Can You Guess The City?

By now you probably noticed that I often mention one Italian city in particular. It’s probably because I lived there for more than a year and during that time I learned to love Italy. Do you know what city I mean?

The Greatest Love Story Ends With A Moving Letter

Some days ago I wrote about Romy Schneider, after that I got stuck on her story, in particular the relationship between her and Alain Delon. After spending hours trying to find a source or proof  to understand the love Alain had for Romy, I finally found something which brought me to tears. When Romy and Alain first met in their early 20’s both fell in love with each other immediately and so Romy, against the will of her mother, moved to France to live with Alain. But after almost 5 years of being together Alain decided to leave Romy for another woman and with that broke Romy. Still they remained lifelong friends.

“Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten” Aldo Gucci

This week I will be in Florence, one of my favorite cities. Last month in my previous blog, I had several posts on the city and its most famous family – The Medici: The Birthplace of the Renaissance, What Makes Florence So Special and Virtual Tour of The Renaissance

Before Florence became a renaissance museum, it was the fashion capital of Italy. Unfortunately, Milan took over the title as Florence didn’t have an international airport. So it turns out that Florence is not only the birthplace of the renaissance but also the place of origin for many famous luxury brands.

“You must not quote to me what I once said. I am wiser now.” Romy Schneider

Today I watched a documentary about Romy Schneider, who I always admired. You most likely know Romy if you ever heard of Alain Delon or the German/Austrian Sissi movies. Romy was an actress with many insecurities and an extremely sensitive personality, but her entire life even now so many admire her. Unfortunately, her life behind the scene wasn’t too gentile. She grew up in a private school and often lacked attention and love from her parents. Later in life she tried to find that affection in men, Alain Delon became the love of her life. With no happy ending, after almost 5 years of being together, Delon left her for another woman. Briefly after that she decided to get married, yet her husband was a controlling and depressed man who years later committed suicide. It doesn’t end with that, some years afterwards her 14 year old son died in an accident when he tried to climb a fence. All this broke her fragile soul when she died from heard failure at the age of 43, only 11 months after her son passed away.

“I am nothing in life, but everything on the screen” Romy

Hidden Treasures of South Italy

Today I read an article, “Why no one goes to Naples” by Beppe Severgnini who addressed why only 13% of the annual tourists who visit Italy go to the south of the country. It’s interesting, because even I have been tons of times in Italy, but never really considered going to the south. First I thought maybe it’s because of the distance, but then I read that “German airports sent 223 flights to Spain’s Balearic Islands in one week last summer, and only 17 to southern Italy.” So what’s the reason for the lack of tourism?

Puglia’s beaches are one of the most beautiful in Italy, than why do German tourists love so much the gray beaches of Rimini?

My Newest Obsession

Yesterday after reading an article that for the first time in history a person has become a Trillionaire, it’s Bill Gates of course, I felt inspired and heard my inner entrepreneur telling me to start making bracelets. Usually that kind of phase lasts for about 24hours and so I jumped on my bike to get quickly some supply in order to start immediately working on it.

To be honest it’s not only Bill Gates who inspired me, I also found some very cute bracelets on Etsy that looked so adorable and somewhat easy to make that I thought to myself, I can do this. Well turns out I can’t so I wanted to show you these cute brands I found.

 

Even Milan Deserves A Second Chance

Next week I will have the chance to be in Milan for the second time, and that’s a good thing. The first time I went it was January and all I can say is, that I was happy to leave. Nothing dramatic happened, except that the weather was awful. I heard that winter in Milan isn’t too pleasant, but after all I thought it’s still Italy, can’t be too bad. The first afternoon was fine, blue sky, I went on top of the cathedral it was beautiful. The second day it was snowing all day, but it wasn’t the nice fluffy snow, it was muddy snow. Nevertheless, I am willing to give Milan a second chance. 

Déjà Vu

To be honest I can’t remember the last time I had a deja vu, but today when I browsed through Becksöndergaard ‘s website I experienced one. It’s a funny sensation, a feeling of familiarity, and I am not sure whether it was a real deja vu or just my bad memory and I actually have been there before. Becksöndergaard  is a Danish fashion brand founded in 2003 by Anna Sondergaard and Lis Beck. I love the brand for their Scandinavian simplicity and playful colors. You can check out their website here: Becksöndergaard 

A Style That Never Goes Out Of Style

Ok, never say never, maybe we’ll wear metallic space suits in the future. The style I am speaking about comes from a term used to describe people with an unconventional lifestyle who have few permanent ties to any place and therefore often are wanderers and adventurers. I am thinking of Bohemians. There is no exact definition on how to define a Bohemian person, usually it’s someone who is part of an artistic or academic community, but not necessarily. Lauren Stover in her book, Bohemian Manifesto, describes 5 types of Bohemians:

• Nouveau: bohemians with money who attempt to join traditional bohemianism with contemporary culture
• Gypsy: the expatriate types, they create their own Gypsy ideal of nirvana wherever they go
• Beat: also drifters, but non-materialist and art-focused
• Zen: “post-beat,” focus on spirituality rather than art
• Dandy: no money, but try to appear as if they have it by buying and displaying expensive or rare items – such as brands of alcohol

Do you know someone who is one of the Bohemian type? I think I may know a Dandy.

The style inspired by these people is called Boho-Chic, it’s one of my favorite. The most famous Boho-Chic ladies are: Sienna Miller, Kate Moss, Mary-Kate Olsen (btw, have you seen her engagement ring? It weighs more than her) and Nicole Richie. Less famous but my favorite Boho-Chic lady is Tatiana Santo Domingo (the wife of Andrea Casiraghi,…who is the eldest son of Carolina from Monaco….who is the daughter of Grace Kelly). She is famous for her beautiful hippie style and even has her own store called Muzungu, which translated from Swahili means wanderer or traveller. You can check out the online store here Muzungu Sisters 
What makes the online store so special special, is that it promotes fair labour practices in order to support artisan-crafted goods from around the world. 

Summer You May Come, I Am Ready!

49 days left until the first day of summer. June 21st can’t come soon enough, because I am convinced I already have a vitamin D deficiency. At this moment I still don’t know where I will be spending summer, but in the meantime I can start planning what I will need when the day comes. The fact that I already saw sunscreen creams in the supermarket makes me thing that it’s acceptable and not too early. 
Preparing for summer cheers me up especially today, since I am going insane trying to transfer my current blog from Weebly to WordPress. It’s my fault that I am sweating like a monkey, I am too stubborn to read any kind of instructions that don’t get to the point within 60 seconds.  In case I fail to transfer my blog, I already have a plan B, which is to post everything from now on in both blogs.

Back to summer planning, the more pleasant part of the day. Here are some of my summer favorites.

Straw tote and espadrilles!