Italian sketches

March 20, 2014

Every time we get to go on holiday I always make big plans on things I’m going to do, especially related to sketching outdoors. Every time I pack my bag with too many colours, pens, sketchbook, and all I can think I might need. And promptly, most of them remain unused and never see the light. This time, I took advantage of the fact that we were travelling just with hand luggage and took with me only the basics: my tiny homemade watercolour box, my tiny concertina book, one water brush, a pencil and a gel pen. And it worked. The weather hasn’t been great and the time I had to sit and draw was very limited. I only managed to do two very quick sketches, one in Rome, while waiting for the tram, and one in Pisa, while waiting for my girlfriends. Talking about killing time while waiting…

This view

December 20, 2013

We have been waking up to this view for the past two days. It is so familiar to me and yet I’m amazed every time I look at it.

We are loving the sunshine and the long walks along the seaside. The peacefulness of the empty beaches and the magnificent colours of the sunset. Italy if we could trust you, we would move back straight away. For now we will just enjoy our holiday time here.

Last week in pictures

November 13, 2013

Last week we were in Central Italy, visiting family. As we live in a different country and don’t see them often, we try to go back every now and then for a quick visit. This time we had a special occasion to celebrate and decided to make it into a mini vacation. Little we knew that we would all catch a cold, as soon as we’d land, and someone would even get high temperature and a yeast infection. But despite these minor shortfalls, we had a great time. The weather was still warm for daily walks, our usual breakfast place was still in business and as good as ever, Olivia played a lot with the dog and loved having her grandparents and aunty around (not so much her little cousin!).

We do miss Italy, a lot, and every time we go back there, it’s harder to leave, even more now than my little is growing up. Dreaming of going back one day and living in a nice house in the countryside or by the sea. In the meantime we treasure out time spent there and collect photos over photos.

Italy we love you!

Summer skies // Italian holiday // Part 1

August 30, 2013

Skies // Calabria //Italy

Lots of summer skies from our holiday in southern Italy. Most of the above were taken from the terrazza of my parents house. They live in an apartment on the 4th floor of a building very close to the beach and the view is amazing. You can see the entire Gulf of Squillace, and on a clear day you can easily spot the farthest southern end. I will never have enough of this view and it is one of the things I miss the most.

Our trip to Italy in photos

May 15, 2013

We spent the week between the end of April and beginning of May visiting my family in Calabria, Southern Italy. We had a fabulous time, the weather was great and it didn’t rain once…that’s all we needed after a very long and cold winter here in London. We had long walks on the beach, celebrated my birthday, ate lots of ice creams and pizza, went out for breakfast and had some alone time while my parents were enjoying themselves looking after Olivia. It was very refreshing, and made us realise once more how hard it is being just us here, with no family around.