Friday 16 February 2018

30 Facts About Me




In less than a month I will turn 30, so I thought it would be lovely to share with you 30 facts about myself, just to let you know me a little bit better.

1. I was born in Florence, but I live in a little city in the north-east of Italy; however I’m lucky enough to go there quite often to visit my relatives and enjoy the city!
2. I’m a social worker and I truly love my job.
3. I’ve always been a booklover and my favorite authors when I was child were Astrid Lindgren and Beatrix Potter.
4. I’ve just split up with my boyfriend after an year together. Will I find Mr. Right one day?!?!
5. When I was eighteen I discovered to be allergic to dairy products, so I’ve been craving for cheese for too many years.
6. I love walking in the woods, especially with Cloe, my parent’s sweet Yorkshire terrier.
7. My favorite season is Autumn, with its bright orange pumpkins, the crunchy leaves, the sweet hot chestnuts, and the first boiling herbal teas.
8. I’m a Pisces, a sensitive and emotional dreamer, but also stubborn and determined.
9. I’ve lived in Dublin for some months and Ireland, with its green fields and cliffs overlooking the sea, will be always dear to my hearth.
10. I would like to have a family one day and, If I could choose, two daughters.
11. I adore baking cakes and biscuits, especially for the delicious smell that spreads in the kitchen while they are in the oven.
12. Tulips are my favorite flowers, so they inspired the name of my blog.
13. I’m scared of blood and I’m very ashamed of it.
14. I have zero patience and I get annoyed very fast, but I’m trying to improve.
15. I haven’t worn a dress for ages, then one day I bought a beautiful one and I felt so good that I haven’t stopped wearing them anymore.
16. One of my favorite books is “ One day” by David Nicholls, and the story always remind me a person who in the past was very important for me.
17. I bloody love chocolate, especially dark with hazelnuts…or rather, I’m addicted to it!
18. I’m a morning person, so I hate wasting my time in bed in the weekends, especially if the sun is shining.
19. I used to dye my hair blond, but now I prefer my natural light brown color.
20. One of my biggest passions is travelling and the last city I’ve explored is Edinburgh.
21. I prefer tea than coffee and in the morning I drink a big cup of green tea with mint leaves.
22. One of the first things that I usually do when I come back home from work is to light a candle.
23. I’m not a big fan of makeup, but sometimes a beautiful red lipstick truly makes the difference.
24. Cleaning my house and tidying it up gives me satisfaction and makes me feel better when I’m stressed out.
25. I would like to be in better shape, but I really hate going to gym and do the exercises under the eyes of everyone…it embarrasses me a lot!
26. Green, in all of its shades, is my favorite color.
27. The Scandinavian countries fascinate me a lot, and I’m really into the hygge style.
28. I lived in Venice for years when I was at the university and I’m still dazzled by its beauty every time I walk its streets.
29. I studied Swedish when I was younger and I would like to learn this beautiful language one day.
30. I have a real passion for owls, so you can find them in every corner of my little flat.

 Love
Martina
Thursday 1 February 2018

Edinburgh Through My Lens


After mentioning it in my previous post, here I am, ready to tell you all about my wonderful trip to Edinburgh, a city that I’ve always dreamt to visit!
This holiday was a Christmas present from my parents to me and my sister, because they know how much we enjoy exploring new places together!
We arrived in Scotland on the 11th of January and, after a quick lunch and a little rest, we decided to have a walk to the castle that was all lit up and, despite the cold and the wind, the view that we enjoyed from up there was phenomenal.




As a huge Harry Potter fan I was sure would fall in love with Edinburgh; there are in fact some amazing places that just can’t be missed if you want to lose yourself again in the magical  atmosphere of the J.k. Rowling’s books:
   
    Victoria Street: a beautiful road, with colorful facades and marvelous shops, expecially the “Aha Ha Ha Jokes and Novelties”, which is full of masks and crazy things and it could really be run by Fred and George Weasley, and “ The Diagon House”, a wonderful place filled up with Harry Potter’s things like wands, feather quills, potion bottles, fluffy owls, chocolate frogs and much more. 






-        The Greyfriars Kirkyard: an ancient cemetery that inspired the names of some J.K. Rowling’s characters; the most important one is “ Lord Voldemort” (Tom Marvolo Riddle), that has taken inspiration from the grave of Thomas Riddle which, I must admit, was quite hard to find and we were forced to walk in the mud to reach it!
The day was very beautiful, with a pale sun and a blue sky, so it was nice to wander around the old graves, spotting some squirrels between the branches of the trees and earing the sound of the little birds.


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         The Elephant House: this café is better known as the birthplace of Harry Potter, in fact it is said that the author, during her early years in Edinburgh, used to go there to write because she was short of money and the price of a cup of tea was cheaper than heating her flat!
It was lovely to imagine J.K. Rowling, with her laptop and a steaming cup, looking out of the window at the castle and the ancient graves, dreaming about the adventures of Harry, Ron and Hermione.


After an entire morning dedicated to Harry Potter and a yummy lunch with a pie made with pumpkin, potatoes and sage, we decided to explore Holyrood Palace and we lost ourselves in the sumptuous residence of the Windsor, carried away by its charm and enchanted by its history.






Our third day in Edinburgh started with a visit to the National Museum of Scotland, where you can spend hours and hours wandering around all the rooms and looking at the exhibitions.




It was really cold and cloudy outside so, after a quick lunch with a soup at the “Union of Genius”, we went straight to the National Gallery of Scotland, which displays some of the masterpieces of amazing painters like Monet, Van Gogh, Vermeer, Rembrand, Gaughin and many others.
Despite all these important names, my favorite was “ The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch”, made by the Scottish painter Henry Raeburn.


The sun shined again our second to last day, so we took advantage of it and we explored the beautiful Stockbrige. I truly loved that charming part of the city, so elegant and quiet on Sunday morning, especially Circus Lane, a little lane full of picturesque mews houses. It was amazing to do a little bit of shopping in the charity shops and have a walk in the market, which is full of great goodies also for vegans, with a huge cup of chai tea latte to warm our hands.






Our trip to Edinburgh couldn’t be complete without a visit to the castle so, after a delicious fish and chips in a cozy pub, we challenged the icy wind and climbed the hill. Learning the story of the castle and have a look to the stunning jewels of the crown was really interesting, but what I enjoyed the most were the prisons, especially the graffiti left over the centuries by prisoners on the wooden doors.





Time flies when you have fun, so the last morning we did some shopping ( I finally bought a Kanken backpack..yeahhh!!!), we visited many second-hand bookshops and we walked along the Royal Mile, popping down the Closes on our way to Holyrood Palace.







It was time to say goodbye to this wonderful city and, I must confess, I did it with a little sadness…Edinburgh really enchanted me so I hope to come back soon!