Spring '13

MAJOR NEWS

I flew back to Rome last weekend, was home for a couple of days and yesterday I took the 4am flight to Paris, spent the day there and flew back at night.

Long story short: I NOW HAVE A BEAUTIFUL HOUSE IN PARIS!!!

The whole story: We arrived so early and went straight to see the house, my stop is Trocadéro, so I get to walk straight up to the Eiffel tower to get to and from there, to uni everyday. I can’t believe I found my house in the XVIth arrondissement, I’ve heard people compare it to NYC’s Upper East Side and it definitely looks like it. I basically have a Pierre Hermé right beneath my house! 

The house is so so so so perfect I cried when I walked in. It’s a mini loft with a mezzanine floor for my bedroom/wardrobe area, I’m on the 7th and last floor and have a big balcony where I can eat with a view of Parisian roofs, a huge area of Paris and the Eiffel tower, I can actually see it from a window right above my stove, my bed, and from my shower!!!

We then went to the notary to sign the house papers. By then it was beautiful weather, and we went and had lunch at Cafe de Flore (!!!!!!!!!!!!) with my mum, strolled through St Germain de Pres, the Seine and the Louvre, and stopped by La Durée before returning to the airport.

All of this feels so surreal. The house is too perfect for me to believe it, I think I’m going to have the best year of my life in Paris.

Here's a few pics from Paris, and from the Easter week with my family in southern Italy.

Morockin'

Though it snowed so hard it looked like Christmas, the day before yesterday I spent a really beautiful day with my girl friends in London - we shopped at Liberty, Topshop and Other Stories and had a scrumptious feast at Ottolenghi. Yesterday I flew home to Rome, and I'm here for about 10 days for Easter holidays. Everytime I come back home I rummage through old photos, and the nostalgia strikes back.

I decided to make a post about Morocco, as it was a huge part of my life and I can't believe I haven't posted about it yet. As you may not know I lived in Morocco from 2003 to 2007, from the age of 10 to 14. When I first moved there, I had never left Italy before and I could not speak any language but Italian, so as I was thrown into another world, a completely different culture, and an American school, and it felt terrifying. But no matter how tough the first year was, it charmed me over from the first moment I landed (even though I was proposed to and 'sold' for 20 camels in the first half hour, honest!). I now feel so blessed for having gotten to spend those unforgettable years there, during which I did the most incredible, unthinkable things that at the time I gave for granted.
My mum and I often went on weekends all over the country, always seeing new places and immerging ourselves into new aspects of the culture. My school was a dream, it was proper fun and open, and I made some of the best friendships I will hopefully cherish forever. Every year we had a week long trip, where the school actually did an excellent job at making sure we were thrown right in there to experience culture, places and people right up close.
I have gotten to spend days riding on donkeys on top of the Atlas mountains in the middle of nowhere, stay in the smallest villages you can ever imagine and make rose water with the locals, paint a school for kids in the middle of nowhere in southern Morocco, camp in the Sahara, learn to surf and so so so much more, all with my best friends and classmates; we were like a small family. Everything about Morocco is so enchanting; I find their culture to be very similar to that of southern Italy, from food to customs. Morocco's is the most welcoming population I have ever come across. The amount of breathtaking places I have seen there is unbeatable.
I think my years in Morocco were my happiest and most carefree. Many now ask me how it was to live in such a culture which is so different in every way, but honestly looking back at the memories, people and places it was one of the best things that has ever happened to me. It opened my eyes to the world, and it shaped me to be the open person that I am today, and that makes me forever grateful. I grew up in Morocco, physically and mentally, and it will always have a special place in my heart.
Here's a few photos from my years there.

Fez 2004

Tangier 2004

Fez 2003

Hotel we had all to ourselves on our class trip, Mirleft 2007

Rabat 2007

Camping in the Sahara, 2007

Marrakech 2011

Chefchaouen 2003

Guess what? This is actually happening, I've begun apartment hunting in Paris! Is a view of the Eiffel tower too much of an unrealistic expectation?
Anyway, expect photos from this Easter break. Have a good one and indulge in Easter eggs,
C x

FCO-LHR-JFK

Just after New Year's I went on a spontaneous, week-long trip to NYC!

It was actually splendid, the fact that it wasn't planned made it so much better, and I got to see so much more of the city this time. I was staying in an apartment in the Upper East Side just above a restaurant where Sex and the City was filmed, and one block away from Woody Allen's house. Other than that I spent the week visiting the usual NYC touristy stuff... and Carrie Bradshaw's house.
And I didn't even miss any of my connecting flights. Such an incredible week.

I'm back to uni now, next on my calendar is a little trip to Scotland.

Later alligators,

C x

November+December

My autumn was swell; I visited Cambridge, my mum came to visit me and we toured in London and always had breakfast in bed, and term didn't even feel too long. But when the time came to go home to Italy, I was ecstatic and in serious need of food. I spent a wonderfully lazy December between Rome and Calabria taking walks with my dog on the beach, in the beautifully xmasy-lit center of Rome and eating far, far too much panettone.

Here's some pics from Rome + my weekend in Cambridge to visit a friend. It totally felt like Hogwarts.

Happy 2013 to you all - New York up next!

x C