Red underwear... for New Years Eve

Many countries have special traditions for New Years Eve. In Spain you eat 12 grapes when midnight strikes (at every stroke of the clock), in The Netherlands you eat "oliebollen" and in Italy..... you wear red underwear! It's supposed to bring good luck in love in the year to come.

Have a nice New Years Eve everyone!

Christmas 2011

Christmas 2011 in a few photos! Lots of food, drinks, presents and most important: fun with family and friends!

Christmas Day

It's Christmas day! I hope you're all having a wonderful time with family, friends, loved ones!

Ps. I took this photo at Paladar la Guarida in Havana, Cuba...
ah what a beautiful place! Check it out here:
http://tarasdolcevita.blogspot.com/2011/10/paladar-la-guarida-havana-cuba.html

Setting the table for Christmas

This year I wanted to set the Christmas table in a different way. Not using traditional Christmas colours, like red and green, but fresher... so I opted for turquoise. What do you think?

Linen napkins by Flamant http://www.flamant.com
Napkin rings by Lifestyle http://shop.lifestyle94.com/shop
Turquoise plates by De Bijenkorf http://www.debijenkorf.nl
Silver candlelight by Riviera Maison http://rivieramaison.com

Happy Holidays!

Dear Friends, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very happy, healthy and fashionable 2012! Thank you for following me!!!

And a special thank you to Paul, who designed my new logo...!

Wine bar dei Frescobaldi... the story continues

At wine bar dei Frescobaldi, you can either take your time and enjoy the Italian hospitality, or ask for a quick meal and be done in 15 minutes if you like! (I definitely prefer the first option.) Either way, the staff is very kind and efficient.

Unlike many other airport restaurants, at the various dei Frescobaldi wine bars throughout Rome Fiumicino airport, you can actually have a healthy and delicious meal!!! They serve buffalo mozzarella and prosciutto, caprese salad, grilled vegetables, a cheese platter, smoked salmon, steak tartare, Angus beef, etc. etc.

To me it's the perfect 'stopover' while traveling! Next time you're in Rome, check it out. Not going to Italy anytime soon? There's a dei Frescobaldi wine bar at Harrods in London now too!!

For more information, please visit http://www.deifrescobaldi.it

Or read my first article on dei Frescobaldi 

http://tarasdolcevita.blogspot.com/2010/09/dei-frescobaldi-winebar-rome-fiumicino.html 

Florence in December

I love Florence, every time of the year, but especially in December. It's so pretty! Look at the Ponte Vecchio with all the Christmas Lights... or the shop windows, decorated so beautifully! Oh and my alltime favourite... the Santa Maria Novella pharmacy... the Christmas decorations are just gorgeous.

For more information, please visit:
Officina Profumo - Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella
http://www.smnovella.it

People... Santa's helpers

Check out Santa's helpers... at Hotel Des Indes in The Hague!

Sexy Santa dresses are not very common (yet) in Europe, but these girls sure know how to wear them with grace.

Colette, Paris

Colette... a store I dreamt of visiting for years. Well visiting... shopping at! For those of you who don't know Colette: it's the coolest (department) store in Paris! Colette sells the latest fashion and everything else you ever desired.

How about some customized turntables? It made me wanna become a DJ instantly! Or how about those homemade Colette cookies? All your good -diet- intentions fly out the window! They just scream: "buy me"!

Don't even get me started on the dresses, shoes, handbags, jewelry, gadgets or cosmetics... Ahh pure bliss!

It's pretty admirable how a department store can create such desire. You walk in there and it's like: "Can I have it all?!"

The gadgets are probably one of the reasons that makes Colette stand out of the crowd of hip, fashionable stores. Oh and their own restaurant of course. And last but not least, the übertrendy staff.


For more information, please visit: http://www.colette.fr