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?

Mallorca: Day Three

Hello!

Time for another holiday post.

On day three we pretty much just bummed about on the beach and I didn't really wear anything of much interest (unless you want to see my non-model-like bod in a bikini. You don't) so I've just got some pictures from the evening.

I say evening, though I think it was gone 10pm before we even headed back out. We stayed on the beach as long as possible and chilled out on our balcony drinking beer until it went dark.

We were going to go to a nice restaurant this night but because it got so late and we'd already drank a bit, we decided we wanted to go to a beach bar on the sea front and get some ribs and cocktails!

Ace plan.


Here's what I wore:

Floral crown- Rock n Rose (sample sale)

Cross earrings- Primark

Dress- Sparkle & Fade (via Urban Outfitters)

Bag- vintage (charity shop)

White sandals- Primark

Me and the fella are die hard White Russian fans and we found a similar cocktail they seemed to do everywhere called a 'Coco Loco'. I think there are a few variations on it but it's typically rum, vodka, coconut liquor and coconut cream. Anyone who knows me well knows I fricking love coconut anything!

I brought some coconut liquor home so that I can make some here. 

What's your favourite cocktail?

Love,

Foxy x

Mallorca: Day Two

Hello!

Here you have the second installment of my holiday diary.

On holiday, I always have to go and visit a local market; I think it's been instilled in me from every family holiday I've been on- my parents love a good market!

Inca is where Mallorca's big market is held every Thursday but since we flew out on Thursday morning and were leaving again the following Thursday, there wasn't really an opportunity to go.

As we were lucky enough to have the resort's main bus stop right outside our hotel, it was pretty easy to get to nearby towns so we looked into other markets and chose to hop on the bus to Son Servera which wasn't too far away.

Son Servera holds a pretty large market every Friday with stalls ranging from jewellery, pottery and handbags to amazing local food and produce.

I bought one of these dreamcatchers!

All the stalls selling meats and cheeses have loads of samples for visitors to try- you could get a pretty good free lunch out of your trip if you wanted to!

Love a good churro- Spanish doughnuts for those not in the know. We had some of these amazing massive chocolate filled ones. Unsurprising that I put on about half a stone on this holiday!

Here's a few shots from back in the resort (S'illot). The second was the least sunny day we were there, though it was still nice and hot.

Sunglasses- Ray Ban

Pineapple print dress- ASOS (now in sale)

Leather backpack- charity shop

This was one of my favourite things in the resort. There was a little stretch of water running parallel to the sea with a bridge you could walk over- complete with it's own duck house! So cute that all the ducks loved it so much, they were always sitting on it!

Into the Night


This is what I wore in the eve...

Wearing my new fave Mac lippie (it's a creme sheen one called 'Lickable') and purposely did my holiday nails in a colour to match!

While we were in Son Servera, I managed to stumble across a Spanish charity shop. I didn't go hunting for one- honest!

It was pretty jumbled with just piles of stuff everywhere and no prices on anything. There were loads of folded jeans stacked up all over the place and eagle-eyed as I am, I spotted a pair of Levi 501s!

I decided that they probably wouldn't cost much so it didn't really matter too much if they didn't fit so grabbed them and took them to the cash desk and I was actually blown away- just €1! What's that, about 80p?

When i tried them on back at the apartment that evening and they fit like a glove, I couldn't resist wearing them out.

Earrings- House of Midas

Mesh top- Boohoo

Bandeau top- Tinned Bananas

Belt- charity shop

Levi 501 jeans- charity shop

Sandals- Vagabond

Thus concludes day two! Hope you aren't getting bored of these coz err, there's the rest of the week to come.

To be honest they're grating on me a bit- I'm bored of that bitch on holiday while it's raining here even though it's just me a few weeks ago!

Love,

Foxy x

Mallorca: Day One

Hello!

Wow, these posts are so overdue.

Earlier this month (a lot earlier), I landed back in the UK from a fab week away in Mallorca with the man, in a little town called S'illot on the South East coast.

It was a pretty cheap holiday but just what we needed, a week to relax by the sea. I think the holiday was even more relaxing due to increased stress levels just before we went. I won't bore you with the details but less than a week before flying, the company we booked our hotel with went into insolvency so we essentially lost the booking and it was touch and go as to whether we'd be going at all! Thankfully I booked on my credit card so we got the money back in the end- lesson to be learnt there!

I made sure I, well Chris, took plenty of photos so that I could do a holiday diary blog with a new post for every day we were there. Bear in mind I didn't take my DSLR so these are all taken on a not-so-great point and shoot. Enjoy day one!

Having just arrived and looking typically pasty!

Sunglasses- Ray Ban

Top- UNIF

Denim cut off shorts- vintage jeans + DIY

Sandals- Vagabond

Into the Night

I'm much more of a night person than morning so one thing I love about being on holiday is that you don't need to put a time on anything. I especially like enjoying the sun until the very last moment and generally going out late at night to eat/drink and not having to worry about getting up in the morning.

Before leaving, we'd checked Trip Advisor for the best places to go in the evening. I'm all for stumbling across amazing places all by yourself but sometimes it's good to have a little guidance.

We went on the hunt for the top-rated restaurant which was close to where we were staying but somewhat off the beaten track.

It was a really nice walk along a rocky coastline, away from the main strip of bars and restaurants. We found that down this way was where most of the locals lived.

On the way we stumbled on a mini local food market with stalls selling all kinds of local produce like olives, wine, preserves, meat and cheese.

I did these outfit shots on a cliff by the sea- not that you can tell because it was so dark up here!

Earrings- vintage

Dress- Lavish Alice

Clutch bag- vintage via charity shop

Sandals- Primark

I got this Lavish Alice dress at a sample sale in Manchester my work took part in. I couldn't resist trying this dress on and once I did, I fell in love! It was little over a tenner so it would've rude not to. It's now sold out on their site but I managed to find it here and here- though it's much more expensive!

The restaurant!

It felt slightly weird going to an Italian on our first night in Spain but with loads of fresh Spanish seafood and ingredients on the menu and a spectacular view of the Mallorcan sea you soon forget that!

The food here was insane. I had handmade spaghetti with seafood and I think it has to be the best meal I had all holiday. It was really reasonably-priced and the Italian guy who owned it was great, he was so knowledgeable about the food. We went back to 'Mama Mia' on our last night too (something I never do on holiday!), it was so good!

Look out for my day two post coming soon!

Love,

Foxy x

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

Portugal Part Two

Hello!

As promised, I bring you the second round of pics from my holiday in Portugal earlier this month. You can read the first post here.

Last time, I brought you the pretty side of things; the beach, the port etc. but I really enjoyed exploring the older, run down streets of the poor part of the town. There were loads of really interesting buildings with pretty tiles on the outside.

And of course some obligatory shots of what I wore!

My actual favourite holiday dress- had it for years!

Dress: Urban Outfitters (old)

My 'sack' dress!

Sunglasses: Ray Ban; Dress: £25, Blue Rinse Vintage; Backpack: £1.10, charity shop; Pumps: New Look

Towards the end of the week we went on a boat trip to explore all of the little caves along the rocky coastline. This was no ordinary boat- it was a pirate ship!

Sunglasses: Missoni, £15 (I know, right?!) @ TK Maxx; Cropped tee: Forever 21; Skirt: Missguided.co.uk

I'd really recommend taking one of these trips to anyone going to the Algarve. The majority of the caves can only be visited by boat and many are hidden out of sight from the land. I didn't take photos inside but once anchored up, we filtered into smaller motor boats and were taken right inside the coves.

I can't believe how awful the weather's been since we got back- so glad I didn't go overboard (haha awesome pun, no?) on buying summer clothes!

Have you been away recently?

Love,

Foxy