This post is slightly out of order but I realized I had never written about the absolute highlight of my spring break-visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! Anyone who remotely knows me knows that I simply cannot let this slide, so regardless of the chronological order mess up here, I must write!

Let me begin by saying, I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan. I have a Harry Potter tattoo, in fact. I also once convinced my mother to change our summer vacation to Europe…so that we could go visit Universal Studios and see the Harry Potter theme park instead. These are not things just any ordinary Potter fan would do, folks.

My roommates here in Florence turned out to be fans as well, so we agreed to all spend a day doing the tour together. It was quite a journey getting there-we left at 4PM and just made it in time to make the 6PM tour slot, since we took several forms of public transportation around London and then over to the studios.

It. Was. Mindblowing.

I started tearing up when the opening video started playing, with the cast and JK Rowling all speaking to the audience about what the past decade of their lives were like. I kid you not, I started to tear up. These tears spilled over when the projection screen the video was being played on slid up to reveal the ACTUAL DOOR LEADING TO THE GREAT HALL AT HOGWARTS.

I could give you a detailed recount of every single thing I looked at during the entire tour, but for the sake of time, I’ll just summarize. Every single prop/set they ever created for the movies, all eight of them, was in the studios. Everything from costumes (its funny to see how they all grew in ten years!) to small props such as textbooks, potions, and horcruxes (because the horcruxes weren’t that big of a deal in HP or anything…), to even the Knight Bus and the front of Privet Drive. Even the giant chess pieces from the Sorcerer’s Stone were there!

This was so overwhelming, not just because I’m a Harry Potter fan, but the sheer detail and work that went into all of this. I pride myself on having an eye for detail, but wow these movie people are something else. They slaved away for weeks of their lives, creating each individual piece that was part of an entire set, most of them you never even get to appreciate when watching the movies because they are only on screen for a moment. I don’t know how they did it-I would go crazy if I spent days creating a specially designed fireplace, just to have it in the background of one single shot.

Anyway, this definitely was the highlight of my entire study abroad experience. I am a Potterhead and I am not ashamed to admit it. I am so, so glad I went and I am so glad that the tour exists-the people who worked on these movies definitely need more acknowledgement! Check out the pictures to get a feel for what I mean, and visit this place if you are ever around the London area PLEASE.