TRAVEL – Page 2

Truffle Fair

Location – San Miniato Truffle Fair (Various dates in November)

The first time I tried truffle I wasn’t all that impressed – it smelled really strongly of gas and looked pretty gross. I remember thinking that people must like it because it’s rare and exclusive. It only took a few more tastes though before I was hooked – that stuff really grows on you! Or not, as the case may be, because truffles are a fungus and this is what makes them so rare – you can’t cultivate them and you need trained dogs or pigs to sniff them out. On top of that they seem to only be found in certain areas of Italy and France, and a very few on the West Coast of the US.

One of these areas is the beautiful countryside around San Miniato in Tuscany, where they hold a truffle fair every November. If you’ve ever thought, ‘I like this [insert food stuff], but it would be better with truffle’ – you’ll find it here..cheeses, salamis, hams etc. These are found in the stalls in the lower part of the old town, where you then you work your way up to the the top part with its breathtaking view overlooking the Tuscan countryside. The view is reserved for the special stalls – they literally have red velvet carpeting – to showcase the don of the truffles: the white truffle. These are weighed on chrome scales and if you’re really keen on them – you can take them away with you for about $200+ per 100g. We bought a tiny piece and had it with butter and parmesan tagliatelle that night. So so good!

Italy has all types of food fairs year-round and nationwide. They call them Sagras and they can be devoted to anything from cherries, fish, tagliatelle, pumpkin ravioli.. anything really. I’ve had some of my best meals with sporks and plastic plates at these fairs. As a bonus they’re usually held in the pretty piazzas of old, picturesque towns. All the English sites only seem to have dates for the big food expos but this translatable Italian one is pretty good.

Tuscany

Tights – Topshop; Jacket – H&M; Skirt – Liu Jo; Boots – Ralph Lauren, I also like these Laboutin ones; Shirt – Pepe Jeans Andy Warhol collection; Bag – Braccialini.

Location – San Miniato, Tuscany

Of all the places I’ve lived in and travelled to in the world, I know that Tuscany is the place where I’m going to end up; hopefully in a house like the one in Under the Tuscan Sun, with fountains and cypress trees all around it. I’m even willing to have a bird poop on my head if that’s what it takes (That’s not totally random, you have to see the film.) Not only is Tuscany aesthetically beautiful – think rolling olive groves steeped in mist and beautiful crumbling Renaissance buildings – but I find the lifestyle and its emphasis on family time, food and togetherness beautiful too. It’s a stereotype I suppose but I can only speak for my own loud Italian family and their ~~obsession with~~ emphasis on delicious meals and family gatherings. In case you hadn’t guessed – that’s my lovely nonna in one of the pics!

Lots of people know about the famous Tuscan towns – Florence, Lucca, Siena – but the fact is that there are so many old towns and hamlets dotted throughout Tuscany that are all so beautiful. They all invariably have picturesque piazzas, old churches and of course restaurants worth visiting. This town where I took the pictures for example is not particularly touristy, except for a few days maybe during the Truffle Festival (next post), but it’s one of my favourite places in the world. (Also my boyfriend’s, who has his eye on a church there :):):)) If I were visiting Tuscany for the first time I would rent out a car and take the country routes to as many pretty towns as I had time to see, taking unscheduled stops on the way. Elena Nacci has a really good shortlist of less touristy places to visit in Tuscany.

Tuscany is also famous for its manufacturing and artisanal goods. Some of the most famous designer brands originate here – Gucci, Prada, etc. The bag I’m wearing in the pictures is by popular Italian label Braccialini and is also based in Florence. They make really cute and unique designs and I would gladly own every single one of their bags. I love how they can make a dark winter outfit really pop.

Brick Lane

Shearling coat – Vintage, I also love this one from ACNE Studios; Skirt – vintage from Rokit; Shirt – Oscar Milo; Hat – H&M; Shoes – Converse; Bag – Yves Saint Laurent vintage.

One of the best things about London is that here you can wear whatever you want and nobody will bat an eye. In fact, the general rule seems to be the weirder, the cooler. Continue reading Brick Lane

Notting Hill

Dress – The Kooples; Bag – Paul’s Boutique London; Booties – Vintage; Bag Charms – DIY off an old bracelet

I had to do the obligatory fashion blogger shoot by the pastel-coloured houses in Notting Hill! It really is one of the loveliest areas of London. As I lived centrally getting on the n.7 bus to Notting Hill (so much nicer than the tube if you have the time and patience) seemed like a day out to a different town. I’ve always thought London was the best walking city out of all the European ones I’ve been to and Notting Hill is a great example. Wander along Portobello road for antiques, bric-a-brac and fresh flowers and food and on to Westbourne Grove for fancy shops, boutiques and brunch.

The quieter, residential back streets like the ones where I took these pictures are definitely worth a wander through, too. I went in the early afternoon on a sunny winter weekday. It was strangely mild so I thought I’d wear my new Kooples dress. I loved the sixties, almost Mod-London look of it and thought I’d pair it with these vintage booties I got in London a while ago. P.s. the dress is now 50% off!

Continue reading Notting Hill

Maine + New Hampshire

My reasons for always wanting to visit Maine are a bit strange, and in hindsight, not actually very representative – The Perfect Storm (spoiler alert incoming if you haven’t seen it), a good but miserable movie about Mainian/Maininitian?? fisherman who die in a massive hurricane in the Atlantic, and Stephen King horror stories set in Maine. Bit weird, but I was really attracted to the idea of the dramatic Atlantic weather, wave-battered fisherman boats and salty, sea-debris encrusted buoys. And the lobsters. Some of Maine was like that, but a lot of the more touristy towns were much more curated and traditionally pretty than I’d imagined. Kennebunkport in particular was a really quaint tiny town on a small, pretty harbour with tea-shops and perfectly manicured houses and gardens. Plus the weather was amazing; we even got to eat outside by the harbour a few times.

Camden was slightly less touristy. We spent the day there walking around the harbour with the sound of the boats’ clanking fishing ropes, and the evening playing pool in a very local pub. Some of my favourite places were more off-route – like when we went looking for Perry’s lobster shack in Surry near Bar Harbor. The shack sits right on top of Union River bay, which is so protected it looks like an enormous beautiful lake. You eat on picnic tables on a pier in the middle of the water. I even got to talk to a fisherman with bright yellow fishing overalls and a very long beard, which made me happy.

Bar Harbor is famous as it’s the entry-town to Acadia National park. This and White Mountain national forest were top of my list as I’ve always wanted to see the leaf-fall in the East Coast and they are both amazing spots for it. I hope the pictures do it justice.

Sleeping: Whenever I travel to the US I love to stay in motels. My favourite in Maine was the Eden Village motel, which has tiny stand-alone cottages as well as the classic, by-the-road style rooms. It even had a pink, neon motel sign. At White Mountain national forest we stayed at the Rabbit Hill Inn in Vermont, which I came across in my bible – 1,000 places to see before you die. The inn is in a town of about 50 people, and is so quaint that every afternoon they serve tea and cookies by the fireplace in their cosy main room. We also had the best dinner of the trip at their restaurant.

Eating: Any lobster shack! The most famous one we went to was the Clam shack in Kennebunkport. It doesn’t have the best view and is a bit pricier than other ones we went to as it’s recently become really popular, but the lobster roll is amazing. There is a debate over whether rolls are better Maine style – cold with mayo, or New England style – warm with butter (really). The clam shack resolves this intractable dilemma by having both butter and mayo in their signature roll. I didn’t really notice the temperature as it lasted in my mouth about 5 seconds.

Standard/DUMBO

Jeans – Plein Sud; Blazer – H&M; Nylon shirt – American Apparel; Shoes – Taccetti; Belt – Vintage; Watch – Tissot; Bag – Balenciaga

It turns out that in the US you can’t get into a bar even with a scanned copy of your passport on your phone. Embarrassingly I still don’t have a driver’s license which means I have to walk around everywhere with my most prized possession in life, my passport, when I go out. Anyone that knows me knows that my track record at ‘object retention’ ain’t that great so it’s not exactly ideal. I’ve heard stories about 80 year olds being asked for ID in the US – you’d have to be pretty desperate for a drink to try to get into a bar dressed in full-on professional prosthetic gear. Anyway, the Standard at the High-line – great atmosphere, cool decor and the view of the city and Hudson river is incredible. This and DUMBO seem to be the places to be at the moment. My whole life I’ve stared at the movie poster in my house of Once upon a time in America with it’s iconic sepia photo of the Williamsburg bridge shot from Brooklyn – it felt amazing to finally see it for real.

Do you have an item of clothing you love so much that you don’t wear it nearly as much as you should for fear of ruining it? No? Well that’s me with these shoes. I’m slightly obsessed. I’m going to get over myself and start wearing them more often. I’ve worn shoes by the same brand , Taccetti, in previous posts. It’s an Italian company that makes the most beautiful shoes with the most beautiful leather. I honestly love pretty much everything they make, even the men’s shoes. I love these rust-coloured jeans from Plein Sud for the fall as well – I got them at TK Maxx (not TJ) which I think is so much fun to browse. I noticed though that TJ, the US version, doesn’t seem to have quite as good a selection of brands?? Not sure – maybe it was that one store, or maybe, most likely, I hadn’t had my browsing coffee. I highly recommend it as a vintage/browsing shopping pre-requisite.

Cuba

I actually went to Cuba back in 2014 but I’ve decided I want to start doing throwback Thursdays of some of my favourite trips. So often I take pictures of trips never really to revisit them again so I think it’ll be a nice way to re-live those memories.

We started the trip in Old Havana. More than anywhere else in Cuba, it was here that I felt like I’d been transported back in time to the 1950’s. There was not a single modern structure I saw in those old cobblestone streets that interrupted the view of the beautiful Spanish colonial houses, churches and piazzas. Continue reading Cuba

Anguilla

The start of this trip was pretty inauspicious – a direct, 25-minute flight to our destination at St. Martin and they managed to lose my luggage. Everybody we told about it just burst out laughing. I got it back later the next day but it meant that we spent a lot of the first day in or around the airport. Luckily St Martin happens to have one of the most famous airports in the world. The runway is so close to the beach (Maho) it feels as if the plane is about to land on top of you, and the force and noise of the jet stream when the planes take off is insane. I don’t know why I didn’t get any pictures – I must have been concerned about my luggage! Continue reading Anguilla

IKWETTA

Sandals – Ikwetta; Romper – Calzedonia; Sunglasses – Ray Ban Wayfarer

Location – Cooper Island, BVI

If I get sent something that I’ve agreed to feature on the blog I’ll normally wait to take pictures before I wear it but I couldn’t resist with these sandals! I saw them in pictures and thought they were incredibly cute but I was even more impressed when I saw the beautiful beading and the colours up close. I’m kind of in love. They’re also for an awesome cause – you won’t find them in stores as Ikwetta is an online retailer selling hand-made African artisanal products. It started as a kickstarter campaign and aims to fairly reward the creative value of these awesome designers. Both of these sandals are from the Gladiator Maasai collection. I chose these as the gladiator sandals that are everywhere right now can be a little intense for the beach but these are perfect. I think I saw that there’s an option to get the Turkana tie-backs (last pic) with a bit of heel which looks amazing. I paired them with this cute romper from Calzedonia. I have to admit this outfit makes me very happy – I don’t think I realised before I came out to the Caribbean that I didn’t have to dress like I was in a commercial for a time-share or resort when I went to the beach. In fact I don’t think I own a single item in white linen. Success.

The photos are taken on Cooper Island in the BVI. The only way to get to Cooper is by boat and since J just recently co-bought a little sailboat we decided that this would be her maiden voyage! Continue reading IKWETTA

St John travel video

Morning all! I’m excited to share my first ever travel video of stunning St John on the blog today. You can tell it’s my first video because for the first half of the trip I forgot to take the plastic cover off for the audio! So it’s mainly pretty music this time around (And I’ve just noticed that the lyrics are incongruous/hilarious!). I’m keen to improve the general image quality so if any of you guys also do videos and have any tips please let me know. Hope you enjoy 🙂

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