Harry Styles rarely catches his breath. Since the world reopened after Covid in 2021, the man has been on tour basically the entire time.
First, he was touring his 2019 album, Fine Line, following a stalled promotional process due to the pandemic. Then he was touring his third album, the two-time Grammy award-winning Harry’s House, released in 2022.
Both of these album cycles were rolled into one big tour, Love On Tour, which consisted of seven legs spread over the course of 22 months. He started in September 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada, and concluded in July 2023 in Reggio Emilia, Italy.
That’s one hell of a tour. Oh, and the only substantial gap he had between shows was in mid-2022, in the lead-up to the press tour for Don’t Worry Darling. So that wasn’t exactly a restful period, either.
It makes sense that he’s been taking a well-deserved break over the past year, although it appears he’s embarked on an entirely different kind of world tour.
Harry Styles has been on a glorified gap year throughout 2024 and 2025, often cropping up in the strangest of spots, in a sort of Forrest Gump-style situation.
Last night, he was spotted in St Peter’s Square in Rome for the announcement of the new Pope. Clad in his requisite baseball cap and sunglasses, the singer was amongst hundreds of people watching and filming as Pope Leo XIV was elected.
Harry Styles spotted in Rome for the new Pope announcement. pic.twitter.com/LqERgA7FNL
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) May 8, 2025
Hilariously unexpected — but not entirely out of place, given that Styles has spent much of his gap year in Rome, hanging out with his friend Alessandro Michele, the creative director of Valentino.
Styles has reportedly been staying with Michele at his house in the centre of the city and in May, the pair were spotted dining with friends at Il Pagliaccio, the city’s only two-Michelin star restaurant.
The Watermelon Sugar singer was spotted on another outing to Trastevere’s Porta Portese, the largest flea market in the city. Styles was spotted buying a pair of shoes from one of the stalls in June 2024.
And he isn’t wedded to Rome, either. In March, DeuxMoi reported that Styles had been seen chatting to fans on the streets of Florence. The gossip site also dropped hints that he was hanging with a “mystery brunette” during some fan encounters.
Along with Harry Styles’s adventures in Italy, he’s been cropping up across other parts of Europe, too: he was repeatedly spotted in Berlin, with sightings reported of him in legendary superclub Berghain. Fitting, seen as the slogan cap he was pictured wearing in Rome read “techno is my boyfriend” (a borrowed item from pal Alessandro Michele).
Berghain is renowned for being eyewateringly exclusive, and it doesn’t just let in any old celebrity: Elon Musk was famously denied entry in 2022.
According to The Sun, Styles was visiting Berlin to record his next album, apparently inspired by the late, great David Bowie, who recorded a trio of albums — Low, Heroes and Lodger — in the city. “Harry wanted to take some time out following Harry’s House and his massive world tour,” a source told The Sun.
“Now, he is busy finishing up his next record and, like Bowie, Berlin seems to be the city which is inspiring him. Harry loves having a bit of mystery around what he does.”
Styles has been pictured multiple times with Kid Harpoon, the British singer-songwriter who co-wrote Styles’ hit As It Was, further suggesting that new music is on the horizon.
He was also spotted at Soho House Berlin, where a source told DeuxMoi he was working out in the hotel gym for “an hour and a half”. Impressive.
While in Berlin, Styles accidentally went viral on TikTok after he helped a young woman pay for her taxi fare when she realised she didn’t have enough euros to cover it. The woman claimed she offered Styles some dollars in return, to which he replied: “No thank you, I’m not going to America.”
He may not be keen on America, but Styles has certainly ventured out of Europe on his gap year: in another Forrest Gump-esque moment, it was discovered that he had secretly run the Tokyo Marathon in March. And with a pretty amazing time, too: three hours and 24 minutes. Not too shabby, Harry.
Harry Styles has made some occasional returns to London on his gap year, where he often hails a Lime bike and hangs out with old friend James Corden.
It is unknown if the beloved Englishman will ever return to his Hampstead Heath lodgings for good. According to the Daily Mail, he was recently given the go-ahead to restore a new property in the area that he bought in 2019, having submitted the planning application last summer. But until that happens, at least he’s enjoying la dolce vita.
