(To be translated) On a désormais comme tradition de partir quelques jours en novembre pour fêter mon anniversaire. L’année dernière on avait fait un petit road trip en nouvelle Fiat 500 dans le sud-ouest de la France (vous pouvez relire l’article ici et revoir la vidéo ici), cette année c’était Florence mais en vieille Fiat 500, mon rêve (oui j’ai des rêves accessibles) !
On commence comme d’habitude par une petit vidéo mais pour changer c’est cette fois-ci c’est un vlog fait par le Rital (en anglais). J’espère que ça vous plaira, n’hésitez pas à me donner votre avis dans les commentaires.

Revenons-en à nos Fiat moutons. Mon cadeau d’anniversaire cette année ? Sillonner la campagne de Florence pendant quelques heures dans une Fiat 500 vintage décapotable qui fait un boucan d’enfer et bien sûr sans suspensions, l’éclate totale !

On ne pouvait pas m’offrir plus beau cadeau si ce n’est la voiture en elle-même (qu’on peut d’ailleurs trouver à moins de 5000€ en Italie), encore merci le Rital ! Le tour était organisé par We like Tuscany, qui propose des virées dans Florence en Fiat 500 rétro, en vélo ou bien en Vespa. Nous avons sillonné la campagne florentine pendant 3h en suivant un guide qui conduisait lui-même une Fiat 500. Le guide était un américain hyper sympa qui a été ravi d’apprendre que le Rital était aussi ricain.

Après un petit temps d’adaptation (pas facile à conduire ces petits bolides) on est sorti de la ville et pris des petites routes de campagne, c’était tellement beau ! Cela a conforté le Rital dans l’idée que plus tard il aimerait ouvrir un bed & breakfast en campagne florentine. :)

On a ensuite fait une petite halte sur le chemin du retour dans une petite buvette qui ne paye pas de mine mais l’ambiance est authentique et on y mange de bonnes pâtes fraîches dans des assiettes en plastique directement au comptoir (Pizzicheria – Via Isola delle Stinche, 50122 Firenze).

Bref, c’était le cadeau parfait, j’avais le sourire jusqu’aux oreilles tout le long et je crois que le Rital s’est bien amusé à la conduire ! Si vous venez à Florence je vous le recommande, c’est le meilleur moyen de visiter les alentours.

La ville :

C’était la 2e fois que je me rendais à Florence mais la première fois c’était il y a déjà de ça quelques années et en été donc sous une chaleur suffocante. Cette fois-ci on a eu de la chance le premier jour car il faisait plutôt doux pour un mois de novembre et ensoleillé. Malheureusement le lendemain c’était l’inverse, il est tombé des torrents toute la journée non stop, on a donc pas réussi à faire tout ce qu’on voulait.

Heureusement on avait visité le centre historique le samedi et j’avais déjà fait pas mal de photos. Qu’est-ce qu’il y a à voir ? Admirez la Piazza del Dumo sur laquelle se trouve la majestueuse cathédrale Santa Maria del Fiore, allez jeter un œil à l’église Santa Marina Novella ou encore traversez le Ponte Vecchio et admirez la vue, sans oublier de passer par la fameuse Piazza della Signoria.

Santa Maria del Fiore – Piazza del Duomo

Santa Marina Novella

Ponte Vecchio

Piazza della Signoria

A côté de cette place se trouve le Mercato Nuovo où l’on vend de nombreux produits en cuirs comme des ceintures ou des sacs mais c’est sous la loggia du marché qu’il y a l’attraction la plus populaire du marché : la fontana del porcellino. Vous devez placer une pièce dans la bouche du sanglier et lorsqu’elle tombe dans l’eau, vous devez frotter son museau. L’argent déposé dans la fontaine est ensuite distribué aux associations caritatives de la ville. Bien sûr en tant que bonne touriste il fallait que je le fasse.

Le jardin de Boboli est un magnifique jardin à l’italienne bâti sur une colline qui vaut le coup d’œil pour ses paysages et sa collection de sculptures romaines et florentines des XVI et XVIIe siècles. C’était déjà superbe avec les couleurs de l’automne mais j’imagine que cela doit être encore plus beau au printemps.

A la sortie du jardin, au niveau de Palais Pitti vous pourrez apercevoir cette surprenante grotte artificielle.

grotte de Buontalenti

Quelques photos en vrac de cette superbe ville.

Palazzo Medici Riccardi

Hôtel Cellai :

Après le Château Sainte Sabine j’ai testé une 2e adresse Châteaux Hôtel Collection : le Cellai Boutique Hotel qui est en plein cœur du centre historique de Florence donc on peut difficilement faire plus central. L’hôtel est très cosy et joliment décoré.

Le must du must de cet hôtel c’est ce charmant salon situé sur la terrasse, au dernier étage de l’hôtel, qui offre une vue incroyable sur les toits de Florence.

Quant aux chambres elles sont spacieuses, confortables et chics tout en restant sobres.

Et la salle de bain tout de blanc immaculé on en parle ?!

Bref, encore un très bel hôtel avec un personnel aux petits soins comme à chaque fois chez Châteaux Hôtels Collection, vivement qu’on teste une 3e adresse ! :)

Cellai Boutique Hotel – Via 27 aprile 14, 52r

Quelques adresses :

Voici quelques adresses testées ce week-end.

Ermini, un magasin de tissu où le Rital a acheté une magnifique cravate à un prix défiant toute concurrence. En Italie et à Florence en particulier, on peut trouver des produits de très bonne qualité beaucoup moins chers qu’en France.

Ermini – Via Borgo San Lorenzo n.3

Borsalino Boutique pour s’acheter le célèbre chapeau et se la jouer Al Capone.

Borsalino boutique – Via Porta Rossa, 40/red, 50123 FLORENCE

Ub Firenze pour chiner mais les vendeurs sont loin d’être chaleureux…

Ub Firenze – 50123, Via dei Conti, 4, Florence

Le Mercato Centrale pour faire ses courses au rez-de-chaussée et pour bien manger à l’étage.

Mercato Centrale – Via dell’Ariento, 50123 Florence

Les meilleurs cantuccini sont chez Il cantuccio di San Lorenzo !

Il cantuccio di San Lorenzo – via Sant’Antonio 23 / rouge

Les pâtisseries chez Scudieri sont bonnes mais vous pouvez aussi juste faire une halte café au comptoir.

Scudieri – Viale Don Giovanni Minzoni, 19/R, 50129 Florence

Les glaces chez Gelateria della Passera sont faites maison et sont pas mal du tout.

Gelateria della Passera – Via Toscanella, 15/red, 50125 Florence

Au restaurant La Spada où on y mange une bonne ribollita, une soupe toscane de légumes et de pain.

Ristorante La Spada – Via della Spada, 62/R, 50123 Florence

Je vous souhaite un très bon dernier week-end avant Noël les amis !

Vous pouvez retrouver tous mes autres articles italiens ici (avec Milan, Rome, Lac d’Orta, Côte Amalfitaine, Bergame, Lac de Côme).

Ciao ragazzi !

I took these pictures last summer and I don’t know why they’ve been sleeping on my computer till today. I took these pictures to blog about the city and then I totally forgot about them. I read a blog post about Bergamo yesterday which made me realize that I still needed to make you discover this beauty and to add another Italian city to my Italy category which is becoming bigger and bigger. Do you remember when I told you that I knew Italy better than my own country? ;)

There are 3 airports close to Milan and the smallest one is in Bergamo. The city is split in 2 : the upper city, the medieval city surrounded by ramparts and the lower city, the administrative center of the city. I will now let you discover this city through some pictures.

It’s a Bergamasco speciality called “Polenta e Osei”. It’s a cake made from sponge cake, chocolate, butter, hazelnut creams and rum. It’s covered with yellow marzipan to make it looks like polenta.

the garden of the old town

Piazza Vecchia

Tadaaam here is the “pièce de résistance”: the Capella Colleoni ! This chapel decorated with marble is a concentrate of art and beauty, a true art Renaissance masterpiece that I will never get tired of.

Capella Colleoni

the cathedral

the lower city

If you plan to go to Milan for Spring, don’t forget to go to Bergamo, you won’t regret it, trust me! :)

Arrivederci, I’ll see you next Friday for some vitamin recipes. A presto!

I’m sorry, I’ve not been blogging since 3 weeks because I had some family issues but most of all because I didn’t have time and here is the main reason.

Let me introduce you to Sticky our adorable cocker!!! Why Sticky ? Because she’s following us everywhere and in French we use the expression “pot of glue” to describe this.  The picture above has been taken at the breeder when we first saw her, she was just  2 months old. Today she is 3 months old.

We are already crazy about her even if she likes to bite our feet and had some crazy moments when she runs everywhere in the appartment. She’s learning very fast and is growing even faster!

Last weekend she mad her first trip with the Boyfriend : Paris-Milan by car  (a 9 hour drive)! I joined them in Milan just for the weekend at my parents-in-law but she’s staying with the Boyfriend for 10 days. I miss her already. :(

I hope you’re not tired of seeing my mother-inlaw house because I love taking pictures of it, especially during Christmas season (she is American and you can see it, she loves Christmas and can make her house even more welcoming). Here are “some” pictures of our lovely weekend in family with Sticky.

It’s a fake Xmas tree. I usualy don’t like fake trees but I must say that this one is really nice and so well decorated. All the ornaments are handmade by members of the family. I love it!

The panettone, is a Milan speciality which is eaten at Christmas.

My Aigle boots are my best friends to walk Sticky.

After going round the house several times and playing in the garden, we took Sticky to nonna’s (grandma) to meet the family. Everyone loved her! We also took her for the first time to a restaurant and she was very nice.

Finally she strolled in the streets of Milan very slowly because she kept smelling everything and we’ve been stopped every 100m by passers who wanted to pet her. That is what being irresistible means. :)

All my previous posts in Milan are here, here and here and all my favourite Milan spots are here.

What do you think of our little beauty, are you also in love?

See you soon for some new Sticky’s adventures and in the meantime let me wish you all a very merry Christmas. See you in 2016!

No I’m not taking you to Las Vegas, I didn’t fly to the US for the weekend. :) Bellagio is not only a casino, it’s also a little town in Italy on Lake Como. Sorry for those of you who were expecting a bling-bling post, it is actually quite the opposite. ;)

Como is very close to Milan. I already had several opportunities to visit it but I didn’t know Bellagio. On this beautiful sunny day, we decided to hit the road to go discover it. It took us a long time to get there because of work on the road but the wonderful landscape helped during the wait.

We thought we had arrived when we realized that our GPS was stupid because Bellagio was on the other side of the lake…no problem, we boarded with the car on the ferry and it was after all even more fun!

As soon as we arrived, I knew immediately I would love this place when I saw all these beautiful old cars parked along the lake and I also spotted an adorable Fiat 500 despite its camouflage attempts.

So what did we do in Bellagio? Nothing much actually except strolling along the lake and in the small streets which climb up. It is time to open your eyes and admire the landscape (and play the photographer for tourists), to have a nice gelato, to breathe the sweet scent of flowers and fully enjoy the dolce vita. It’s so good to do nothing!

If you like lakes, go stroll in the Lake Orta area, it’s quite lovely.

Last week I spent some days in Milan at the boyfriend’s house and so I took this opportunity to go visit the Universal exhibition. I am opening you the doors today of the Expo (and don’t miss the little surprise at the end. :)

Like you might have learned in the medias, the inauguration was affected by violent incidents from opponents to the Expo but fortunately everything got back to normal quickly.

More than 130 countries participate and more than 20 millions of visitors are expected on a gigantic site of one million square meters  from the 1st of May to the 31st of October 2015.

“Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life” is the core theme of Expo Milano 2015. Visitors will follow thematic paths on the complex world of food and will be invited for a trip around the world through savors and traditions of the people of the Earth.

As you can easily guess, we didn’t have time to see everything in just one day but to see the most of it we walked for 9 hours non-stop and saw I think more or less half of it.

All the pavilions are not worth seeing so I will show you some of the ones we’s visited so you can visit the Expo from home or it can help you organize your future visit.

Nepal:

We started by Nepal pavilion sheltered by a beautiful temple. Because of the devastating earthquake that hit the country, the representatives were forced to leave Milan to go back to Nepal. Italian volunteers worked around the clock to complete the pavilion in time. However, the pavilion is not completely furnished yet and the restaurant is still closed for the moment.

Bahrain:

We continued with Bahrain pavilion where you can stroll in a landscape of Bahraini fruit gardens and admire archeological finds from thousand years ago. You can also enjoy a drink on this colorful terrace.

Vietnam:

Vietnam is a wonderful bambou pavilion inspired from lotus flowers to focus on the importance of water and because it’s a locale flower that purifies the water in which it thrives. Inside the pavilion, there are folk instruments made of bamboo and handicraft. I was a bit disappointed by the inside of the pavilion, especially at the 1st floor which had nothing to do with the theme of the Expo.

Austria:

This pavilion is a must see because the visitor is immersed in a small scale Austrian forest that provides 62.5 kilograms of fresh oxygen every hour, without filters or conditioners, which is enough for 1,800 people in an ideal climate, providing wellness and absorbing CO2. It is demonstrating the benefits of a reforestation policy against the global decline of green areas. This pavilion is very popular so be ready to wait in line for like 20 minutes.

Belgium:

The s structure of the pavilion is environmentally sustainable and at its heart is presented its culinary tradition and alternative feeding methods like  seaweed cultivation and hydroponics. You can also eat some delicious Belgian fries, enjoy a traditional Belgian beer and the most important : delicious Belgian chocolate!

France:

I have been told that France pavilion was very bad but I was pleasantly surprised. The building is made of pine wood from Jura and is inspired by the covered market, a symbol of French culture.

To access it, the visitor has to cross a garden made of 3 different cultivations : cereals cultivation, polyculture and vegetable cultivation.
Inside the pavilion there are kitchen utensils, bottles of wine and foodstuff nested in the vaults. Outside there are a French boulangerie, a restaurant, a brasserie, a street food area and a boutique where you can find all the variety and quality of French food.

Qatar :

The pavilion is architecturally amazing with this circular structure at the center that is reminiscent of the form of the traditional food basket – the jefeer – symbolizing the interweaving of local dimensions and global innovation which characterizes Qatar. Strolling in this pavilion is very exotic because it feels like you’re in a souk.

USA :

Some pavilions are not so interesting but most of the time it’s because they are countries which don’t have a lot of money but some others don’t have any excuses like USA! It’s very boring and the video of Obama made me laugh… The only thing I liked is the vertical agricultural area on the building structure.

UK:

The design of the pavilion is inspired by the unique role that the hives have in our ecosystem. To access it the visitor have to cross a high wildflower meadow to see the same perspective as the bee when it is gathering pollen. It is one of my favorite pavilions, so poetic!

Republic of Korea (South Korea):

The first part has a murky atmosphere to deal with global food crisis. The 2nd part is a good representation of the technological leader that is Korea and treats of themes like storage, fermentation which is the basis of Korean cuisine and harmony featured by a multimedia show. I like it a lot, it was very interesting and visually impressive.

Downstairs there is a Korean restaurant and a boutique where you can buy cultural products. When I got out from the boutique I said « Annyeonghi gyesayo » (= goodbye, memory from my trip in Korea) to the hostesses. You should have seen their faces! They stared at me  wide-eyes for a few seconds and they repeated happily « Annyeonghi gyesayo » bowing at the same time. They were impressed and so thankful at the same time, I really love Korean culture!

Japan:

Let’s finished with Japan, my favorite! The pavilion is surrounded by pieces of wood and inside you can attend to some beautiful play of lights and to an interactif show in a virtual restaurant. It’s exuberant and technological as the Japan is.  Here again be prepared to wait in line for a long time because the visit lasts approximatively 1h but it is totally worth it!

I’m stopping there because I can feel that you’re falling asleep and that you are scrolling till you dislocate your finger.

Admire the beauty of these magnificent architectures!

And here are some more pictures of the Expo.

Talking about food and walking for 9 hours makes you feel hungry but don’t worry you won’t starve because you can buy local products in some pavilions but you can also savor local culinary specialities in restaurants, food trucks and bars (they are more than 150). I strongly recommend you the banana chips and the gazelle horn ice cream. :)

Voilà I hope you liked it. In a few words I would say : wonderful architectural contribution, innovative digital instrument, increasing awareness of sustainable development, education on nutrition and thinking of food wastage is on the agenda of this beautiful exhibition. It really feels like a travel around the world, it’s fascinating!

All the useful informations about the Expo are here.

Bonus : exclusively for you, here is a vlog (video blog) from the Boyfriend. Usually these videos are only private videos that he sends to his family and friends but this time he accepted to share it with you so you can see videos of the Expo. Don’t pay attention to me, I look stupid but it’s because he was always taking me by surprise so the only thing that came to my mind was to play the idiot. Sorry for that, I hope you won’t make you go away…

P.S. you can read again my Milan city guide with my favorite addresses of Milan here +  France is candidate to organize the Universal Exhibition of 2025. Fingers crossed!

All roads lead to Rome so let’s continue our way.

Like I told you here, I was invited to a blogger weekend by Mercure hotels in Rome where we ate so well and where we were privileged enough to visit the Vatican before it opens and parts of the Coliseum closed to the public… but that’s not all.

Eataly :

Do you remember that I talked to you about Eataly, the wonderful italian shop in my Milan city guide ?

After visiting the one in Torino and in Milan I had the chance to go to the one in Rome which is the biggest Eataly in the world (Eataly exits also in the US, in Japan, in Istanbul, in Dubai and soon in Paris). Eataly is a gourmet supermarket, a place of production (for mozzarella, bread and beer) and a cultural center (kitchen classes, exhibitions) of 17 000 m2 on 4 levels. The Boyfriend was super jealous to miss that !

After several tastings till ours stomachs were full, we had a cooking class where we gave ourselves completely to the preparation of 3 dishes of 3 varieties of pasta and sauces under the watchful eyes of the biker chef Sergio who wasn’t always lenient with us : “What is that, is it a poopooh di Yorkshire ?!”.

After 3h of mixing, cutting, slicing, kneading, rolling and spreading (watch your fingers) we finally saw the results and because we just couldn’t throw everything away after working so hard, we had a second lunch at 4pm (no need to say that it was delicious) !

Eataly – Piazzale XII Ottobre 1492 – 00154 Rome

Roman strolls :

To finish, I’m taking you with me for some Roman strolls because as you know wandering is my favorite way to discover a city and soaking in the atmosphere of a city. If you love dolce vita you will love Roma and the washing hanging outside, ochre-façade houses, flowered balconies, majestic churches, countless fountains that adorn the squares, colorful old Fiat 500 in every little street for my biggest pleasure…

I’d like to thank again Mercure for this amazing weekend and in particular Mélissa and Virginie and the whole Roma team! I never sang happy birthday so many times in a weekend and never laughed so much. And do you know what ? The 6 friends theory appeared to be true because we realized that we shared acquaintances even outside the blog world !

« It’s a small world after all » and now you’re going to hum it for hours. No please don’t thank me for that it’s a pleasure. J And for those of you who are wondering I can tell you for having worked at Eurodisney that the people who are working in this attraction don’t get any hardship allowances… ah ah ah !

I’ll leave you with the video Amélia made of our little trip that you can watch here and see you next Friday for the last post about my Korean trip.

Bonus : a picture I took in Roma 2 years ago. I couldn’t have imagined this even in my wildest dreams and now I want the same thing if I get married one day !

If you follow me on social medias you know that I went to Rome 2 weeks ago. Yes another trip, it’s true that I travelled a lot these past few weeks and I loved it, I love to travel so much but this time it was special because it was my first weekend with other bloggers !

I was invited with 5 other bloggers by Mercure hotels for a trip in the Eternal City : Roma ! This journey is part of The 6 Friends Theory operation, you know it’s the theory that says that everyone is six or less steps away from any other person in the world.

To confirm this theory, Mercure organized a crazy worldwide casting : The Six Friends Theory which will allow an Internet user to travel around the world and to meet 6 persons that connect him to an Australian Aboriginal. To be the lucky winner who will travel the world for 7 weeks in March,  you have until the 10th of February to post a video on the the contest Facebook page explaining why you are the best person for this trip.

If only my job would allow me to leave for 7 weeks I wouldn’t have hesitated for a second but unfortunately I have to pass so good luck to you my globe-trotter friends !

But what’s the link with this trip to Rome ? To promote this operation, Mercure formed blogger groups of 6 persons to travel to several cities in Europe to verify the theory.  I was chosen to be part of the Rome team. Considering the fact that it was my first weekend with bloggers I didn’t know what to expect. It’s not easy to go away on a weekend with people you don’t know, especially when you’re as shy as me.

When I knew that my friend Amélia was part of my blogger team I was immediately relieved. I met then the 4 other bloggers : Florence (Baby Modeuse), Marie (Into your closet), Sophie (La Dénicheuse) and Sébastien (Dandies) to bring a dose of testosterone (even though he was worse than a girl with his check-in luggage, his various outfits for shootings and it took him so long to get ready ah ah).  We got along so quickly that I forgot we had all just met and we were accompanied by an amazing team !

We had a pretty busy schedule so we didn’t sleep much. I’ve been done with my student years for a long time so it took me a while to get back into the rhythm.

Here is the program of our Italian weekend : cultural visits, very good restaurants, discovery of the biggest Eataly of the world and tastings plus cooking lesson with an Italian chef and finally Roman strolls.

The hotel :

First, let’s begin with the hotel we slept in : Mercure Rome Centre Colisée. You can hardly find a better location because it’s right next door the Coliseum and there is an amazing rooftop with a nice pool. Unfortunately I’ll have to come back during the summer for the pool. The rooms were so confortable, too bad we didn’t have time to enjoy our beds a little longer.

View from the rooftop of the hotel (picture by Amélia)

the hotel rooftop

Mercure Rome Centre Colisée – Via Labicana 144 – 00184 ROMA

VIP cultural visits :

Let’s continue with the cultural visits because they are the strong point of this trip even if I usually don’t like to visit too much (I think it’s because my father used to force me to visit a museum every weekend when I was a child and then asked me questions to be sure I listened).

I went to Rome for the 1st time 2 years ago with The Boyfriend but we didn’t have much time so we didn’t have time to visit the Vatican but this time we had the chance to visit the Vatican Museum before it opens to the public !   Well, when my alarm rang at 5.45 am on Saturday I didn’t really realized that I was a lucky person… but to be able to visit the Sixtine Chapel or the St Pierre basilic alone is a truly unique experience especially with the beautiful weather we had !

Viale Vaticano – 00165 ROMA

2nd VIP tour: the Coliseum. I had already visited it 2 years ago but not like this. First of all, we had an amazing city guide (Alessio) who was very passionate about his job and on top of that he had an adorable Italian accent (yes sometimes I regret that The Boyfriend speaks French without an accent), but we also had the privilege of visiting the Coliseum underground tunnels that are closed to the public.

These tunnels used to be where the animal cages were and where the gladiators trained before the fight.

The icing on the cake was that we were among the first ones after Obama to see the reconstituted machinery that used to raise and lower the sets and props !

Selfie with Alessio

Then we strolled in the Foro Romano still with our dear Alessio (yes I’m very sensitive to the Italian charm hi hi).

Ristoranti :

We ate so well and a lot ! I was thrilled to be able to go back to the Matricianella Where The Boyfriend took me 2 years ago. At first glance, the place doesn’t look anything special but the food is amazing and it’s really cheap ! Their specialties : linguine cacio e pepe (with cream, pecorino and pepper) and the spaghetti all’amatriciana (tomatoes, onions and bacon).

Ristorante Matricianella – Via del Leone – 400186 ROMA

Sora Lella is another typical restaurant located in the Jewish ghetto where we tasted a very good fried artichoke.

Sora Lella – Via di Ponte Quattro Capi – 16 00186 ROMA

So, did we manage to verify if the 6 friends theory is true ? I’ll reveal you the answer in the next episode with the rest of our Roman weekend. I know, what an unbearable suspense… a dopo ragazzi !

In the US, people gather the 4^th Thursday of November (in Canada it’s the 2th Monday of October) to celebrate Thanksgiving by sharing a good meal. Where does this tradition come from?

Origins :

It’s a reminder of the Native American role in the first American thanksgiving, a feast held to thank the Indians for sharing their knowledge and skills. Today Thanksgiving is a time for reflection, sharing, gratitude and sharing.

Thanksgiving  traditions:

The turkey is the main course and the side dishes depend on regional specialties but they are generally composed of bread stuffing, cranberry jelly and mashed potatoes. For the dessert it’s a delicious pumpkin pie (and we also had an apple pie). For those who are wondering, no you don’t offer gifts at Thanksgiving even though you can consider that spending precious time with your family and friend is a gift. Our 7kg turkey! The tradition is that you go around the table and hear what the guest are thankful for.

I’m so thankful for spending such a cosy weekend with my loved ones, eating delicious meals, drinking tea, petting a dog and flipping through lifestyle magazine. What a perfect cosy weekend ! I’m so thankful for having such a great family ! I love lifestyle magazines like Frankie and Kinfolk  (Kinfolk even made this wonderful book of recipe you see above) so I’m so happy to have discovered Simple Things that celebrates simple pleasures. The n°5 issue just came out : so cosy and inspiring ! I’ve never be happier to hear that I should finish the leftovers the next day ! If you want to see more about this fantastic house, go check this post that I posted last year about another cosy weekend in Milan.

Cosy speaking, let me show you some of the things I received in the last My little box (there were also a hair conditioner and a mascara). Have a lovely cosy weekend !

From what we saw we were not thrilled by the city. Maybe we didn’t’ go to the right places but it was very touristy and lacked charm.

We then took the road for the hotel. The road was kind of chaotic especially during the night because it was a narrow and sinuous mountain road, not illuminated at all and with crazy “Wacky races” drivers that didn’t care at all about the fact that 2 cars couldn’t pass at the same time. They were driving at high speed no matter what, you could fall in the ravine, it won’t be their problem !

We finally arrived at the hotel safe and sound.  Here is the room we slept in.

I will be brief this time because I didn’t love it like I did for the 2 previous ones. The room was nice (with a beautiful floor) but the B&B was a bit simple and sad.

Rianna rooms & Breakfast – Piazza San Pietro 1 – 84010 SCALA

The next morning, when we took back the road, I must say we enjoyed it a lot more even if people were still trying to push us in the ravine, but at least we could appreciate the beautiful landscape (well me, not the Boyfriend who was driving obviously).

This is the last picture I took before the camera stopped working.

We arrived in Amalfi, a touristy city but very charming.  It’s a city on a slope of the hill with cute alleys linked by small passages (you’ll understand better by watching the video at the end of this post). There are old Fiat 500 of every color here.

The beach is not amazing, it’s not a beach of fine golden sand and there’s a lot of people even at the end of September so it’s probably a lot worse during summer but it was quite nice to be able to soak our feet in the water.

Here is the beautiful duomo.

For lunch we snacked in the street with small grilled fishes in a paper cornet with some lemon juice and a good lemon sorbet.

After walking in the city, you easily understand why it’s listed as UNESCO world heritage. The city is really charming and I loved the strong dolce vita atmosphere. I would have loved to stay more but we had to go to our last stop : Positano, one of the most popular beach paradises of the area.

It’s a charming city as well where I liked to stroll in the narrow streets (even if there were a lot of steps to climb) and to look at the typical white fishermen’s houses. Positano is also listed as UNESCO world heritage.

While strolling, we came accross this cute juice bar frontage. We had already eaten (if you follow well we had grilled fishes and lemon sorbet) but we are « buone forchette » (litteraly « good forks » in Italian) so we were still hungry and the interior was very inviting.

We entered inside and wow I wasn’t expecting that ! How pretty ! Casa e Bottega is a coffee shop and a Mediterranean design shop at the same time.

Isn’ it beautiful ? But it’s also delicious ! Here, they serve you good local organic products : great selection of fruit smoothies, platters of freshly baked desserts and wonderfully fresh healthy salads – a nice reprieve from the overload of pasta and panini’s (apart from the fact that it was our second lunch hi hi) ! It’s beautiful, it’s good and the staff is super friendly : 10/10 for Casa e Bottega !

Casa e bottega – Via Pasitea, 100 – 84017 POSITANO

Positano is the coast’s most picturesque and photogenic town, with steeply-stacked houses tumbling down to the sea in a cascade of sun-bleached peach, pink and terracotta colors. The typical Italian postcard.

This is the end of our 3 day trip in Italy where we enjoyed beautiful landscapes and wonderful food. I think that the end of September is the best moment to go, there are less tourists and it’s not too hot to visit but the weather is still nice (we had between 25°c and 27°c).

Here is a video recap of this weekend in Naples, Capri, Amalfi and Positano. Don’t hesitate to tell me what you think of it and you can subscribe to my youtube channel so you won’t miss my strolling in videos. :)

http://youtu.be/-k48l_PzWfA

You can read the post about Naples here and the one about Capri here.

Have a nice weekend, arrivederci !

We didn’t plan to go to Capri because I’ve been told that it was too “touristy” and superficial so I decided to go to the island of Procida instead. One day before leaving for our trip (yes I know we are not organized people), we realized that the ferry timetable for Procida didn’t match our schedule and anyway the B&B we booked was closer to Capri. Therefore, we headed to Capri  (there’s a ferry for Capri every 30 minutes) and I don’t regret it even if I would have loved to see Procida.

In Naples we rented a car but unfortunately it wasn’t an old Fiat 500 (or an Ape Piaggio)… for that matter it wasn’t even a recent Fiat 500 but a Peugeot…what a disappointment ! However the landscapes were so beautiful that I quickly forgot about it. We took a ferry at Sorrento which in only 20 minutes took us to Capri. The ferry disembarked us at Marina Grande where you have 2 solutions to go up to the old city : ride up in the funicular or climb on foot. Of course I advise you to take these paths along cute houses and gardens even if there is a lot of steps to climb up (995 steps to be precise) but it’s quite quick and will “only” take you around 30 minutes. After climbing all these steps we were out of breath but happy and arrived in the center of the city filled with tourists and surrounded by luxury stores and chic restaurants. Ah this is what people were talking about ! However it was not that unpleasant to see. We only took a quick tour around because it wasn’t what we wanted to see. As soon as you go away from the center and from the crowd, you can see these long paths surrounded by wonderful villas and  lush gardens : this is where the magic happens ! We went to the “belvedere di Tragara” overlooking Marina Piccola. This is one of the most beautiful viewpoints of the island. We enjoyed this outstanding view while eating a granita. I enjoyed also so much all these ceramic stairs. You know how much I love old floor tiles so I was in heaven ! My shoes were a match made in heaven for these stairs. I was invited to the new Bensimon boutique opening in Paris (5 rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau) on September, where they offered me a pair of white shoes so that I could customize them during a DIY workshop. I knew I wouldn’t’ be able to do something nice so I decided to leave them white and to customize them with some Bensimon tattoos.  I love them like that, don’t you ?

In the afternoon, we took a bus to go to Anacapri, a village less famous than Capri on the island. You can also go by taxi or by bike.As soon as we arrived, we took an individual chairlift to fly over rich garden vegetation and admire this wonderful view (you can also go by foot if you want). The chairlift drops you on top of the Monte Solaro , the highest point of the island (589 meters), where there is a spectacular view on Capri, Naples gulf and Sorrento peninsula.Once on top, there isn’t much you can do except eat another granita on the big terrace facing this astonishing panorama.  Life is hard. The 3 rocks carved by the sea that you can see in the middle of the water are the famous  « faraglioni di Capri ».  We took back the chairlift to go down and we took the time to stroll in the streets of Anacapri which is less invaded by tourists and more authentic.  This village is really charming!

To eat :

We only spent the day on the island so we didn’t have that much time. We wanted to eat quickly but good still so we went to a small shop where we made our own sandwiches and it was delicious!

In the evening we went to a restaurant close to our hotel at Massa Lubrense (a  40 min ride from Sorrento harbor) which didn’t look anything special but mamma mia the food was amazing and the prices so cheap. We took an entrée, a meal, a dessert, a some wine and a digestive : we paid 20€ for 2 !As an antipasto we had a plate to share with delicatessen, cheese and tasty grilled vegetables. Then we had zucchini pastas for me and pastas with shells for him. (Sorry for the bad quality of the picture but it was quite dark).

Ristorante Eughenes – Via Roncato 9 – Termini, 80068 MASSA LUBRENSE (ITALIA)

To stay:

Like I told you, Capri wasn’t on our list so the B&B we booked wasn’t on the island but anyway it’s the best idea because hotels in Capri are very expensive and it wasn’t too far. If you’re looking for a cute hotel go to Casale Villarena that we found on Airbnb, you will love it ! It’s impossible not to, it’s so charming ! It’s an old property from the 18th century lost in the middle of the lemon trees. By the way, don’t forget to have a glace of limoncello (lemon liquor) made with their own lemons.The restaurant and breakfast room.When you go up the stairs you see a cute vegetable garden facing the sea. There’s also a former farm and its wine cellar from the 1400’s which has been restored and turned into a restaurant where you can participate in wine and cheese tastings or just have a romantic dinner. Here is another original lamp idea after the tea pot in Naples !Here this is our beautiful terrace with a view on the sea. And this is our room or I should say our little flat with a kitchen, a bathroom, a room and a tiny living room. If you want to come with your family or friends there are bigger apartments you can rent. Everything in this b&b was charming, even the staff with whom we had a nice chat. Gorgeous place isn’t it ?

Casale Villarena – Via Cantone 3 – 80061 NERANO (Massa Lubrense)

I’m really happy we went to Capri after all, don’t listen too much to bad comments, as soon as you go on wild paths you can easily see the authentic side of the island. I just regret we didn’t have time to go on walking trails in the middle of Mediterranean maquis  or to visit the blue cave or Villa Michele.

I’m leaving you with this picture of this fat cat, I think one of the biggest cats I’ve ever seen. I’m not surprised because I saw one cat in the street eating pasta ! Dolce vita is for everyone here. :)

See you for the 3rd and last post with Sorrento, Amalfi, Positano and a video at the end. Baci baci !