Friday 27 April 2018

Lake Como, Italy

On our final day in Italy, we navigated the local public transport and managed to make it to Lake Como (Lago di Como), 50 miles north of Milan. Nestled at the foot of the Alps, it is known as one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

We wandered around the town of Como, stopping at a restaurant overlooking the water for a light lunch and a couple of cheeky cocktails.





We took a funicular railway up to the mountain village of Brunate and then walked up to the Volta Lighthouse (Faro Voltiano di Brunate) which is located 150 metres above the village and a DECEIVINGLY long walk. However, the unobstructed view from the top was definitely worth all of the complaints about tiredness, dehydration and overheating along the way. We were lucky enough to visit on a fairly clear day and so were able to see the snowy peaks of the Alps in the distance, rising up behind the town of Como below.

As the sun began to set, I got some lovely shots of the lake and its surrounding architecture in the gorgeous low orange light. I love the way the houses are nestled into the hillside, almost blending in to the amazing landscape. 

If you ever find yourself in Milan or northern Italy, or even in the Alps, I would highly recommend taking a day trip to Lake Como! These photos don't even do it justice compared to what it was like in person!

...Introducing Matt, my boyfriend! He put up with my stopping every 5 minutes to get a good photo, gave me a piggy back on the last leg of the walk up to Brunate's lighthouse and even let me pop into Brandy Melville on the way back without even complaining a little bit. (And no, we didn't intend to wear matching outfits!)

Thank you (or should I say grazie) for reading!

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Monday 23 April 2018

Milan, Italy


After having studied Italian for nearly two years, I thought it was about time to actually visit Italy for the first time and give immersion a go. Although, as always, natives seem to speak an entirely different language to the one you've learnt in the classroom, I still had a lovely few days wandering around Italy! We visited Milan, got a spontaneous train (language skills came in handy here let me tell you) to a city called Pavia and finished off our trip at the infamously beautiful Lake Como. This is the first of three blog posts about my trip, so please do follow me using the links to your left (shameless plug) if you'd like to hear more!

To change it up a bit, I'm going to give you a few words of basic Italian vocab as I go along, so you can wow people with your cosmopolitanism and I can pretend I'm revising for my exams!

I fell in love with the beautiful coloured houses (la casa [sing.], le case [plu.]) with their window shutters and delicate balconies looking out onto the narrow, paved street (la via) below. I feel like if I lived here, I'd have to burst open the shutters and break into song (a la Disney) every day just because.

Milan's Duomo is one of the most stunning pieces of architecture (l'architettura) I have ever seen! Iy did a little bit of research and found out it took over SIX CENTURIES to build - can you imagine starting a project (il progetto) and knowing that not only would you not be alive to see it finished, but neither would your great, great, great grandchildren? 

The roadside flowers (i fiori) were beautiful and stopping gave me a chance to totally embarrass myself in front of some locals in my attempt to put together a sentence! Yay!

Honestly? I took this picture (la fotografia) because I thought it looked "edgy" (not even going to try and translate that one) with the Lana Del Rey lyrics next to a classic Italian Vespa (not even sure whether this is a Vespa but let's go with it)...

I asked Matt (the boyf) to take a photo of me and he took this lovely, perfectly focused gem but I guess I'll take what I can get! Looks like he was more interested in the motorbikes behind me...

ALSO if you follow my Instagram already you'll already know, but I chopped off 15 inches of my hair to donate to the Little Princess Trust to make wigs for children with cancer and alongside this, I am also raising sponsorship money for Coppafeel! If you're feeling generous or simply curious, click here to find out more about the whole thing!

Thank you (grazie) for reading and remember to follow me on Bloglovin'/social media to see more!
 
 
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