You go travelling and everyone says “oh you won’t want to come home”, but what they always forget to tell you is that they're not kidding. This is exactly what happens every single time! First France, then Italy and now Portugal. It’s safe to say I’m a danger to myself when it comes to this travelling malarky. It’s a good job I always book a return flight home otherwise who knows where I would end up. 

The funny thing is that this blog originally started as a fashion blog, and then turned into a fashion and lifestyle blog because I couldn't stop myself sharing the hilarious stories that just seemed to keep happening to me and now that I’ve got the travelling bug I’ve thrown a bit of that is as well, so for the moment basically anything goes. Limiting what I write about to just one thing isn’t very fun so lets see where this new blog takes me. 

For the moment my feet are stuck firmly to the ground, but I wonder how long that will last?

Genova

We headed to Genova, my boyfriend and I a few weeks ago now. Why Genova? Well, it’s famous for focaccia and pesto, is that reason enough? We arrived and it was beautiful, it's a small seaside town by the sea with gorgeous architecture. We only spent the weekend and our plan was to eat as much pesto and bread as we could physically manage. Who would have known that it would be so difficult to find restaurants that serve pesto? Nowhere, I repeat nowhere sold the apparently famous pesto! Disappointing to say the least. 

But by luck we stumbled across Savô a so called “gourmet pizza” place. I’m so pleased we didn't find anywhere else because we had the best pizzas ever! We thought the restaurant was full until we were shown downstairs where there was no one. We had half the restaurant to ourselves, it was perfect! We may not have had pesto or focaccia bread in its purest form, but we did enjoy a pesto pizza and a focaccia one - amazing is the only word to describe it! 

Not only was the meal to die for, but our hotel - Hotel Le Nuvole Residenza d'Epoca was incredible. Well, first of all we nearly didn't find it, we finally asked someone where it was, and realised that we had been stood in front of it for about 10 minutes without even realising it. Finding it was one thing, but how to get in was the next. Who would have thought that finding a buzzer would be so difficult. We contemplated calling each and every one of the names registered on the doorbell and then when we eventually opened our eyes there was a plaque purposely for the guests of the hotel.

The hotel was a mix of modern and old, with huge Italian paintings covering the walls in one corner and a modern photograph in the other. It was pretty cool to say the least. The thing that got me truly excited was the free food. There was free focaccia bread, apple tart, biscuits and tea and coffee. It was like being in a candy shop! We spent most of our time in the dining room taking full advantage of all the freebies. The breakfast was a feast too, we must have spent most of the morning filling our boots before waddling out of the hotel. 

A weekend away was just what we needed, and Genova was the perfect place!

Things not to miss in Genova:

• Discover the old city, taking a stroll through a maze of cobblestoned passageways.

• Visit the Palazzo Reale, if you only get to see one of the palaces make it this one!

• Visit the aquarium, one of the largest housing more than 5000 sea creatures.

• Take a stroll along the sea front.

• Eat a pizza in no other than Savô!

Downward Dog

It was evident that living in Italy, I was bound to consume large quantities of pizza and pasta, but little did I know that I would actually eat so much that I would begin to look like one. For those of you that know me, I can eat! But it does tend to get embarrassing when you not only finish your extra large pizza, but finish your friends and have an extra slice of another friends too! Ok so I might have a slight addiction to pizza but there is worse things to be addicted too!

After several weeks of giving into my Italian food cravings, I told myself it was about time I did some sort of exercise, otherwise it was becoming clear that I would end up like the back end of a bus. 

I’m not really one for doing sport that feels like sport, I mean I’m the occasional jogger, if I know I’ll have take out that night, or the type that will run for the bus. I can break a sweat just doing that! Also it doesn’t help that I am actually the worst when it comes to every single sport. No seriously, I mean its actually quite shocking! I can’t catch, throw, kick or do any other sort of sporting gesture. It usually ends up with me in a heap on the floor after tripping over my own feet. 

So I have turned my attention to yoga; quiet and peaceful yoga. Or so I thought it would be. I was all prepared and super eager signing up without even doing the trial lesson. I even went on a hunt for a yoga mat - who knew that would be so difficult? So for the first lesson I turned up at yoga mat in hand, and shocked at how many people came, the class was full. There wasn't even enough mats for everyone, I mean crazy or what? Numbers fell after that, the class now consists of a mere 6 of us. What does that tell you? The first lesson, surprisingly was tranquil and calm, little can be said for the classes after that. A few of my friends from my Graphics class decided to sign up too. Well, that was peaceful yoga out of the window. I mean in-between the falling over, slipping on the mat, changing mats, the occasional yelp and hysterical laughing, there is the odd occasion that its quiet. Never did I think I’d find exercise so entertaining. Thank god they joined. Yoga really did turn out for the best! 

MTV EMAS Milano

Who knew that Milan was hosting the MTV EMA awards this year? Personally I didn't until they began constructing the biggest outdoor stage in the Piazza del Duomo just a week before. Milan isn't the city that screams from the rooftops everything that’s going on, which is both good and bad. Good because you end up stumbling across some of the best events ever just by chance and bad because if you aren't lucky enough to discover them on the off chance, then you've gone ahead and missed them! 

Last weekend we had 2 nights of free concerts before the awards themselves. Ok I have to admit as eager as I was to get there early I had no idea who the first few acts were, but if you don't know who Duran Duran, Ellie goulding, Martin Garrix and Afrojack are, then I’m sorry but where have you been the last 10 years? It has to be probably the coolest FREE event I’ve been too.

A month in bullet points

I can’t believe it has already been a month that I’ve been living here. Time flies by that's for sure! It’s surprising how much has happened; the people I’ve met, the places I’ve visited and well the “studying” I’ve done. Rather than bore you with the ins and outs of what has been going on I thought it would be easier for me to condense what has gone on into bullet points. So here we go:

• Have been lost in the city everyday for the past 4 weeks!
• Cried when I eventually stepped through the Ikea doors, I mean I love Ikea but this was more a relief of actually finding the store after 4 hours of being lost in the pouring rain.
• Officially started NABA Milano, as a fully enrolled Graphic Design student.
• Have had many awkward occasions involving sign language in order to be understood.
• Had a really flattering photo of myself done in a train station in order to get my transport card - embarrassing doesn’t even begin to cover it!
• Stumbled across Duomo, it’s kind of hard to miss.
• Have bought way too many clothes and shoes already.
• Eaten way too much pizza and pasta, but I guess this is to be expected.

I think this pretty much sums up my first month in Milan. Home sweet home!

Lago di Como

As soon as I found out I was definitely coming to Milan I was super excited at the prospect of having so many places to visit. I’ve never been to Italy before and the first thing on my shopping list was of course a travel guide. I don't think you can beat a travel guide, unless you have a native friend, then I’ll let you off. I usually go with the pocket size ones, but that would mean I would need about 15 different ones, so I went with the BIG one. When I say big one, I mean you have to study it before you go, or tear the pages out because there is no way that you can carry around this bad boy all day. At 974 pages exactly it’s one hell of a travel guide. 

The first place on my list was Lake Como or as they say in Italian Lago di Como. My roommate came with me and we were all organised; trains had been booked, my travel guide had been read and our bags had been packed. We arrived in good time, half asleep I might add but we were ready and raring to go! Little did I know that in Italy they leave it 5 minutes before you are due to depart, before announcing which platform the train will arrive on. It’s really very generous of them really. Needless to say we were definitely not prepared for that!

A quick sprint later and after eventually finding the train platform, we successfully made it on the train, and an hour and a half later we were in Como. First stop - the tourist information point of course! If there is one thing that we have learnt since being here, is that we have absolutely no sense of direction whatsoever! The lady, thankfully spoke English and gave us a map, but a map really never helps, we still always manage to go in the wrong direction. However, this time, we cleverly followed the crowd of people that similarly got off the same train and thankfully this time we didn't get lost. 

The town of Como I discovered is only one of the most picturesque places ever! It's a sea of terracotta roofs and brightly painted houses and despite the lack of sunshine, it was still one of the most beautiful places I've visited. The medieval town is a complete mixture of quirky Italian stores and touristic restaurants and bars. The town was covered in shops selling Como silk in everything from ties, to scarves, to garments that literally cost an arm and leg. Of course not considering the fact that shops shut on a Sunday, they looked beautiful from what I could see through the shop windows. Despite some of the shops being closed, it was probably the perfect time to visit such a touristic place. 

Since we had made it this far, we had to do something touristy. So we decided to cable car Como-Brunate. It was well worth it, the views were amazing, and when we saw how steep the hill was we were glad to have taken the cable car, thats for sure! There was a bit of fog which was a shame, but the views were outstanding nonetheless. I was actually surprised at how big Como is. All you could see were row upon row of terracotta roof tiles, it looked exactly how I’d imagined it. 

Lake Como was our first stop, I wonder where we will go next…….

Major Lazer

When you buy tickets to a concert, you always expect it to be amazing, but sometimes it disappoints you. The Major Lazer concert in Milan at Fabrique was insane! There are no other words to describe it. It was the last date of their European Tour - didn't know that until they told us, and their set was damn good! 

Kicking off the show was Elliphant. Not going to lie, I didn't know who she was either, but she is one badass singer. Even if you didn't know the words, somehow you were still screaming something. Needless to say my voice was a little croaky the morning after. And then after her came the real deal. I mean I’m a fan of major lazer, I wouldn't have gone as far as to say they were my absolute favourite. Until after their concert, now its safe to say I’m a Major Lazer super fan. Poor guys! Their show was crazy, there were; plastic balls, money, confetti, amongst other things thrown into the crowd, I mean at one point one of the members got into a zorbe ball and was running around on top of the crowd. I mean seriously? Who thinks of this stuff! Thank god their concert was only 2 hours long, because I nearly twisted my ankle at least 3 times and the sweat was practically dripping off my face. I’m sure I’m really selling this too you. 

Next time though it would be nice if I didn't have University at 9am the following morning, but hey a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do! Basically the concert was incredible, and if you get the chance to see them do it, you will definitely not regret it!

Music & Arts