Italy Part Two: Liguria

Hey,

So here we have part two of my Italy adventure! After spending a brilliant couple of days in Milan, we headed to our Italian coastal destination - Liguria!

Liguria is on Italy's North West coast, with its coastline also known as the 'Italian Riviera'. As we flew to Bologna, we knew it would be easiest to stay fairly northern and deciding to go somewhere less touristy than Rimini on the East coast, Liguria was our first choice.

The Riviera is peppered with little old-fashioned seaside towns in pastel colours. We chose to stay in Rapallo which is a pretty quiet resort but close to the more lively Santa Margherita Ligure and also luxurious Portofino - it sounded like a great base!

The train from Milan took around two hours and we arrived later in the afternoon. It was gorgeous to sit by the sea and have a few drinks and nibbles (you seem to gets snacks with your drinks almost everywhere in Italy!) as the sun set. We sat close to Rapallo's 'castello' - a medieval mini castle that sits in the water just off the shore.

Our hotel in Rapallo was my favourite of the three we stayed in during the trip. A pastel pink renovated (actual) palace from the 1600s, it was like my very own Barbie Dreamhouse! It also has a spa which you can book into for free and have all to yourself - I'd definitely recommend it.

Playsuit - In Love With Fashion via Topshop sale

Rapallo was a brilliant base for exploring Liguria as nearby Santa Margherita Ligure and Portofino were just a short 1.80 EURO train ride away. On our second day in Liguria, we took the train and enjoyed exploring Santa Margherita, before taking the boat over to Portofino.

Portofino really is incredible for a day trip. It's where the wealthy choose to take their yachts and as soon as you step off the boat, you're greeted by boutiques like Dior and Louis Vuitton - which is quite surreal considering how small this little fishing village is!

We enjoyed the views from walking up the hill where there's a beautiful church and even further up, a castle. The photo above was taken from the top of the castle.

Playsuit - Boohoo

We were lucky to enjoy some of the best meals of the trip in Liguria. I think my favourite was our meal at Gli Angeli on the first night; I had the lobster soufflé above, followed by tiramisu. We obviously also tried a few pizzas too...

Our last day in Rapallo was up there with the best of the trip. We took the rickety old cable car up the mountain, where at the top, there's a religious sanctuary built in 1557 after a farmer claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary in this very spot. It's absolutely breathtaking to see something so beautiful and intricately built in the absolute back of beyond up a mountain - amazing!

We had lunch at the top of the mountain in a lovely family-run restaurant. Eating fresh pesto spaghetti with the most insane views over the coast is something I'll never forget.

Outfit 1: 

Sunglasses - Ray Ban

Off-the-shoulder top - Primark

Patterned shorts - bought at Milan train station somewhere when I was too hot!

Velcro sandals - Vagabond

Outfit 2:

Jacket - Luxemme*

Necklace - Zara

Dress - Motel

Patent Sliders - Primark

The black jacket above from Luxemme was my absolute savoir on the evenings. Stylish and versatile, yet light enough to fold away into my bag - perfect!

While you wait for the third and finally instalment of my Italy diary, why not read my part one in Milan?

South Beach Blog Party

Hello!

I thought I'd share another event that I've been at recently, though this one's a bit special as it was organised by little old me!

I don't think I've really mentioned work much on my blog but for anyone who might be interested, I work for an imports/wholesale company who supply lots of high street and online clothing and accessories shops. My title is Website Coordinator which, let me tell you, covers a hell of a lot!

We do a lot of swimwear so last year decided to launch a brand; South Beach- who do lots of gorgeous colourful biknis, swimsuits kaftans and cover-ups. Definitely check them out if you're going away somewhere hot this summer.

As Website Coordinator I've been very much involved with promoting the launch handling all the marketing, website, social yadda yadda... SO deciding to put my lovely blogger contacts to good use, I organised a blog event!

It was held at the fabulous Frurt frozen yogurt shop in Spinningfields, Manchester. We thought it would be really fitting and summery; and frozen yogurt is reasonably healthy right? (I'm justifying adding Hershey's Cookies and Creme chocolate to mine that way) So perfect if you're trying (and failing) to get bikini ready this summer like me.

I was flapping around the office like a mad person on the day, packing goody bags, cleaning glasses and generally panicking that no one would turn up- all made worse when the sky turned grey and it poured down, Manchester style! Luckily, like some divine miracle, as soon as we got there the sun came out which looked amazing shining through the big glass front of the shop.

Most importantly, people came.

Here are some of the photos I took (as the 'official' photographer haha).

My strawberry prosecco bellinis

I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar- true story. Having been a barmaid for a number of years comes in handy from time to time in life, as witnessed above with my yummy strawberry prosecco bellinis (very easy to make) which I think went down pretty well!

Lovely bloggers Amy (www.thepretrender.blogspot.co.uk/) Clara (www.countessdublush.com), Victoria (www.inthefrow.com) and Rosy (www.rostinted.blogspot.co.uk)

Gorgeous ladies Sindy (http://www.sindy-ng.blogspot.co.uk/), Lily (http://www.lilykitten.com/) Martyna (http://www.elmartina.blogspot.co.uk/) and Ashleigh (http://www.prettygirlrich.blogspot.co.uk/) 

Martyna (www.elmartina.blogspot.co.uk), Lily (www.lilykitten.com) and Lola/Fikki (www.thepastimebliss.blogspot.co.uk)

Beaut ladies Megan (www.whatsnewpussycatt.blogspot.co.uk), Charlotte (www.lurchhoundloves.com), Danielle (www.ablogfromblackpool.com) and Frances (www.francescassandra.blogspot.co.uk)

Frances (www.francescassandra.blogspot.co.uk), Joanna (http://www.mintyessence.com/), Danielle (www.ablogfromblackpool.com) and Lola (www.thepastimebliss.blogspot.co.uk)

And the only picture of me on the night below.

Me: T shirt- vintage shop in Manchester; Jeans- American Apparel; Brooklyn T-bar wedges- Jeffrey Campbell

With, of course, the lovely Sarah of Fashion Dotty- she looked amazing!

I also stuck the Vita Coco cabinet on the side (it's not all distorted and pink and surrounded by stars in real life- though it should be) as I thought these guys deserved a mention. I'm not all that keen on the plain coconut water but the staff at Frurt made us some UH-mazing fruity mocktails with this stuff and they were to die for! They also set up a beachy deckchair and palm tree for us which you might have seen as a prop in some of the bloggers' posts.

There's a few more pictures of the event here too.

Sorry for anyone I've missed pictures of, it got quite busy at one point and there wasn't much room to get down to the bottom of the venue with my camera. I know in particular Rosie and Maria, I didn't seem to get you!

I had such a stressful good time organising the event; I can't remember who said it but one of the girls said to me on arrival that it must be like organising your own birthday party- you can't enjoy yourself until you're actually there which I could definitely identify with!

Big thanks to Frurt and Vita Coco for giving us all something lovely to eat/drink and HUGE thanks to all of the bloggers who took time out of their days to come down and check it out. From the bottom of my heart, I was really touched by the turnout and the lovely feedback on the event and range.

If you want to see what any of the bloggers thought, try searching #SouthBeachBlog party on Twitter for posts and also on Instagram too for pictures.

Much love,

Foxy x