Thinking about the Fall

Is anyone starting to think about fall clothes yet? I know, it’s only August, but at our house we’re already getting lots of catalogs in the mail showcasing the newest fall trends. I don’t know about you, but when they arrive in the mail, I start to feel the same thing I feel on Sundays, like around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Does anyone know what I mean? That acknowledgement of a weekend ending, or a lovely summer starting to wind down, and it’s time once again to think about getting serious.


Thankfully, fashion is always fun, and we get to see what the designers have come up with for the fall. I’ve seen so much texture in outfits- and I love monochromatic ones that can be easily personalized- as your outfit can be used as the canvas on which to accessorize as you wish-shawls and wraps, Italian scarves, Italian leather handbags, costume jewelry- it’s all good.

Today I was out to lunch with some very dear friends – and we all agreed that the fashion police are gone for good. Phew! So anyone who was worried about wearing the wrong thing can just forget about it. Just feel good about your choices. And make a style for yourself, at any age.

                                                            

Passing on the Love of Travel

We were young ourselves, with two 4 year-old sons. And after several years of local travel, to the beach, to Disneyworld, and to all the fun places young parents go with their kids, we longed to go back to Europe, children in tow.

There were no plans of doing the grand tour of Europe like all the American painters did, or anything remotely like that. All we wanted to do was be there, and live. So we rented an apartment for two spring weeks in Piazza Sta.Croce in Florence.

We brought a dear aunt of our sons along, to help us when the two of them decided to run in three different directions and to have another adult around for the usual craziness.

It couldn’t have turned out better. The apartment was gorgeous, with plenty of bedrooms to go around, and kitchen and washing facilities to make dishwashing and laundry very convenient.

We spent our days doing simple things in Florence, made it child-friendly, with lots of time built in for just running around the piazza chasing pigeons- which turned out to be a favorite past-time of theirs. And I will never forget the blue skies- every single day of the trip. We saw not one cloud in 15 days! Cielo sereno, as they say.

And I got to run off by myself a few times to buy an italian leather handbag, some Italian gold, Angela Caputi jewelry, and gifts for all my friends while my husband and sister-in-law took the boys to the nearest park with a playground.

Over the years we have returned with our sons to Florence several times. One eventually studied there (or I guess what kind of passed for studying) for many months, and the other travelled there with a girlfriend, so proud to show her his intimate knowledge of the city. In both instances my husband and I couldn’t have been happier.

We have seen in our sons the love of travel extend to all corners of the globe, and are thrilled to see that they have embraced and assimilated it to be a part of each of them.