London: new to me, and already a fave!

I have said it before and I will say it again: I LOVE London! At least, this time of the year, I love it! I have been living in London for almost 6 years now and I think I have gone through all sorts of feelings for this city: excitement, fear, love, hate ... but, whatever the feeling, I cannot avoid to think that it is a very cool city and what I like about it is that after six years in this town, I still keep discovering new things about it that I love, it being a new park, a coffee shop, a colourful piazza, a gelato shop, a vintage shop or whatever else!

Two things I have discovered recently that have become already two favourite spots and that I would like to recommend to all of you:

1) Monmouth Coffee, perhaps the best coffee shop in London. I have only been to the shop in Covent Garden, which lucky me, is just a couple of minutes from my office, but they also have other two shops in Borough and Bermondsey, both very very close to where I live! The shop is simply beautiful but what is more important about this place is that the coffee tastes divine. Go try it for yourself!

2) Zucca restaurant. Zucca is a modern Italian restaurant that has recently opened in Bermondsey street, one of my favourite streets in London and conveniently just a few minutes from my flat ;) The interior is very neat, simple but sophisticated. The food is super good, everything we tried was to die for, especially the homemade focaccia. It was so good that I asked if I could buy it to take home! Unfortunately, they don't sell it at the moment, maybe in the near future...I will keep asking ;)

Trullallero Trullalla' ...

Every time I go to Italy, I realise how much I actually miss it ...

Rob and I have recently gone to my hometown for a couple of weeks and had a great time. While there we took a short trip with the family down to Puglia and I must confess I totally loved it there! By far the town I enjoyed the most was *Alberobello*, a fairy-tale little village were all the houses are old trulli, traditional Apulian stone dwellings with a conical roof. The place is enchanted! We rented a massoneria made of 11 trulli, *Il trullo dei ricordi*. It was simply magical to sleep inside a real trullo, I would totally recommend it to everybody. The whole area, La Valle d'Itria, is quite marvellous. Places to visit: Locorotondo, Cisternino (very good for dinner too, this little town is famous for its delicious meat!), Martina Franca and definitely Ostuni, *The white city*. On the way back we drove through the Northren coast of Puglia, known as Gargano.

The coastline is breathtaking and the sea super blue. To visit here: Monte Sant'Angelo and Vieste are a must! Let me know if you plan to go there, I would love to offer extra tips :)

Giveaway Heaven

{photo from this lovely etsy shop}

Hi folks!

Here are some good news for you. I have recently been contacted by the good people at giveawayscout.com

We all love giveaways, don't we? And now it is easier that ever to spot them! So, if you are looking for giveaways, look no further! Just visit and subscribe to giveawayscout.com

I also would like to take this opportunity to announce that a new valeasc giveaway is scheduled to be posted very soon, so watch this space!

Beach Time

{Sew English}

My dearest friends! I am getting ready to go to Italy but before I go, since once I am there, there will be no internet and as little computing as possible, I want to write you a couple of lines.

How is your Summer going? Did you get the right tan yet? Did you manage to wear all your sandals and summer dresses? I am going to do my best in the next couple of weeks...

I can't wait to be at the beach!!! Pescara, here I come...

See you all at the end of August!