Travelling around, Day 1. All roads lead to Rome.

23/09/2014 - Starting from today, I will take a 5 days trip with my father around Italy. It's not a real holiday, as he has to go for work. Today we left after lunch, and went almost straight down to Rome. We booked an executive twin beds room at the Fiano Romano Eurohotel. Do you wanna talk about it? It SHOULD be a 4-stars hotel, but it actually sucks. We paid 150 € for two nights more or less (breakfast included) for an EXECUTIVE room with everything broken. It was fine at the end, but please, don't let them have 4 stars.

Anyway, we were a little bit hungry, so we stopped in a place on Strada Provinciale 15a (km 17) called "Cantuccio". As starter we got two supplì (typical snack of this places, it's a fried ball of rice with tomato and cheese inside, so yummy). We shared the food, as we ate a pizza and a dish of "pasta cacio e pepe" (pasta with black pepper and a very strong cheese). My dad ordered a Tiramisù (you can find my recipe here), but as the were a little bit slow (not that much actually) they brought us some biscuits for free. And at the begininning of the dinner the gave us some pizzettas as well! We spent 30 € (with a small beer and a coke), very nice price and the food was delicious.

How to make an easy (and cheap!) bouquet.

Today it's graduation time, again! Two of my friends graduates, but at the moment I'm short of money. So, I went to Esselunga, my favourite supermaket, and I bought two bunches of flowers (5€ each). Actually, they were pink-painted CABBAGES (click on it to see that I'm not crazy) with some heather. 

Once I came back home I picked some pine tree from my backyard and I started to put together the bouquet. You also need an assistant, so I chose my cat Topo, that is always around while I'm doing something outside. 

Then I secured the bouquet with some sticky tape and went over it with a red ribbon, which I stopped with two pins. I also used some rafia to make a nice bow and that's it! Very cute, and just with 5 €!

VFNO 2014, Milan.

16/09/2014 - It's VFNO again! I've been to Vogue Fashion Night Out in Milan just once in my life, in 2011, then I couldn't partecipate anymore as in September I've always been in China. VFNO is a very big event in Milan. My friend Laura and I left at about 6 p.m.; we decided to park at Bisceglie parking, outside Milan. It's very cheap (2,5 € or 1,5 € up to five hours) and it's almost in the subway station. From there, it takes no more than 20 minutes to get to Duomo station. It was full of people everywhere. We went to Intimissimi, where they wrote on you lingerie the VFNO initials with a special sewing machine. Then my friend saw some people with very nice bags coming out from Falconeri's, so we got inside and they were for free! Cool. Then we moved to Rinascente, as in Kiehl's they gave some samples for free. Actually, we studied a little bit before coming to the VFNO, we had a look at the coolest event around so we knew where to go. You have to be very fast, as everything happens in half an hour more or less. We  walked till Brian&Barry, in San Babila square and there we ate a sandwich (5€, but it was very big and delicious) and a Martini cocktail for free (Martini was a sponsor of the event). After dinner, we went to Brera, where we tasted a delicious Kusmi tea. I cannot remember the name, it was a mix of cinnamon and other spices, very Christamssy (was it the Prince Vladimir?). We walked around for a bit, then we decided to come back home. So happy.

H&M's AW Studio Collection preview.

03/09/2014 - My friend Laura got for us two invites for H&M's studio collection preview in Milan. She found them on Vogue Italia Facebook page, as part of the "Vogue experience" project. It was at 7.30 p.m. in the San Babila store. We left at 6 p.m., heading towards Lampugnano to park my car. Actually, I took the wrong road, but it turned out to be the best thing ever. We park at Bisceglie car park (1,5 € up till 5 hours) and we took the subway red line till San Babila. We told them our names and then we could get into. It was something crazy, as in a movie. I've never been to an event like this, all people dressed up in black, like it was the coolest event ever. Calm down guys, it's just H&M. But it's Milan, so all fashion blogger and people like this. 
There were waiters with appetizers and cocktails. You could shop whatever you want, so I bought a sport bra that I saw on the website (I still do not understand why on the internet was 14.95 € while in store just 9.95€). After the party, we went to Mc Donald's and we tried the new Mc Chicken burgers. I got the one with bacon. WTF. Its taste it's...nauseating. Never again.

Valle d'Aosta, Day 7. And finally we saw them.

23/08/2014 - Coming back today, because the weather was not so nice. Going downhill from Valsaverenche, we saw some chamoises along the river next to the street. One of them was almost falling in the river. Ah ah.

Valle d'Aosta, Day 6. Walking, taking pictures, walking.

22/08/2014 - We left a little bit earlier today, as we wanted to go up on the other side of the valley. The walk was uphill for the first 45 minutes, then you reach a kind of plateau and it's a very nice walk, even if it's pretty cold. We went to the Savoia refuge for luch, we ate polenta but it wasn't as good as the Riondè refuge. This refuge is next to the Nivolet lakes, and you can go up also by car.
It took us almost six hours going up and coming back, but it defenitely worth it. Ah, the plateau is full of marmots.

Valle d'Aosta, Day 5. Le repos du guerrier.

21/08/2014 - Nothing to do today, I'm not able to go hiking for more than one day. So I stayed both inside and outside the camper van, reading my Dan Brown's book called "Inferno" (I waited for it for ages, as 25 € for a book it's really too much, and finally last week I found it at 5 €) and studying something. Ah, I also slept for most of the time.

Valle d'Aosta, Day 4. Where the king used to go hunting.

20/08/2014 – We woke up early, but not too much as outside is still cold. Today we want to go to the Vittorio Emanuele refuge. The way up it’s a little bit long, two hours and a half (but it’s all uphill), then you reach this very strange and unusual refuge. We stay there just a bit, eating sandwiches, then we had a slice of cake (again, mum and I mixed berries crostata and strudel for dad). The desserts were good, and we went down quite in a hurry, because it was about to rain. Actually, we reached the camping site and it started raining.

Valle d'Aosta, Day 3. The highest campsite in Europe!

19/08/2014 – Today we have to moved, and we decided to go in Valsavaranche in a camping right in the top of the valley. The camping is nice, it’s just a field in the middle of nothing. You have to pay for the electricity, but you can turn on just less than 450 W appliance (no hair drier, but you can go in the toilet building to use it). The toilets are clean, but the water in the shower is hot just at the beginning (I wasn’t able to wash my hair with hot water). There is also a small supermarket (pretty expensive) and a restaurant that we will try later on. It’s very cold outside.

Valle d'Aosta, Day 2. Walking on Sunshine.

18/08/2014 – We woke up at 8:30 a.m. and at 10:00 we were at the cable car station, heading towards Plain Maison, 2400 meters above sea level. From here, we started a two-hours walk for Riondé refuge (ex Duca degli Abruzzi). The panorama was amazing, just under the Mount Cervino. At a certain point, there was a small yellow sign that pointed in a different way than the usual path. We realised that they are building a new ski run, so we had to go down and then up again. It took me a lot of energies to do it, and it was not planned at all. 

Once reached the refuge, we had lunch there. The food after a long walk is always very good, we ate polenta and a charcuterié (bresaola, speck, two kinds of salami and different kinds of cheese, all fresh and from those Alps). Then, we deserve a dessert, so my mum and I ate a slice of mixed berries crostata and my father a slice of strudel (he is in love with strudel, while I ate it). 

We spent 50 €, but it is kinda fair if you think that you are in a refuge. Then as usual I slept a bit under the sun (with my jacket and a lot of other stuff on) and we went down along a dirt road. With this road we reach the alpine chapel that we saw yesterday and we stopped in a stream to put our feet in. It’s really helpful, but it hurts a lot.