Of Italian and Scottish heritage and living in the very inspiring city of London. I have a worldwide wealth of information and experiences to share with you all. A great love of travel and enjoyment of beautiful places. I am looking forward to filling my blog with ideas and recommendations which I hope that you enjoy.

I have a design background. A degree in Graphic Design after which I worked for a small but highly productive design consultancy in Farringdon and then I moved on to Harrods where I worked with the design team . My studio was tucked away in one of the domes on top of this iconic building and we worked closely with the Visual Marketing team who are responsible for all the window displays. I then spent time at the British Museum where the focus was exhibition design. I continued with freelance work while my girls were younger and a design training that I also adapted to interior design. I attended the London College of Printing where there was a strong emphasis on media and an exceptional photography department where I was able to develop my photography skills. A further love of photography really began when I was given a rather bashed up Pentax 35mm camera by a friend. Since that time I am rarely without a camera.

One of three girls we were well travelled as youngsters. We lived overseas and spent nearly four years growing up in Tokyo where I attended an International School. Our weekends and spare time were always taken up with visiting amazing places and taking in the culture which my mother embraced and I think that this love of exploring and discovering new experiences has been deeply ingrained. To this day I love to travel all over the globe and on arrival in any new destination my greatest pleasure is to soak up the local culture and find new places to visit. Needless to say I also love to shop and find local produce arts and crafts. I love the authenticity of places and one of my habits is to visit a local supermarket as they are always filled with vastly different and unusual ingredients.

My heritage also has a great impact on my life. My maternal grandmother was a great inspiration to me. One of fifteen children she spent her childhood in the Palazzo Piccolomini in Siena. An ancient Sienese family she lived in a privileged world. My grandfather was from a similar background and we still visit his family home every summer. This is a place steeped in history and we are surrounded by old friends. During the summer months we would visit nearby villas all rather crumbling and I remember playing in beautiful gardens and large ball rooms with nothing but ping pong tables in the middle!

Our mother instilled strong family values and it is from my Italian heritage that I have a love of good food and great style. I think perhaps my love of markets and skill at persuasive negotiating are also from the market towns we visited as children. Our local village still has a summer market twice a week and whilst now it is much more commercial as a child I remember holding Peppa’s hand, my grandmothers loyal cook and we would go an buy fresh chickens for lunch from the market.