beauty and the books
once upon a time, in the middle of nowhere austria, was a monastery that housed arguably the world's most beautiful library. one so stunning that it was even the inspiration for the library in beauty and the beast. after seeing a photo of this heavenly place on instagram (vaguely geo-tagged austria), i set out on the quest to track it down. after hours of research...okay dramatic but whatever...i finally found it: admont abbey. the town of admont was located on the way to salzburg, austria (where we were heading next) and figured that we would stop there on the way for convenience. but thankfully i looked at the hours and would have been closed the day we were heading to salzburg (as well as the remainder of our trip). so we had to move to plan b. after our morning at the schönbrunn palace, we hopped in the car to make the 3 hour journey to admont. aka a total of 6 hours "to do it for the gram."
of course, more often than not, when you see a photo on instagram and then venture to the location, it ends up looking nothing like the photos. either some extreme editing or photoshopping is done to make photos look picture perfect. so there was a little part of me that was nervous that with such high hopes for this library, i would be disappointed...and a 6 hour travel day would have been wasted. upon arriving to the monastery, the library was behind two massive closed doors with a volunteer guiding guests inside. tight security if you ask me! but as the doors opened, it took my breath away. the pictures truly can't and will never to it justice. floor to ceiling, this place was heaven on earth and i nearly refused to leave! but we had to head back through the alpes on our windy journey back home. thankfully on our way back, we weren't rushed and actually stopped to take in the scenery. not too shabby if you ask me.
if you're ever in austria, i highly recommend making the trek out to the cutest little town with the most magnificent library hidden in the alpes.
top: kate spade
skirt: max mara
shoes: chanel
belt: gucci
bracelets: cartier, kate spade
earrings: tory burch
bag: celine (similar here)
omg and no sunglasses!
