A trifecta of city breaks

She's once, twice, three times a lady heading away for the weekend on a little city break. It's been a jam-packed few weekends with lots of my favourite people, so I thought I'd lighten my workload and roll them all into one bumper blog post.

First up I was back, back, back again in Milano (for the 6th time). I loved it there on my very first visit 6 years ago, but since my bestie Laura moved there with her husband Fulvio, it's held an extra special place in my heart as a city. So I was very excited to be kicking off the new year with another trip!

I arrived on the Friday and with Laura and Fulvio working, I was entertaining myself for the afternoon. Obviously I chose to do so with my favourite Italian activity - drinking aperol spritz! I also grabbed a light lunch in this lovely little place called Tamo, which was technically a mozzarella bar (or a mozzarelleria?)

Reunited with my favourite Mr and Mrs, we headed out for some drinks at a local bar and microbrewery which had some really nice beers. We then went back to their apartment for an aperitivo and then dinner; I love the Italian culture of eating before eating again!

The nice thing about how many times I've been to Milan now, is that I'm basically no longer going for the city at all, I'm going for Laura and Fulvio. Which means any sense of pressure to explore, or desire to rush around is just completely lifted. I've already seen and done pretty much all of the main tourist stuff I want to, so my trips there now are much more relaxed, and I get to see some lesser known places too. Since the sun was shining and we were treated to beautiful blue skies, we decided to go and explore a lesser known area for the day, Gallaratese. The three of us had a lovely sunny walk and then stopped for some focaccia, coffee and tiny pastries. The best bonus about being slightly out of the centre? Everything was much cheaper!

Okay so I may have said that I was done with all the major touristy stuff in Milan by now, but it doesn't make the Duomo any less impressive, beautiful, or worth having a little look at each time I visit. Fulvio had headed home to watch the football so Laura and I decided to go for a couple of drinks and it sounded like spritz o'clock to me. We ended up going to the Piazza Sant'Alessandro, where we sat outside at Bar Principe (a luxury in January!!), and then had a glass of wine at Vino Vino when it opened shortly after.

Then after a quick outfit change (me and Laura hilariously ended up in near identical outfits but let the record show that I had packed mine with me, and she decided on the day!) and some prosecco, we headed back out for some dinner. We had had a nightmare booking a restaurant because we'd left it until the last minute on a Saturday evening, but Veritas Bistrot was exactly the kind of vibe we were wanting. Lovely food, and a cosy atmosphere! We shared everything (my favourite way), and we got prawns, tuna carpaccio (which looked and tasted more like some kind of ham but was very nice), pumpkin and blue cheese risotto, and a ragu pasta. It would've been rude not to finish on a cheeky little dessert!

We'd run out of grace with the good weather so it was back to a more classic, dreary January scene. But we still headed out for a little walk around the park on Sunday afternoon and then stopped off for a lovely little coffee.

Laura is normally the chef whenever I stay with them, but when we got back from the walk, we were treated to a full Sunday set-up from chef Fulvio! Apparently tomato-based pastas are to an Italian Sunday, what roast dinners are to an English Sunday! It was delicious and we had a lovely chilled evening with some wine and a film on Netflix.

The next day, I was back to solo exploring while Laura and Fulvio worked so I decided to tick off somewhere I've had saved for a while. Bar Luce is a really cool 1950s inspired space, designed by Wes Anderson. The cakes were absolutely beautiful and so despite the fact it was very much breakfast time, I just had to have a piece of the pistachio one!

Bar Luce was actually attached to the Fondazione Prada, which is a space for various art exhibitions. I had a museum saved on the other side of the city that I was planning to visit, but when I realised it didn't open until 2pm on a Monday, I decided to explore this place instead. Contemporary art isn't massively my favourite. I much prefer the renaissance-era stuff like oil paintings and marble statues. As opposed to a box of rain showering a duck. However, it was definitely cool and there were some pieces I did really like (like the giant tulips and the giant mushrooms). Overall, it was a fun way to spend the day before I had to head to the airport to catch my flight home!

I wasn't even back for 4 whole days before it was time to head off on trip number 2 of the year. This one was a landmark of its own though, as it was my first trip away with Ash and it was actually my Christmas present from him. So I was super excited on Friday night to head to... Harrogate! I'd never been before and as readers of my end of year blog post will know, I'm wanting to explore more of the UK this year. I love a historic, quaint town and as first impressions go, Harrogate was off to a great start. Even our hotel, the Majestic, was a Victorian landmark!

We arrived on Friday night, so after a quick drink in our hotel bar (which was very cool), we went for an amazing tapas feast for dinner. Sharing food is basically my love language and so Ash picked very well with the cuisine.

For a pretty small town, Harrogate had a lot going on with its nightlife! There were some really cool bars and loads of live music going on. We started with a guitarist at Katie O'Briens, and then went to a place called The Den where there was a band on and loads of pool tables. This was mine and Ash's first time going out properly drinking together and so he finally got to see who he was dealing with; I split the G perfectly and managed to match him pint for pint all night!...

...A move I was kind of paying for in the morning! Luckily we had the most amazing hotel breakfast to perk us up and then we headed out to explore. We were blessed with gorgeous weather so Harrogate looked even prettier, and I loved all the old buildings and cute little streets.

When I first had the Wetherspoon's recommended to me as a must-do in Harrogate, I thought it was a joke. But after visiting, I can see why! It's housed in the most beautiful old Turkish bath building, and the architecture is really impressive. I was still feeling a tiny bit delicate but risked a drink anyway because it would've been rude not to.

The next stop on the list was another that Ash had booked and I was very excited for it! Betty's tea room is super famous and as an avid lover of afternoon tea, I was really looking forward to seeing why it was so renowned. Well, it definitely lived up to expectations! The food was all absolutely incredible, the building was beautiful and we even had someone playing the grand piano in the background. The fact that one of the cakes was a macaron? It may as well have been designed specifically for me.

Then it was time for round 2 and we were back out on the hunt for live music and LOTS of drinks (although I was definitely not keeping up pint for pint for a second night in a row). We started at a really cool bar called The blues cafe, which confusingly didn't have blues music but rock music instead. It was a really cool tiny place and the band was really good. Then we were back to old faithful and ended up singing the rest of the night away in Katie O'Briens.

Then it was time for some R&R on Sunday, as after another delicious breakfast, we headed down to the hotel spa. It was really beautiful and lovely to have some chill time before heading back home. As first Christmas gifts go, Ash managed a 10/10 with this Harrogate trip!

In amongst these happy trips, there was something much sadder happening at home. After a week long illness, we lost my lovely Grandma. There aren't enough words in the world that could potentially explain what she's always meant to me or what an incredible woman she was. She always had this zest for life, and the ability to bring sunshine and laughter to every room she entered. I know that life will always be a little bit worse without her in it, but I feel grateful for all the years that I got to love her, and I'll carry her with me always.

Losing Grandma made the third and final trip bittersweet, since it was actually booked as a birthday trip for her. She was always a jokey person and as a family we had a very jokey relationship with death. She used to always say things like 'well I might not be here by then', so when we booked it I said to her 'that means you're not allowed to go dying before then'. And look what she went and did! She'll forever be in trouble for that one. An irony I'm sure she's laughing about from her fluffy cloud. Getting a weeks warning for her passing did mean that she had time to order that we still go on the trip though. And far be it from us to defy her! 

So we headed off to London despite the bittersweet feeling, and we started with some lunch. Pizzeria Cozaio was mainly picked because of its proximity to where we were parking the car, but actually the pizzas were amazing! The place was really cute too, although it's literally the first time I've ever had rude service at a place run by Italians. Unheard of!

We went and checked into our hotel and we were staying at the Apex Temple Court. I love that area of London and the rooms were really nice!

We decided it was basically time to start drinking so after a quick turnaround at the hotel, we wandered towards the west end and naturally stumbled upon some lovely pubs along the way. It was also the Lunar New Year, so it was a fun weekend to have a walk through Chinatown as they had loads of music and dancers outside the restaurants.

Meal times are always very thrown off when you go to the theatre, especially if you're a dinner-is-at-9pm girlie like me. We'd deliberately had a small lunch though, so at only 5pm, we headed for dinner. We went to Dirty Bones in Soho which was like an elevated American-style place. It was really good and the portions weren't too crazy which worked in our favour!

Then it was time for the main event! We love a West End show and one that had grabbed my attention the second I read about it was Hadestown. The Greek mythological tale of Orpheus and Euridice, set against a New Orleans-style jazz soundtrack. Love and love. It exceeded even my expectations and was such an incredible show. The music was amazing and it was really nice being in a slightly smaller and more intimate theatre (although the leg room, omg it was like medieval torture). It's a show where all the storytelling is in the music lyrics (like Hamilton), so it helps if you listen to it beforehand (or just really pay attention). It also helps if you know the base story already, although I wouldn't say it's necessarily needed. Overall the show was amazing and I would highly recommend it.

On Sunday morning, I was treated to sun and blue skies for the third time (I was really lucky on all 3 trips actually). Which worked out well for our stroll along the Thames towards the spot we'd picked for brunch. The Swan, next to the Globe theatre was really lovely and the brunch food was really good. Look at the colour of those eggs! Then after we were all set up for the day, we waved London goodbye and headed back home. It may have been bittersweet timing, but we still managed to have an amazing trip. Instead of celebrating Grandma's birthday, it became one last gift from her, and a chance for us to celebrate her on her behalf. And what a great way to end my trifecta of city breaks that was.