Vacanza? per favore?!

Feeling settled and nestled in the year, I would like to bottle some of the calm and drink it in, in a different place. One where you float through the days, close your eyes in the bright light, drift into darkness surrounded by quiet and open your eyes again when it's clean and serene.

The Riva, Florence might just be the place. A melting pot experiment fusing tastes, sense, lifestyle and the experience of Claudio Nardi and his daughter Alice make The Riva a home that is a mix of constantly evolving influences. Filled with a mixture of materials, furnishings, contemporary architectural detail and antique objects, The Riva is claimed as a 'cross-sectional landscape for curious minds'.

8 studios - each with hidden away entrances and built differently. Some with private terraces, gardens, or views of the surrounding areas. Some with furnishings that are deep and warm, others that are neutral and cool. All with access to the metaphysical swimming pool set in white sandstone that sinks into the private garden - what looks to be my favourite part of them all - the places to sink deeper and deeper and be reborn afresh.

RIVA LOFTS FLORENCE
Via Baccio Bandinelli 98, 50142 Florence
P: +39 055 7130272
E: info@rivalofts.com

Eurofusion

Slowly creeping, whistling in its own way. Slipping past along the sides. And before you know it Summer is over and it's vanished like it was never here. It's about this time of the year that I fall back in love with Cafe Sopra at Fratelli Fresh, Walsh Bay.

Maybe it's the clean, fresh air. The warm sunlight sprinkles that you glimpse through the chill. The mid-seasons that we seem to miss so often every year in Australia when it suddenly turns from gold to cold. But I love the dining sentiment of a simple meal, a glass of wine and a laze back for a short moment in a long day.

My pick of the oh so natural Fratelli menu are the Smoked trout fishcake with soft boiled egg and capper mayo $18 with a side of Witlof salad (with pear, gorgonzola and toasted walnuts) $18, the San Vittoria sparkling mineral with lemon and a glass of house red or white. Delizioso.

Fratelli Fresh / Cafe Sopra
Shop 8, 16 Hickson Rd
Walsh Bay, 2000
ph. 8243 2700
Monday - Sunday 12pm - 3pm and 6pm - 10pm
No bookings taken

Nom Nom

There is nothing more satisfying than flicking the elastic band close-all, smoothing out the sewn spine, and tucking back the ribbon bookmark, of a brand new Moleskine. I own more than a few and currently have 4 floating around the inside of my handbag, all used for a myriad of different things. The cream colour paper, and rounded corners, a dream to attack with notes, memos, budget workings, boys details combined with pictures ripped from magazines shoved in alternate pages.

Moleskine has jumped on the Pac-Man bandwagon, releasing a five-piece collection including pocket and large hard cover notebooks and a colorful set of 4 large Volant soft cover notebooks in celebrative packaging. Decorated with pixilated imagery including the main-man Pac-Man, fruit imagery and classical video game lines such as "Game Over", "Insert Coin", and "High Score.the books come in four limited colours (yellow, blue, fuchsia and red, and all are embossed with a silver Pac-Man icon.

Buy them now from moleskineasia.com

The video to support the launch reminds me more than a bit of my favourite child time clip - the eggbeater ep of the Teeny Little Super Guy from Sesame Street!

Moleskine Pac-Man http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUBBSOR3tWQ&feature=player_embedded

Teeny Little Super Guy (Eggbeater) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq7PrsITTnc

Stuck

I originally saw a Willy Verginer in *Wallpaper. A man, that went through the floor (or the ceiling) from one floor to the next in an advertising agency. And thought that it was a really interesting way to connect two spaces.

I think I want a pool. Rectangle. Surrounded by concrete. With a powder blue paint job, and edgeless lip, and a long, diving plank. And in the corner, by a fern and a spa (that is set aside, in a dark part, almost like a grotto), I want a Verginer man. Wearing goggles, all silent and still and cool, but with his little splice of colour, and looking over the still water, like a protector, as I lie in the sun. Hot concrete against cheek and the quietness of alone, and a closed eye red tint.

wired #1

Sometimes things are white, and strong, and clean, and cool, and totally straight. There are the odd little soft cracks that let minimal pieces of soft pixel through, but mainly they are straight. Then ever so gently, the straight starts to waiver. Where once there was a line, suddenly you're faced with an all together different substance. Like running your hand through thick mud. So easy to grasp but flowing through your fingers. What do you do. You can grab it with two hands, cup it, mould it, and it becomes hard again but in a different form? Or do you let yourself fall wholly into it and sink and see where you land out of the bottom? It's a funny old world we live in. I wonder if I'll find the right answer. I wonder if looking at the world the way that Murakami does makes it easier to try and find the answer... or not try and find the answer.

Murakami World

Presented by Takashi Murakami

Wednesday 9 June - Friday 11 June

Palazzo Grazzi

Salizzada San Samuele 3231

30124 Venezia, Italia (P: 041 5231680)