Topkapi is not only a palace Now, when I think about Topkapi, I realize that I remember it not only because of the luxurious interiors, historical stories or famous names associated with the Ottoman Empire. For me, it became a place where history, architecture, nature and Istanbul met in an amazing way, which cannot be confused with any other city, especially when the Bosphorus opens in front of you and ferries continue to run somewhere below. That's probably why I don't just want to say that I "visited Topkapi," because it sounds like I ticked off and moved on, but I'm much closer to the idea that I was there once and now I want to see it again. I want to go back there without feeling like I'm late for something, without a long list of attractions, and without wanting to photograph every door, because now I know exactly what I want to feel. I want to walk through the palace courtyards again, see the familiar walls, feel this special Istanbul air and stay by the Bosphorus a little longer than the usual tourist route allows. And if one day I find myself in Istanbul again, I know for sure.: Topkapi will be one of the first places I will go, because some places we visit once, and some we want to return to again and again, even if it is impossible to fully explain why. The place I haven't finished watching Perhaps this is the main secret of traveling: sometimes we return home not because we have seen everything, but precisely because we understand that we have not seen everything. Topkapi is one of those places for me, because it is impossible to feel it completely in one visit, especially when there is so much history hidden behind beautiful walls, and Istanbul opens up behind the palace terraces, which in itself can make you stay for a few more days. That's why my return ticket from Istanbul took me home once, but for some reason I didn't put an end to it. And maybe that's why I want to go back there.

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Svetlana Discoverer

Switzerland · September 25, 2026

The most beautiful places I've seen in Switzerland

For me, Switzerland turned out to be the country where at some point you stop understanding exactly where to look, because literally everything around you seems beautiful. I went there with the usual tourist spirit: to see several famous places, take photos, walk around the cities, taste the local chocolate and finally see the very Alps that I have come across so many times in photographs. But in reality, it turned out that the photos did not convey the main thing at all – scale, silence, air and some absolutely incredible feeling, as if you accidentally got inside a very expensive screensaver on your computer. Zurich – the first acquaintance with Switzerland The first place that made a strong impression on me was Zurich, although for some reason I thought in advance that it would just be a beautiful and tidy city, without any special surprises. As a result, I walked around the Old Town for a long time, looked at the colorful facades, looked into the small streets and constantly stopped by the Limmat River, because each new turn opened up another beautiful view. I especially liked the Grossmunster and Fraumunster towers, and when I saw Lake Zurich, I finally realized that my plan to "quickly see the city and drive on" could safely be thrown away. Lucerne is a city that you want to photograph endlessly But my real feeling of Switzerland began in Lucerne, and here I was just walking around with my phone, like a person who urgently needed to fix absolutely every corner. The city itself is incredibly picturesque, and the famous wooden Kapellbrücke Clock Bridge over the Reuss River looks like it was specially built for tourist postcards, although it is completely real and has existed for many centuries. There is a water tower nearby, and mountains rise outside the city, so sometimes I found myself thinking that it would be impossible to come up with a more beautiful setting for a walk, even if I tried very hard. Mount Pilatus – when you want to see everything at once From Lucerne, I went to Mount Pilatus, and it was one of those trips when the road itself becomes part of the attraction. I was driving up, looking out the window and trying to figure out how people can live peacefully next to such landscapes and not take pictures of the mountains every five minutes. At the top, there are stunning views of Lake Lucerne and the Alps, and the weather in the mountains, as I've seen, can change my mood faster than I can get my phone out of my bag. Riga – "Queen of the Mountains" Another place I've wanted to see for a long time was Mount Riga, which is called the "Queen of Mountains." I especially liked the fact that you can climb there on a cogwheel railway, and the trip itself turns into a small adventure with constantly changing views outside the window. Upstairs, I found myself in a situation where I seemed to have come to see one particular landscape, but in the end I just stood and looked around, because the Alps were absolutely not going to fit into the frame of my phone screen. Interlaken – Alps, lakes and the feeling of being in a postcard ""After Lucerne, I went to Interlaken, and here Switzerland finally moved from the category of "very beautiful" to the category of "is it even legal to look like this?". Interlaken is located between the Thun and Brienz lakes, and the Alps rise around it, so wherever I went, there was always a mountain, lake or another valley on the horizon, which I immediately wanted to take a closer look at. The funny thing is that at some point I stopped understanding exactly where to go, because each subsequent view seemed better than the previous one, and the tourist route turned into an endless "oh, let's turn here again." Lauterbrunnen is a valley that cannot be forgotten A special place in my heart was occupied by the village of Lauterbrunnen, which looks so perfect that at first I even suspected some kind of tourist deception. Huge cliffs surround the valley, and waterfalls fall down from the slopes, among which the Staubach Waterfall is especially famous, which has become one of the region's business cards. I walked through the valley and tried to photograph the mountains, waterfall, green meadows and small houses at the same time, but I quickly realized that the camera still would not convey the feeling that arises when you really stand in the middle of this valley. Zermatt and Matterhorn – the very view from the advertisement And then there was Zermatt, a place for which I was ready to forgive Switzerland almost everything, including the prices, after which I wanted to look at my bank account and cry quietly. The main reason for coming here was obvious to me: the Matterhorn, one of the most recognizable mountains in the world, which I had seen countless times before in photographs. But when I saw it live, I realized why people come here again and again, because this mountain really makes a very special impression. I also really liked Zermatt itself, especially its wooden houses, narrow streets and a very special atmosphere of a mountain resort. However, I quickly realized that beautiful photos are suspiciously easy to take here, because no matter where you turn, there's already an Alpine peak behind you, and there's bound to be a pretty house with flowers in front of you. I even tried to just walk down the street calmly, but after a few minutes I took out my phone again because my brain was talking every time.: "Wait, we need to take a picture of this." Gornergrat – mountains in all their glory One of the most beautiful experiences was a trip to the Gornergrat, which offers a famous panorama of the Matterhorn and surrounding peaks. The road up is incredibly scenic in itself, and at the top there is a feeling that you are somewhere very far from the familiar world. I was standing there, looking at the mountains, and for the first time during the trip I was in no hurry at all, because in such places you don't even want to take pictures right away, but first just stand and see it all with your own eyes. St. Moritz and Engadine are a completely different Switzerland Another place that I would definitely include in the list of the most beautiful is the Engadine Valley and St. Moritz. Nature looks a little different here: high-altitude lakes, coniferous forests, mountains and very clean air create a very special atmosphere, and St. Moritz itself looks as if it was carefully placed among the Alps and asked not to spoil anything. I walked along Lake St. Moritz, looked at the mountains and thought that Switzerland is generally a master at creating places where you want to live, relax and for some reason immediately start drinking coffee with a view of the mountains. Glacier Express – when the road itself becomes an attraction One of the most vivid impressions was a trip along the Glacier Express route, which passes through incredibly picturesque Alpine landscapes between Zermatt and St. Moritz. You don't even need to look for a separate attraction here, because the road itself turns into a journey worth coming to Switzerland for: bridges, gorges, mountain villages, snow-capped peaks and endless landscapes outside the window replace each other while you sit in the carriage and try to decide whether to take pictures or just watch. Of course, I did both, and then I discovered that half of the photos were taken through glass with some completely mysterious reflection of my face. Geneva is a beauty of a completely different nature I couldn't miss Geneva either, especially the area around Lake Geneva and the famous Jet d'Eau fountain. After the mountain villages and alpine valleys, the city is perceived quite differently: there is more urban elegance, wide embankments, beautiful architecture and that very European atmosphere when you can just walk around without a specific goal and feel like a man from a good movie. I walked along the lake for a long time and looked at the water, the mountains in the distance and the huge fountain jet that soars high above the lake, and I thought that Switzerland knows how to be completely different and at the same time remain equally beautiful. Bern – medieval Switzerland But in Bern, I was captivated by a completely different kind of beauty. The historic city center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and its medieval streets, arcades, fountains and the famous Zittlogge Tower make me feel like I was inside an old European postcard for a few hours. I especially liked walking without a route, when you can just turn onto the next street, look at the facades of houses and suddenly come out to the Aare River, which offers a beautiful view of the city. Rhine Falls – when nature is not going to be quiet If we talk about places that I remember specifically by nature, then the Rhine Waterfall near Schaffhausen deserves special mention. It does not look at all like quiet Alpine lakes and green valleys, because here the water passes through the rocks with great force and creates a real natural spectacle. I got closer and realized pretty quickly that it's beautiful to be photographed near a waterfall, but it's advisable to think in advance about where to put wet hair and clothes later, because nature isn't particularly interested in your styling. What did I take with me from Switzerland? In Switzerland, I saw a huge number of beautiful places, but what struck me most was not even any particular lake, mountain or city, but how harmoniously everything here connects to each other. You can walk through the medieval streets of Bern in the morning, then drive through the mountains, find yourself by the lake in the evening, and the next day look at the Matterhorn and think that after such a journey, the usual landscape outside the car window already seems a little boring. I left Switzerland with the feeling that I had not seen everything, because this country is designed as an endless collection of beautiful places, where for some reason there is another reason to stop at every turn of the road. And that's probably why I can't name one of the most beautiful places in Switzerland that I liked the most. The Matterhorn impressed with its power, Lauterbrunnen with its incredible nature, Lucerne with its atmosphere, Bern with its architecture, and the Alpine roads just made me constantly grab my phone and say, "Well, this is definitely the last shot." Of course, it was never the last one, because after five minutes a new view appeared, which seemed even more beautiful, and I took out my phone again, forgetting that I had actually come to relax, and not to work as a personal photographer of the Swiss Alps.

#Switzerland #Zurich #waterfall #mountains #journeys

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