autumn in verona

This week I had a bad case of autumn envy. I love Padova but it's a few trees short of, well, a few trees. Completely senza albero. With each refresh of my instagram, yet another feet-surrounded-by-a-heap-of-leaves-shot tugged on my country bumpkin heartstrings and my autumn envy became something chronic. Luckily Lois was on hand and invited us to stay the weekend, so friday as the bells chimed weekend o'clock we ran home, packed our bags and headed to Verona, following promises of trees, leaves and muesli (Padova is also senza muesli!)

Look. Real life trees. With leaves. Che bello!

Dante. Just chilling with his cronies.

And his pigeon pal.

Next stop the Basilica di San Zeno, the setting for the marriage of Romeo and Juliet.

Feeling all caught up in the literary history of the place, Lois and Soph had a moment.

Putting the traffic mirror to its proper use. Selfies.

Even the supermarkets were autumnal.

Yep. Another photos of leaves. I really did have it bad.

Final stop, the most incredible view of Verona. 

The catch, you have to climb approximately 10 million steps to see it. By which point you may very well be overcome with exhaustion, blurred vision and dizziness, thus unable to appreciate it properly. My advice, find Romeo and ask him for a piggy back. 

For all my whinging the view really is worth the blood, sweat and tears.

On a clear day you can see for miles. On a hazy day you can see this... 

Having recovered from the trek up we headed back down for a well earned drink, managing to bagsy the best spot in Verona. Nicely coinciding with aperitivi o'clock.

Aperitivi o'clock is quite possibly Italy's happiest hour.
At 6pm head to any bar and order yourself a classic aperitif and along comes a food platter. For free. Lois opted for a campari spritz, Soph a tomato juice, Lizzie a prosecco and I went for my usual, spritz aperol. And why limit aperitivi time to one hour when you've got such a good thing going? Luckily for us the Italians are of the same opinion and so one hour usually stretches to three.

Thank you Lois and Verona for giving me my much needed Autumn and muesli fix. I'll be back soon.

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this little piggy went to a grigliata

Yesterday i went to a grigliata. 'A barbeque? In October? You must be mad' I hear you all say. I admit, I was also sceptical. I mean sure, Italians know a thing or two about carbohydrates but when it comes to BBQing it's all about the protein. And pimms. What's a BBQ without pimms?

Alas, there was no pimms. This was a grigliata italiana. 

So in typical Italian style we said arriverderci to health and safety and squeezed 150 plus people into a 90 capacity bus, winding up to a boarded up villa in the countryside.

I headed over to the grill to lend a much appreciated helping hand.

Then promptly joined the table as the food started to come out. This was an exclusively pork bbq. An odd concept but it worked surprisingly well.

Toasting the chefs

Who proceeded to do a victory dance

And then came the sports. All tailored to involve alcohol. The rules of this game were a bit woolly, it was a sort of hybrid dodgeball-basketball drinking game. I think.

And somebody won. Apparently.

Beer Pong

The victors. Celebrating with.. yep you've guessed it. More beer.

Then the spaniards starting dancing.

Feeling a bit upstaged Patrick showed us some of his best riverdance

So if you exchange pimms for spritz and potato salad for grilled polenta you've got the bones of a grigliata italiana. Throw in 150 students from all over the globe, a few competitive sports and a whole lotta wine into the mix, you end up with something like this..

And finally this old man's friend caught up with him...

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sex & the sinking city

When I was 16, I figured my twenties would be something out of a Sex & The City episode. Cosmopolitan and fabulous. As a twenty something female, I only go for cocktails when they're 2-4-1 which, whilst being undeniably thrifty, doesn't feel quite so fabulous. Nevertheless last week the girls flew out for an Italian city break and we decided to give cosmopolitan and fabulous our best shot..

...starting off by feeding the pigeons

Samantha(!?) looking public transport fabulous.

How beautiful is this sinking city?

Venice is currently hosting its 55th Biennale - a major contemporary art exhibition. Every two years nations from across the globe select an artist to represent their country either on one of the main Giardini pavilions or, for countries who don't own a pavilion, in other venues around Venice.

I think the best way to find anything in Venice is to get lost. This is how we stumbled across the Irish pavilion - The Enclave by Richard Mosse. These absolutely breathtaking and hypnotic images of Congo use a type of infrared film, capturing the green landscapes in pinks, crimsons and reds. Find out more about the Irish Biennale here.

Lost in the city

Girl on the Bridge in the city

2-4-1 cocktails. Thrifty and fabulous.

'After all, seasons change, so do cities; people come into your life and people go. But it's comforting to know that the ones you love are always in your heart. And if you're very lucky, a plane ride away.'

- Carrie Bradshaw

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