WEDDING FEVER

Since I'm getting married in June 2017, it's the right time to do something or it will never happen :-) Last weekend, after coming back from Florence we went at wedding menu degustation organized by catering from Varese Il giardino dei desieri. Check them out: CLICK HERE

What can I say after 5 hours of eating? Huge surprise! Positive surprise! Everything was perfectly planned, in very profesional way. We got all the info we wanted plus the ladies that works at Il giardino dei desideri replied all our questions about wedding organization. I'm not one of those women who enjoys planning it so I'm happy I found a company that can help me a bit with something more than just food.

As for menu... usually after big italian lunches or dinners I feel heavy and I wanna sleep. But not this time :-) The food was well prepared with high quality ingredients. All looked and tasted fantastic! We've been told, we can change the menu for our wedding, so that's another big plus because we know that there are many caterings that offer only already created few menus without possibility of making changes.

The prices depends from what you want to serve to your wedding guests, but standard prices starts from 90€ and includes tablecloths, cutlery, wedding cake, service at the wedding and more things...

We still have two more caterings to check but... something tells me we'll go back to Il giardino dei desideri!

BETWEEN ART AND FASHION IN FLORENCE

My best friend says I'm crazy and probably she's right :-) I am obsessed with Yves Saint Laurent and his art work, especially Mondrian dress which was also main subject of my thesis. 

In my obsession I was only dreaming of seeing Mondrian dress in MET in New York one day until I read about the exhibition taking place in Florence that I wrote about HERE

The day of my trip to Florence finaly came and I saw the masterpiece...

 It's incredible how Yves Saint Laurent got inspired by Mondrian's painting and created magnificient haute couture dress.

The exhibition takes place in Salvatore Ferragamo museum in Florence (Piazza di Santa Trinita 5), so there were also most famous shoes made by Ferragamo and those beauties:

Marylin Monroe:

Audrey Hepburn:

Beautiful. Just beautiful. 

It's open until 7th April 2017 so something tells me I'll visit it again :-)

Tickets 7€, but for it's worth paying even 100€ :-)

BETWEEN ART AND FASHION IN FLORENCE

My best friend says I'm crazy and probably she's right :-) I am obsessed with Yves Saint Laurent and his art work, especially Mondrian dress which was also main subject of my thesis. 

In my obsession I was only dreaming of seeing Mondrian dress in MET in New York one day until I read about the exhibition taking place in Florence that I wrote about HERE

The day of my trip to Florence finaly came and I saw the masterpiece...

 It's incredible how Yves Saint Laurent got inspired by Mondrian's painting and created magnificient haute couture dress.

The exhibition takes place in Salvatore Ferragamo museum in Florence (Piazza di Santa Trinita 5), so there were also most famous shoes made by Ferragamo and those beauties:

Marylin Monroe:

Audrey Hepburn:

Beautiful. Just beautiful. 

It's open until 7th April 2017 so something tells me I'll visit it again :-)

Tickets 7€, but for it's worth paying even 100€ :-)

IN LOVE WITH PANINI TOSCANI

Panini Toscani (Piazza del Duomo 34, Florence) is number one according to TripAdvisor so I decided to check if it's gonna be also my number one... There's always a lot of people waiting so I was hoping it must be worth it. 

Big plus for letting my try the ingredients first and then pick which I wanted to have inside my sandwich. Prosciutto and pecorino toscano cheese were my choice. Great choice as it turned out! :-) 

Well, since we're in Tuscany, I couldn't say "No!" to amazing glass of red wine...

Does it deserve to be number one? Defenietly YES! Great atmosphere and most importantly: fantastic, good quality sandwich worth waiting! Even the prices are fine since we're in the centre of Florence.., 10€ for sandwich and wine. 

I will surely go back there to try new tastes! :-)

BIG DOSE OF RICE

Sushi again! It's my favourite choice for cheat meal (or more often :D ) so, of course, this is what I had when we went to visit our friends in Milan. We found a small place called Ifukazan (Trip Advisor: Sushi Milano) that turned out to be a paradise!  For 10,80 euro we could have had as much as we wanted, so... what we did? Yes, we just thought "let's order everything!" and so we did. Our next thought was "let's eat eveytging!" and our last thought was "let's not move for next few days!".

The sushi was great! I was extremly happy having that much, delicious food.

Unfortunately, I took photos only of tiny part of our order because my friends started to eat before I yelled "don't you dare eating! I need a photo!". I didn't take photos of soups, starters and some other colorful stuff :-)

What else? Nice, clean place located not in the centre of Milan but worth taking metro :-) Good service, good price (10 euro was a price only for lunch!). I hope to go there again when I'm in Milan.

Check out their website to get more info:  IFUKAZAN

OCTOPUS ATTACK!

I'm not a big fan of sea food so when my boyfriend took me to famous restaurant in Viareggio (Trip Advisor: Trattoria Nostromo) it wasn't my vision of perfect dinner :-) Nevertheless I have to admit that everything was prepared very well, looked really tasty and if somebody likes to have octopus in their stomach- they will love this place. 

Fishy starter  was the only thing I could've enjoyed there and it really was delicious. And so was my glass of prosecco (the bottle to be honest :D ). 

Thomas's first dish that made him very satisfied. 

Octopus. With head. With everything. With all those THINGS! :D Defenietly NO!

Monster with its head! 

After the dinner, even though Thomas was full, we went to buy some ice creams. I was finally happy! 

My boyfriend, huge fan of high quality&great food, famous restaurants enjoyed this place so this one stays with his positive comment and without any from me...  

DINNER WITH THE VIEW😍

To celebrate our last evening in Poland, me, my mom and Thomas went to restaurant  Sienna 104 in Heron Hotel at Roznowskie lake, close to my hometown Nowy Sacz. Heron is a new five stars hotel that not only offers amazing dishes but also, during the day, when the weather is nice, beautiful view form their second, Marina restaurant. This time we went there when it was dark, so the view must wait until next time when we go for a lunch.

Being at Sienna 104, not even for a second could have we forget we’re at five stars place. Simply beautiful. Being there I felt like coming back from the long day at the mountains and going to some kind of spa or laying in warm jacuzzi…  Just perfect feeling👱 

For the good beginning tartar:

What can I say? Delicious food served by a waiter who was wearing white glove while bringing knife for my duck, possibility of watching the chef in the kitchen, glass of my favourite prosecco…  But the most important was of course food. My mom took fish, Thomas had lamb and I decided to have a duck. All I can say is: perfectly prepared. All those meals were just perfectly prepared. So delicate, with the exact amount of spices… I’m out of words cause just thinking about it makes me wanna go back!😍

Above: first photo- duck, second- lamb.

Word about our waiter... For the first time in my life I can describe a waiter as fantastic in every aspect. And no, I’m not saying this because he was handsome (but he really was!)😏

 Coconut dessert:

High quality in every possible aspect means usually also high prices. Sienna 104 is an expensive restaurant, but for sure it’s worth it especially if you're a fan of nature (probably you have already noticed that I am😃).

More about Heron hotel: CLICK HERE

SUSHI TIME = HAPPY TIME🍣🍜🍱

Sushi… I used to hate it but now I wouldn’t mind having it every day! Thanks to my best friend Marcela I had a chance to eat at Q Sushi in our hometown- Nowy Sacz (southern Poland). Week after I took my boyfriend there and even though at the beginning he wasn’t sure what to expect, in the end he said: “We’re coming to eat here soon again!”.

Q Sushi is a small place close to the city centre (address: Narutowicza 3). When we were there it was not finished yet, so there were just 3 tables for two people. There’s also area where you can sit and watch sushi while being perpetrated.

We had to wait around 30 minutes, but it was worth it. Our sushi was not only looking great but also the taste was amazing. All ingredients were fresh and good quality. I asked for fork and knife but –big surprise for me- they didn’t have. Instead, I was suggested to use my hands. New and definitely good experience! When our sushi was finished, Thomas asked for few extra pieces.

At the end, the owner of Q Sushi took a while to talk to us about how we liked the sushi. We were honest- we loved it.

As for the prices... Q Sushi serves good quality and tasty food, everything is well prepared, the place is clean, but since it’s located in not big, not touristic polish city, we expected prices to be a bit lower. 

HELLO ANIMALS!😃🐢🐆🐒🐟🐙🐫

During our trip to Poland we visited the zoo in Wroclaw. All I can say is: WOW! I loved it! The aquarium where fish were all around us, even above our heads, mini-Afrika with exotic birds doing whatever free birds like to do, little goats that I was able to touch (if there’s somebody who haven’t noticed goats amazingness yet, check them out on Youtube🙈🙉🙊) and much more animals, I just adored I all! 

I was so happy to be there that I didn’t even care too much about taking pictures, I just wanted to look into all those tiny (or sometimes huge) eyes of animals. 😃The most beautiful in my opinion was the fact that they all seemed to be truly happy which unfortunately doesn’t happen in many zoos… It was also nice to hear some people who works there, talking about exotic animals they were taking care of. I find the visit in Wroclaw’s zoo a great experience because I had a chance not only to see new species but also to be close to the big ones since there’s no ugly, depressing cage. Of course, it’s all very safety and big plus for that. Another plus: despite the fact that the zoo is huge, we didn’t get lost, it was always well shown where we should follow. It (and Thomas’s hunger and my cappuccino addiction😃) also led us to Laguna bar- nice place to have a good lunch with a view on penguins and seals. One of the seals was playing so happily that I couldn’t stay focused  on my meal. I remember I had good piece of chicken and polish pierogi. I found just one minus about the zoo and it would be for not many descriptions in English.

It took us around 8 hours to slowly see everything, eat lunch and sit at the bar for a coffee break. Probably, we’d stay longer but they were closing. While leaving, we found out that it’s possible to go back to the city centre with a ship. It  takes around 25 minutes from  the zoo to Ostrów Tumski  and if the weather is ok, the trip is a relaxing pleasure after long zoo day. Another, cheaper option, is taking the tram (we took nr 10 from Plac Dominikanski). The tram costs around 4 zl, ship 15zl/person. 

So zoo is the must when you're in Wroclaw 😃

TATRA MOUNTAINS😍

During our stay in Poland we decided to visit Zakopane, the city in the south of Poland which is a beautiful tourist destination. People go there in the summer to spend the whole days walking in the Tatra mountains or in the winter to ski.⛄

It’s not hard to guess why I took my boyfriend to Zakopane…😃 Food! We spent one whole day eating on one of the most famous streets in Poland- Krupówki which is full of restaurants. In most of them prices are really ok for tourists, but there are also very cheap (not bad ones tho!) and expensive ones too. We started with having fantastic breakfast- scrambled eggs served with incredible wholegrain bread and butter, tomatoes and of course cappuccino at Gazdowo Kuznia CliCK for more info That’s one of the places where prices are average but a bit higher comparing with other restaurants like this one, but ok considering nice, English speaking service and most importantly good quality of  food and atmosphere that won’t let you forget where you are. Another plus for location- close to Gubalowka (not big mountain, perfect in the summer to have lunch on the top of it).

While walking around the city, we stopped in some places to try few different kinds of beer. Lunch we had at the same place were breakfast- Gazdowo Kuznia. Again we were satisfied with food and I will definitely visit this place again (next month maybe?).

After lunch but yet before the dinner we stopped at “Staro Izba” and I didn’t want to leave that place! When I saw polish sausage in menu I knew that for next hour nothing else matters for me. Just me and the sausage that I miss while living in Italy. Then, when I finally had it with good bread and beer I thought I died and went to tiny sausage heaven. I’m soooo going there again! Plus for the service, atmosphere like at Gazdowo Kuznia and food of course. Another place where you’ll leave more money than at other similar restaurants but still average for Zakopane, not one of the most expensive ones. Visit their website HERE

Dinner we had at a place called “Pstrag gorski” where we tried fish. We were positively surprised with the quality, atmosphere, prices, service and of course great taste of our fish. Surely our stop when we go to Zakopane again! More about “Pstrag gorski”: Click here!🐟

I hope next time we’ll also spend some more time in the mountains, not just becoming fatter!😃😅

I LOVE LAMAS🐆🐪🐨🐛🐑🐒🐯🐘

With this post I wanna go back  to Zoo Safari that is located close to Novara, in the north of Italy. Visiting it last summer I consider as one of my greatest experiences! The possibility of being so close (just centimetres from wild animals so truly amazing and I recommend it to all of you! Actually, for me it was so exciting that I made my boyfriend do it all twice on the same day. I couldn’t understand why he didn’t want again&again…  

The animals were coming close to our car to say “hiiii!” or sometimes just looked with “Gtfo!” faces (still adorable!) and I just wanted to steal one tiny little lama cause I was like… who doesn’t want to have their own private lama?

I came home with no new animal but my brain was exploding with happiness and I would talk about that day for next few weeks! Since then I’ve just became hungry for more so… next time Africa maybe?

More info about the place here: Website of Safari Park

PIEROGI MADE IN ITALY

Last week me, Thomas and his friends organised a dinner. Everybody cooked (or bought) something. Ruija, a friend of Thomas from China made Chinese dish that I’m not even able to describe but what’s important- I liked it. Other friends, all Italians, prepared pasta, olives and I don’t remember what else. On our table we also had a nice piece of salami and gorgonzola. I’m not a big fan of those two tho.

I decided to prepare something all tourists want to try when they come to Poland- pierogi. In my opinion the best are with fruit but this time stuffed them with mozzarella and zucchini and other ones with too salty carrots.

My first move was cutting in tiny pieces carrots and zucchini. After that I cooked them and in the meantime I prepared the ingredients such as two glasses of flour, a bit of salt, spoon of butter, one whole egg and 0,75ml of hot water. I mixed flour with salt, butter and egg and then was slowly inputting water all the time mixing with wooden spoon. 
 For carrots I used definitely too much salt 😃😃Zucchini and mozzarella were spiced with a bit of salt and black pepper. We also added a bit of soya sauce and it really made them much, much better!😀