Hi y’all, hope everyone had a great Christmas! I spent mine here in Milan, Italy, and I pretty much ate my weight in food, aka I had the best Christmas I could have possibly asked for. In any case, Christmas has obviously passed and 2017 is about to become 2018 – crazy, I know! Time flies when you’re having fun. For that reason, I decided to create a list of my Top 5 favorite places that I have visited in 2017.

Let me tell you: it was HARD to get down to five places. I have been to so many beautiful cities this past year, I have visited 6 different countries, been in 13 U.S. states and flew on 22 different planes. In the end, I chose these five cities because they were places that I had never been to before 2017, and because they all impressed me for more than just one reason. But without further ado, here they are:

 

5 – Bologna, Italy

I had never been to Bologna before, and I honestly can’t understand why. It’s only an hour-long train ride from my hometown of Milan, Italy, and the trip isn’t expensive.

I actually ended up going because my friend Martin moved there from Chicago to go get his Master’s from the University of Bologna; therefore, when I got to Italy a couple weeks ago, I grabbed my dear friend Giulia and took a day trip to Bologna to visit the city and Martin.

I’m actually working on a blog post on our time in Bologna, but in the meantime, I’ll share a fun fact with y’all: the University of Bologna is the oldest university of the western world. Therefore, I’m assuming, it’s actually the oldest university in the world. I personally think that’s crazy cool! Other than that, Bologna is a really pretty city where all of the buildings are brick red: they create an incredible atmosphere!

Lastly, the food in Bologna is amazing. Traditionally, Bologna is known for its homemade pasta and cured meats, those that we call “affettati” or “Salumi”. I’ll talk more about them in my next post, but for now, I’ll leave you to some pictures of them! Here are some homemade tagliatelle and some affettati:

 

 4 – St Louis, MO

I’ve particularly loved St. Louis, Missouri because it surprised me. When I first visited, I honestly did not expect to find such an up-and-coming city, full of life and especially great restaurants. You can read about my first impressions of the city here!

It’s true, the downtown area still isn’t that great, or that safe, but everything is getting so much better! I honestly look forward to visiting my boyfriend – who works in the St. Louis area and lives there – a lot more often in 2018, so that I can really explore the city.

So far, I have to say that the Central West End area is amazing, and that Forest Park – the second largest park in the U.S. after Central Park – is beautiful and full of incredible attractions. Edo and I recently checked out the Zoo there and it was so much fun! On top of that, there are attractions such as the Cathedral Basilica and the City Museum that are definitely worth checking out. Lastly, as I said, the city’s restaurant scene is incredible! I was surprised by how many restaurants there are, and how good most of them are. Last time I was in town, I checked out The Shaved Duck and I was impressed. You can find more of my favorites in the article I previously linked.

 

3 – Raleigh, NC, United States

Raleigh, NC was a big surprise as well. I visited the city with relatively low expectations, since I did not know much about it. In fact, Raleigh wasn’t even on my travel bucket list, and I only decided to go there to visit one of my best friends, Jessica, who recently moved there with her boyfriend Michael.

What I found was an extremely lively, young and up-and-coming city with so much going on! There are tons of great restaurants from classic southern comfort food, to upscale Mediterranean, to fancy sushi. Here are four pretty spots around Raleigh where you should get food!

Other than just eat, if you’re ever in Raleigh, there are tons of things to do and see. For example, the Museum of History and the Museum of Natural Sciences are completely free – and so are all the attractions rounded up in this blog post! There are also beautiful places around the city that you can go and explore, such as UNC Chapel Hill and Duke University (the latter looks a lot like Sewanee, another beautiful place I’ve recently visited and that I really wanted to add to this top 5!). Overall, I highly recommend visiting Raleigh and the surrounding area for a long weekend getaway!

 

2 – Vienna, Austria

I loved my trip to Vienna. I actually wrote about my whole experience there in these blog posts, Part One and Part Two. I went with one of my best friends, Giulia, and since the both of us are pretty experienced travelers, we had planned the whole trip so that we would be able to see as many things as possible. It was incredible to visit a city so full of history, art, museums and culture. You could see Vienna’s imperial past in all of its buildings, in its streets, in everything. It was refreshing to see all of that since I love “older” cities, and I don’t get to see that many anymore since I live in the states.

We found great food in Vienna too, and got tips on where to eat from my friend Tina who lives there. Always ask the locals! Foodwise, you have to try the Sachertorte chocolate cake from the Hotel Sacher. You won’t regret it!

 

1 – Whistler, BC, Canada

It was unbelievably hard to choose my favorite place from my 2017 travels, but after thinking about it for a while, I came to the conclusion that there was nothing like spending three days in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Unfortunately, since I visited Whistler in March and only started my blog this past July, I did not write a blog post about it. However, if you don’t know about Whistler, just know that it’s a resort town in the mountains of Western Canada, about 125 km (less than 80 miles) North of Vancouver. When Vancouver hosted the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, most of the ski races were actually hosted by Whistler.

When we went there over spring break, we stayed in one of the cute little cabins there, and it was just amazing. It’s the coziest place on earth. Other than being a great place to snuggle and being hygge af, Whistler also has many restaurants, bars, boutiques and stores to hit while you’re in town. The village looks adorable, too. Nevertheless, if you’re in Whistler, you’re really there for one thing: skiing (or snowboarding, whatever floats your boat). Well, as you can imagine, the slopes are beautiful. It was cloudy and snowy while I was there, but I can only imagine how beautiful that place must be when it’s sunny! Also, since Whistler hosted the Olympics, you can actually ski down an Olympic slope, which was probably the coolest thing I did this past year (other than graduate college with the highest honors, I guess…). Overall, if you ever get the chance to visit Whistler, do so! You’ll see why I picked it as this year’s favorite.

These are my Top 5 picks from 2017! I’d love to hear yours, so leave them down below!

Happy New Year y’all! Catch y’all in 2018!