Sweden: Stockholm

May 07

What a nice city to visit on bank holiday want its sunny and the rest of Europe is pouring with rain. The city and the people are very chic. It seems that they is dress code here: leggings for women, jacket and jeans for men. The overall feeling of the city is : clean and safe, lovely people.

Hotel : Nordic light, member of the design hotel. Clean, white, very scandinavian.

Best shoppoing district: Biblioteksgatan, Birger Jarlspassagen...look for the two best shops there: Natalie Schuteman and ABCD.

Restaurant and bar: Sturehof, to feel the heart of the city, beautiful people, scandinavian cuisine, outside bar and terrace.

F12: gastonomique restaurant, delicious Kobé beef, nice design a calm mix of yellow green colors. Pontus by the sea, Riche...

Josefina: near the sea, fantastic place for Sunday lunch, all the high society of Stockholm seems to meet there.... White bar inside with enormous crital light. Palm trees outside on the terrace. Trendy outside bar. Very comfortable Swedish bean bag to lay on the sun.

Tips : Josefina and Stureholf are open on Sundays while most of the other are closed.

More on the list to try next time : Lux, Restaurang J, Kungsholmen, Wedholms Fisk

After dinner drink : Operakallarens Bakficka, Ice bar at Nordic See hotel (make sure you reserve if you want to get in)

Thing to do: boat ride of course, visit Djurgården and Skansen (park animal)

Sicily : Taormina

May 2007

We just came back from Taormina. May is a perfect time to go, not so busy, warm, lush nature. The cherry on the cake : the Etna was erupting, actually we where able to see it this time and we saw smoke coming out of the top.

We stayed up town, in San Domenico palace, in Suite overlooking the see with a fantastic terrace. The palace is nested in a lush colored garden of red , fuschia, purple, yellow flowers and trees. San Domenico Palace is a former monastery, you have a feel of it in the construction of the building which surround two manificient inside courts and the furniture in the lobby and corridors.

The service is as is should be in a Palace of this standing.

The breakfast is one of the best we had so far.

Where to eat for diner: in general the cuisine is excellent and the service is very old school, professional, efficient, polite. It is delightful.

La Giara, they just refurblish all the restaurant in a trendy white atmosphere, the cuisine is axcellent as well as the service.

Bougainvilliers, Italien gourmet cuisine at San Domenico Palace. Baronessa, a new open restaurant. Casa Grugno. Maffei's.

For a drink after diner, all the nice bar a on the same place : Q loung Bar, White Bar, Dèja Vu.

Shopping: Parisi, man, woman, junior they own 4 to 5 shops with the best fashion designers brand.

For more information have a look at a previous post.