Welcome to my travel & photography blog!
I’m Jiayi, a Chinese-Italian (‘Chitalian’) photographer, writer, and content creator driven by a big passion for – you guessed it – travel!
My love affair with traveling began at age 6
…when my family and I bought a one-way ticket from northeastern China to Rome, Italy. For 12 years, I was raised in the Eternal City by my Chinese parents. I listened to Italian music, cheered for Roma in the Serie A football games, and became fluent in Roman slang. But though I stuffed myself with pizza and gelato all day, I still loved hot pot and bubble tea just as much.
Growing up, I never had just one culture or group of people to identify with.
I was proud to think of myself as both Asian and European, growing up with multicultural traditions as I adapted to an environment where I spoke 3 languages every day. I saw how beautiful it was to transcend the boundaries between cultures that are so different from one another, and living that experience has only made me crave it more.
That’s how The Diary of a Nomad began.
I let my curiosity drive me, and set off to see the world. I went on to live in the U.S., Japan, Peru, France, and Australia. My restless feet took me to 60+ countries and I’m not even halfway through my bucket list yet. The more I traveled, the more I became fond of photography as well. I taught myself how to shoot with a DSLR and began documenting my adventures. You can find all my recommended gear here.
Then, in 2019, travel + photography became my full-time job.
One day, I decided to share my travel photos on Instagram. Little did I know, my audience grew from 0 to 125K+ in 1.5 years, and I discovered a new passion: inspiring others to see the beauty of the world through my lens. Especially the places that aren’t often visited or talked about; those that are unfortunately misrepresented in the media.
In fact, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from globetrotting around the world, it’s that the countries that are often deemed “unsafe” (such as Iran, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan) are actually the most welcoming and remarkable ones. There are so many cultural misconceptions out there, and I hope with this blog, I can debunk as many of them as I can.