Little Italian Suitcase

14/04/2025

Giovanni Boldini exhibition in Ferrara shows portraits and sketches executed whilst he lived in Paris 🤓 Here are the aristocratic ladies of high society, together with unknown models and a singer. What a fun world Boldini must have witnessed! Lots of beauty and fashion 🥰 The lady in pink, Olivia de Co**ha, was a Chilean aristocrat, who was 24 years old when she sat for Boldini’s portrait. Once completed, Boldini liked the painting so much that he decided to keep it for himself 😮 The de Co**ha family got very upset and took him to court. Eventually the matter was settled by him painting a second and smaller portrait for them. It was only in 2016 that the lady’s son, Mariano, was able to see for the first time his mother’s full portrait!

27/03/2025

When the gallery itself is almost as beautiful as the works of art it contains 🤩

16/03/2025

What a beautiful exhibition at the National Gallery 🤩 Siena, 1300-1350. It is precisely in this Tuscan city during these fifty years that Western European art began, thanks to a group of ingenious artists 🧑‍🎨 They took both inspiration from Byzantine art and Gothic style to create their own individual style, which influenced the painters of the following centuries 🥰

16/03/2025

23/02/2025

Loved so much the exhibition dedicated to Vanessa Bell in Milton Keane. She was born in London in 1879 into an intellectual family, the Stephens. Father was an intellectual and her sister was Virginia Woolf. Vanessa lived a very unconventional life, and surrounded herself with like minded friends. She had a wonderful sense of colour and travelled to Italy a lot. She said all painters should go to Italy and paint there ❤️ I couldn’t agree more 😜 She died in 1961 into Charleston Farmhouse in Sussex. This house is open to the public and is full of paintings, ceramics and textiles.

Vanessa also painted cupboards, doors, fire surrounds, walls 🌈 Colour and shapes are everywhere 🤩

28/01/2025

Even on a grey January day I love Turin 💕💕 Quiet, grand avenues and squares. Palaces everywhere, rich with artworks and elegant rooms 🤩 Because Torino was a capital, the capital of the Kingdom of Savoy and Sardinia. The Savoy family were art collectors and spent a fortune eventually financing the three wars of Independence which unified Italy under their government 🇮🇹 This is how Italy as a state started 🇮🇹 I will be posting more photos of the interiors and YES, we finally managed to visit Museo Egizio, the best Egyptian Museum after Cairo ❤️

25/01/2025

Stupinigi palace, which is just outside Turin, was one of the hunting lodges of the Savoy family, who united Italy in 1870 🤓 The palace is more a royal palace than a lodge! But hunting scenes are everywhere, on the walls and on the furniture … There are opulent rooms, wonderful art and Chinese themed rooms. This was very fashionable in the late 1800s 🤩

01/01/2025

Happy new year everyone 🥂💫 These pics are from Collalbo, which is a hamlet 1,100 mt altitude above Bolzano. We were there a couple of days ago and it was fabulous to see bright blue skies, sunshine and snow ❄️ From Bolzano you get to it by cable car. In the background the wonderful Dolomites with the massif of Sciliar and Alpe di Siusi ⛰️ There was also a little Christmas market 🤗

30/12/2024

Magical atmosphere in Bolzano 🤩 One of the nicest cities to visit during Christmas 🎄 Fab market, superb shopping and wonderful decorations 🎁🥂🎄💫 It has bags of Italian style and Austrian charm 🤩 The architecture of the old centre is quite medieval ❤️ We spent two nights and we walked loads, we could easily have stayed a whole week and not be bored one bit! Can’t wait to return soon!

25/12/2024

My Christmas, il mio Natale 🎄💫🎄💫

16/12/2024

The Natural History Museum is located in Kensington and has been known in the past as the Cathedral of Nature 😊 It was built between 1864 and 1880 and first opened in 1881 🤓 It’s famous for its collection of dinosaur skeletons 🦕 but it does contain so much more. For example specimens collected by Charles Darwin. It was completed covered in terracotta tiles to resist the sooty atmosphere of Victorian London 💨 💨 The exterior is in the Romanesque style and it was designed by a civil engineer Francis Fowke 🤩

It’s free to enter because its upkeep and the salaries of its 450 employees are paid by the government as the museum has the status of a charitable organisation ❤️

15/12/2024

Anglesey Abbey Garden is one of the most beautiful in South East England 🤩 Even in winter the amazing gardeners have planted trees and shrubs with fantastic colours. It’s a National Trust property, just 30 minutes from Cambridge 🤗