Benvenuti and Welcome to all my Lovely Followers around the world,
Oliver and Nicola on the right. My Hunks of the month. Foto J Finnigan
Visiting Florence is a wonderful experience at any time and we don’t do it often enough. Last Tuesday we not only went to that beautiful city, we also had an appointment with Sartoria Vanni a hugely popular bespoke tailor with a history going back two hundred years. My man needed a new city suit and this is where we were recommended to go. We were greeted by Nicola Papa and Oliver Scavetta, lifetime friends and both, I have to say, absolutely gorgeous. Oh dear, now I’ve lost track! Oh yes, for the next hour Nicola was my man’s personal tailor and I was truly impressed with his attention to style and detail. My man looked pretty good when we arrived there, but in Nicola’s final mock-up suit he looked amazing! We have four weeks to wait for the final suit, so that will be another excuse to return to Florence. Yay! Quote Nicola Papa – ‘Self-empowerment and success can all start with your diligence to apparel. When you dress your best you’re empowered to become your best.’ Absolutely, I say! Visit the Website for full details of their traveling service.
The cool courtyard setting of Ristorante Quinoa. Foto J Finnigan
Now for ages I have wanted to visit Ristorante Quinoa, a completely gluten-free restaurant in Vicolo Di Santa Maria Maggiore. It was a bit of a walk for me, but I was really determined to enjoy a good lunch after our visit to Nicola and Oliver. I was not disappointed. We walked into a lovely cool open courtyard with colourful seating and a menu to die for! I ordered a vegan burger, which came with big slices of avocado and lots of other trimmings in a crispy home-made gluten-free bread roll. This was just heaven to me and washed down with a delicious dry white. I should have taken a picture of the food, but I was so ravenous that I had eaten the top of the bread roll before I thought of it! Sorry. Anyway, I must recommend this place to you, particularly if you are gluten-free like me; they cater for meat eaters, veggies and vegans. Visit Website
The freebie newspaper ‘Florence is You’ Foto J Finnigan
As I walked to the bagno, I noticed a table with the free newspaper ‘Florence is You’ on top and this reminded me of our meeting the lovely Editor in Chief, Anna Balzani, a couple of years ago. Her paper is brilliantly put together and caters for Italian, English, Chinese and Russian visitors and residents. Not only is it newsy, it also has great interviews and articles about the most interesting people and places. I read the paper on-line and you can too, just visit Website
Meanwhile, in the world of Rock Music, Prato, a small city north of Florence, is currently hosting seventeen days of Afterhours shows in the Piazza Duomo. Now this is a very popular location for festivals and is very beautiful too. Prato is also famous for its textile industries and is very popular with the Chinese as a place to live. Foto La Nazione
What else? oh yes, I read over coffee in our local village of Fiano, that Silvio Berlusconi is currently on the hustings for his party Forza Italia, in Sicily. Well, I don’t want to hint at anything, but in the colourful world of Italian politics, I can’t imagine he will have any trouble getting votes there! Nudge nudge, wink wink. Foto La Repubblica.
Ok, now today is Saturday and I can’t make up my mind whether to cook lunch and go out this evening, or to go out for lunch and tuck in with an aperitivo and snack this evening. I’ll check with my man, back in a minute……. We are going out to lunch, so that’s good, I can relax and finish this blog.
Well, the weather is cooler now but we still need more rain. High winds are currently whirling around the house, so something might be on the way! Fingers crossed.
Have a great week and do drop me a line. I love to hear from you.
Salute June x
PS Visit my author site at June’s site or visit any Amazon site around the world. Or, simply google June Finnigan.
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