Sunday 14 October 2012

Blue Sky Romance





 

































 Outfits - 
1. Vintage dress jumble sale
2. Necklace charity shop, Top Urban Outfitters
3. Homemade dress, vintage belt jumble sale, Clarks sandals
4. Vintage blouse jumble sale, skirt Traid shop, Office shoes
5. Dress belonged to my mum, bag jumble sale, Office shoes
6. Vintage necklace, vintage top jumble sale, Uni Qlo trousers
7. Vintage top charity shop, homemade skirt

So I took a rather late Summer holiday this year, heading to the undoubtedly beautiful shoes of Lake Garda and also the Romantic city that is Verona. I had a great time and it's been tough returning to the normal working world. We stayed in a hotel with pretty spectacular views and visited some of the local cultural highlights, including the AndrĂ© Heller Botanical gardens, which took us a while to find. The place is magical and bizarre, for example there are stone heads spitting water at each other, many koi carp filled ponds, mosaics, cacti gardens and a couple of Keith Haring sculptures (like the one in the photo.) We also went to another bizarre attraction -  La Vittoriale
I don't really know how to describe the place, it belonged to  Gabriele d'Annunzio
who is buried in the mausoleum there (photo 5) that he had built. The estate also contains an amphitheater, house, and part of a battle ship, plus a lot of references to Fascism. The views in the area are totally stunning and we took a slightly scary drive up a mountain to get a better look. We also visited a lemon house and took a boat across the Lake. We ended our trip in Verona, which is lovely and feels like a film set, all the buildings are so pretty in pinkish marble colours. We did go to the infamous Juliet's balcony, but I found the hundreds of padlocks and graffiti from real life lovers a lot more interesting. I wish we'd had longer, but at least I got a little sun before Autumn hits.