Barcelona has never really been a city I'd put at the top of my 'to travel to' list, but last year one of my friends swapped gloomy London for sunny Spain, so I decided to pay her a visit and fall for Barcelona myself. As I recently started a new job and didn't want to take any time off while I'm still settling in, I was only there for two days which wasn't really enough...well, we did see everything we wanted to, but it involved walking over 32,000 steps in one day so I'd really recommend a three or four day trip if you're thinking of visiting! Regardless, I thought I'd share how we spent our weekend in case you're in need of any inspo! 

Saturday

Saturday was a *very* busy day, I'd arrived late Friday night and we were out of the door by 9am on Saturday, ready for a day of exploring. We started our day by hopping on the metro (which has air con, thank god as it was 78% humidity and over 30°) to El Born, an area with loads of pretty independent shops and restaurants. We stopped off by the cathedral to admire the building before it got busy, before going for brunch and to rehydrate before making our way to Barceloneta for the beach! If I was able to stay longer I'd have loved to do a beach day, but on this occasion it was just a flying visit to dip our feet in the sea. 

We then took the cable car to Montjuic, one of the hills on the outskirts of the main part of town. The cable car gave us views across the whole of the city, we could see the Sagrada Familia and the cathedral from above and it really shows you just how small the city is. When we got to Montjuic, we headed straight to the Gardens of Mossèn Costa I Llobera, a really pretty cacti garden and a real hidden gem in Barcelona. After wandering around, we headed down the path and took in the views, before stopping for a drink overlooking the Olympic pool - the perfect place to cool off. 

After we were feeling significantly refreshed, we headed back on the metro to Parallel to go to Carrer Blai, a street famous for it's Pinxos bars. Pinxos are like little tapas on sticks, you go into the bar and choose which ones you want and they bring them to you heated up - they're super cheap at around €1 or €1.50 each. It's a great place to stop for a bite to eat and each of the pinxos I had were amazing. 

We then headed to La Rambla, which was in all honesty, a little disappointing. You hear so much about it before going to Barcelona but it really is just a very busy street where you're constantly worried you're going to get pickpocketed. However, the market just off the street, La Boqueria, was really fun. There's so many amazing looking smoothies, tapas bars, Spanish meats and cheeses, etc and another great spot to pick up a bite to eat. 

After heading home for a quick change and a much needed cold shower, we made our way over to Casa Batlo on our way to dinner. The Gaudi buildings dotted across the city are really interesting and so unique, you wouldn't get to see this on your way to dinner in any other city! Our dinner spot was Exiample, a really cool building which I think is an old converted market. It's now home to four or five restaurants and a large bar. We had dinner in the Italian restaurant which may seem odd as you'd think we'd go for something more traditionally Spanish, but it was the only restaurant without a line and we were starving. We really enjoyed our dinner though, and had a glass of Cava to give the meal a Spanish touch! 

Sunday

On Sunday we were up bright and early to head to Park Güell. We booked the first slot at 9am as we'd read that in gets insanely busy and as we were leaving you could really tell that the crowds were starting to pick up, so definitely go early if you're planning on going. We headed straight to the Greek Theatre, the giant mosaic terrace which gives you that iconic view of the park, as we read that this is the busiest spot and we wanted to get a photo while it was quiet. We then wandered around before leaving the park and stopping off for brunch. 

After brunch, we headed straight to Anita's for ice cream where I had perhaps the best ice cream I've had in my life - I'll be forever hunting down their white chocolate and passionfruit ice cream but luckily for me, they've just opened a store in London! 

We then took a (very slow - it was so hot and humid!) walk over to the Sagrada Familia. It was about 2pm by this point so it was obviously packed with it being the most famous tourist destination in the city, however if you cross the road and head to the park across the street, you can get a really good view of the church where its a little quieter, its perfect for getting that iconic photo too! We sat here for a while enjoying some of the Fanta flavours that you can get in Spain but unfortunately not in the UK, I'd kill for a  peach Fanta again! 

Eager to make the most of our final hours, we headed over to Parc de la Ciutadella and cooled down in the shade before heading back to El Born to enjoy some tapas before heading to the airport! 

Have you been to Barcelona? 

xo Becky 

After we booked our trip to Venice, the first thing I did was start researching where to eat, which was harder than originally thought. With any touristy city, you can easily fall into the trap of overpriced Italian food that isn't as authentic as you'd like, so I thought I'd share everywhere we ate that we'd recommend...

On our first night, we headed to De Pisis restaurant terrace which is part of the Bauer hotel. It's an upscale restaurant with a wine list and view to die for. We happily munched away on our three course meal while watching all of the gondolas go past us heading towards the Grand Canal. It's pretty expensive, but worth it for a special occasion, or if you'd just like to treat yourself on holiday! After dinner, definitely head up to the hotels rooftop bar - it's a hidden gem we didn't find on any of the blogs or travel sites and has amazing views of Venice's key sights. We only found out about it from a guest in the hotel and it was relatively quiet, so head up here to watch the sunset with a Bellini! 

Another more boujie meal we had was at the Gritti Terrace, this one is instagram famous and we can see why...the views are spectacular and everything in the restaurant was just so lovely. The food was good and I have absolutely no complaints but you are mostly paying for the view with this one, the food wasn't as creative or varied as the De Pisis restaurant and the view was pretty similar. 

The next night we found ourselves craving pizza, which is surprisingly hard to find in Venice. The city isn't known for its pizza, as it banned wood fired ovens due to fire concerns, however the pizza we had at Rossopomodoro was great. The restaurant is cheap and cheerful, but in a great spot for people watching just behind St Marks Square. It's also located just across a glass making shop where they had a man doing live glass making while you eat, so definitely sit outside if you can! He made us a tiny glass animal of our choice after dinner for just 10 Euros - such a special souvenir! 

On our last night we went somewhere near our hotel as we were quite exhausted from all the walking and hadn't booked anywhere and it turned out to be an excellent meal. We ate at Ristorante Al Colimbo de l'Opera and as it was our last meal, treated ourselves to a bellini, an excellent starter and I had the carbonara which came complete with parmesan crisp. It's tucked in a quiet side street so perfect for a chilled out evening meal. 

If you're on the hunt for a sweet treat while wandering, definitely stop off at SuSo Gelato. They have so many flavours - the passionfruit yoghurt was particularly good. There's also a pretty bridge right next to the gelato shop, perfect for taking a snap!  

Drop any other reccomendations in the comments! x

It's difficult to take a bad photo in Venice, almost every street you turn down will be pretty, and the canals running through the island offer up countless opportunities for that perfect gondola shot. However, as with all things, some spots are better than others, so I've rounded up some of my favourite places to get that perfect shot for the gram in Venice...

Canals 

As I said, the canals running through the city offer up so many golden photo opportunities. If you want to get the perfect shot though, I'd wait until the city has woken up a little...there will be more gondolas about and the service boats like parcel deliveries and the bin man will have moved on. 

While we were there we also found the instagram dock right by our hotel, so we popped down after 4pm once the DHL boats had gone on their merry way to get a little snap. You can find the exact location here. 

Rialto Bridge

The Rialto Bridge was probably the busiest place we visited in Venice, its a tourist hotspot, but one not to miss. The bridge itself offers great photo opportunities, as when you cross the bridge you can see right down the grand canal, it also offers great sunset views so it's worth heading down for sunset while you're there. 

If you want a photo with the bridge itself in the background, I'd recommend crossing the bridge to the Palazzo Dei Camerlenghi and if you walk to the canal there's a little viewing point of the bridge which offers you a great view of the whole bridge.  

Bridge of Sighs

I think the Bridge of Sighs is one of the prettiest bridges in Venice. It's just off St Marks Square and can be seen from multiple bridges looking onto it. I think the Ponte della Paglia is the best spot to take a photo though, as it looks on to the iconic canals instead of onto the lagoon. There's also a little photo spot a few steps away from the Ponte della Paglia which not many people seemed that bothered about while we were there, so a great way to get a photo without other tourists in the background! 

Bauer Rooftop Bar

We stumbled across this bar by accident after eating in the restaurant downstairs (more on where we ate in Venice here). It does an excellent Bellini and offers a great panoramic view of Venice. Head here at sunset for a stunning view! 

Gondola

You can't visit Venice and not take a ride on a gondola! We booked a private gondola to take us round a few of the canals and then down the grand canal so we could get both views. It was pricey and you can do it cheaper by sharing a gondola, but it was worth it to do something special we couldn't do elsewhere. 

SuSo Gelato 

Italy is famous for its gelato, and for good reason...its delicious. SuSo gelato is probably the prettiest in Venice, and they have a great array of flavours too. I went for a passionfruit yogurt and watermelon flavour and we also got a pistachio and strawberry one too. There's a pretty bridge right next to the gelato shop, so head there to get that iconic shot! 

Burano - The rainbow island!

If you're in Venice for more than a day, you should definitely pay Burano a visit. It's about 40 mins by ferry from Venice, and you'll be greeted by a whole island full of colourful houses - the instagram opportunities are endless! For more on visiting Burano, click here. 

Where are your favourite photo spots in Venice?

If you're planning on visiting Venice for more than a day trip, I'd really recommend you take a look at doing a day visiting some of the islands - particularly Burano. It was one of my favourite days from our trip and the rainbow island is definitely not to be missed! 

Getting to Murano and Burano

To get to Murano and Burano you have a few options, you can book a private tour which will take you to both islands, but they usually mean you're on someone else's timetable, take a water taxi which can be costly, or you can take the public 'water bus'. 

To catch the ferry to Murano and Burano, you need to head to Fondamente Nove and catch line 12. It will take you around 10 mins to get to Murano and about 30-40 mins from there to Burano.

As we were going to both islands, we purchased a day ticket for around 20 euros which allowed us to hop on and off as much as we liked. 

Murano

As we had a lunch booking in Burano and it was still fairly early, we headed to Murano first for a wander around and to shop for some glass souvenirs. Murano is fairly small, and it looks a lot like Venice, so we didn't feel like we needed super long here. It's definitely worth stopping off if you're on your way to Burano, but I wouldn't plan my day around it. 

Apart from more pretty canals and buildings, there's also a glass making factory that you can visit, and lots of glass shops which we loved wandering around. I picked up two glasses to add to my cocktail glass collection - they were quite pricey but it's somewhere I don't think I'd visit again so worth it to me to have some Murano glass that I actually purchased in Murano, instead of going to Anthopologie like usual! 

After we were all shopped out we headed to the ferry port to continue our journey to Burano. This was at about 12pm and the ferry was very busy, they only run every 30 mins and we didn't think we'd be able to get on the first one leaving...we did but we were packed in like sardines, which isn't great when its over 30 degrees outside! So remember to take plenty of water with you. 

Burano

When we got to Burano we were really excited, the whole island is beautiful and unlike anywhere we'd been before. The colourful houses are so fun and the whole island has really gone for it with the bright colours...Notting Hill who?! 

We hopped off the ferry and immediately headed for the back streets. Burano is much quieter than Venice but the back streets are pretty much deserted so you can wander around at a slower pace and really take it all in - it's also great for getting a photo without hoards of people in the background. 

We then headed down the main canal on the island, which will take you to Tre Ponti or 'three bridges'. It's technically one bridge but it's split into three and offers up some of the best views of Burano's pretty streets. 

After having a wander around, we headed to Trattoria Al Gatto Nero for lunch. We'd booked this weeks in advance as we'd heard it was the most popular restaurant on the island (there's not many either so be sure to book somewhere!) and we didn't want to miss out. It was probably one of our favourite meals of the trip, the staff were so nice, and we were greeted with a great seat for people watching and a complimentary glass of Prosecco! The food was also incredible, I had the best spaghetti bolognese of my life (Burano is a fishing island but I'm not keen on seafood if you're questioning how authentic my meal choice was!) and they also de-boned the fish we ordered infront of us while chatting away. 

After we'd thoroughly enjoyed lunch, we headed over the bridge to see the other side of the canal and stopped off for gelato at Gelateria Crema which was also amazing, I had a black cherry flavour scoop and it was one of the best ice creams I think I've ever had. 

Overall, I think this was one of our favourite days on our short trip to Venice and I'm so glad I didn't give it a miss. 

If you didn't manage to get tickets for the RHS Flower Show this year, then fear not, Chelsea in Bloom has sprouted so you can get your floral fix! 🌸

I usually pop by all of the floral displays every year, as they're pretty impressive and there's a generally nice atmosphere around the flower show, but this years were extra special. 2022s theme was 'Great British Icons' and with it being the Queen's Platinum Jubilee this year too, there was also the Jubilee Egg Trail and a lot of royal themed displays on show too! Plus bunting galore. 

We headed down on a sunny Saturday to see the installations and it was heaving..in my 7 years in London I don't think I've ever seen Chelsea so busy! We fought through the hustle and bustle though and saw I would say half of the displays before giving up on the crowds and opting for a glass of rosé in the sun instead. So next year I think it would definitely be worth heading down first thing in the morning or on a week day if I could manage that. But anyway, on to the displays...

Ave Mario, the latest restaurant from the Big Mamma group, has been all over my Instagram and TikTok since it launched last year, and since then I've been desperately trying to get a dinner booking. As with all Big Mamma restaurant, unless you get particularly lucky, you pretty much have to book a month in advance, so I finally did. 

We headed for dinner mid-week which I think was the perfect time to go. We sat upstairs in what I think is the prettier part of the restaurant and the atmosphere was chilled out and perfect for a catch up, whereas downstairs the vibe is more party-like with larger groups and a view of the kitchen. 

We started with cocktails {the Spritz on the Beach is incredible if you like tropical cocktails} and the Sex and the Fritti, which were fried courgettes and onion rings coated in what was meant to be a fiery chilli sauce, but I am not one for too much heat and I could handle it. 

Before moving on to our mains, pizza of course. I usually go for the truffle pasta at the Big Mamma restaurants but as I had this the weekend before, I opted for a classic margarita pizza - sometimes you just need to go back to basics. 

Just before leaving for the night, we headed to the toilets for the endless instagram opportunities they provide! Think lots of neon signs and fish eye mirrors. 

The food, drinks and company were perfect an I'd definitely head back to Ave Mario..maybe next time to try their bottomless brunch. I would say though, if you're going to go for a Big Mamma restaurant, I much prefer Circolo Poppolare or Gloria because the decor isn't quite so in your face! 

xo Becky

We woke up bright and early on our second day in Paris (catch up on day one here) and headed out for breakfast at none other than Cafe du Flore - one of the oldest coffee houses in the city, and a favourite among famous writers and philosophers. We had a coffee, a delicious croissant and one of the best glasses or orange juice I've ever had, before heading out to start our day. 

After some admin with our luggage {I'd highly recommend the luggage lockers in Gare du Nord if you don't want to carry your suitcases around after an 11am check out!}, we headed in the direction of the Eiffel Tower. We headed to the famous instagram street to get a photo with the Iron Lady herself, which we surprisingly didn't have to wait too long for given the streets recent fame. If you want a photo without anyone in the background I'm guessing you have to get here at the crack of dawn, but I'm not really fussed with people in the background. 

We then wandered down to the seine and walked along the river to the Pont Alexandre iii - aka the most beautiful bridge in Paris. 

This weekend I left the country for the first time in two years (!!). I've attempted to go away a few times but due to various covid bouts and restrictions, they've all either been postponed or cancelled. So in desperate need of a change of scenery, I hopped on the Eurostar to Paris and got in late Friday night, ready for a weekend of exploring. 

First things first, we needed breakfast. We were staying in a studio we'd found on AirBnB as it was fairly cheap and we weren't going to be spending much time in our apartment, but we still wanted the fancy hotel experience. So we headed to The Hoxton for some much needed fuel ahead of a weekend of exploring. The Hoxton is beautiful, and the breakfast was A+ {and cheap at only €20 for a breakfast of your choice, a hot drink and a juice}. The hotel is beautifully decorated and very calming, the perfect oasis to start your day. 

After breakfast, we headed to the Palais Royal via Cafe Kistune for yet another coffee - we'd got up early and definitely needed our fix! This little garden and courtyard is one of my favourite spots in Paris and I always make sure to head here early and snap a little photo before it gets super busy. We then headed to the Pompiou centre but unfortunately didn't have enough time to buy tickets to any of the exhibitions before our lunch booking. It was still nice to admire the view from the top of the museum though and next time I'm in Paris I'll definitely leave more time to explore. 

We then headed to Le Cafe Marly, overlooking the Louvre, where we had a lunch booking. Lunch was a little bit of a letdown though, we'd seen the restaurant on Instagram as it had amazing views {which it definitely did have} but there's only one or two spots to get that instagram photo and we felt it was quite overpriced for what it was - it was crowded, terrible service and our food was cold. So if you're a foodie, I wouldn't recommend this but if you do really want to get a photo, make sure you book as they were only letting people onto the terrace who had reservations, everyone else had to go inside. 

After lunch, we got in line for our spot at the Louvre...well, we actually got in several lines, it was a little chaotic trying to figure out where to go but we took solace in knowing everyone else was getting it wrong too. We headed to the Mona Lisa first as we knew it would be busy, and as expected, it was heaving. We patiently waited our turn and although brief {I was getting whacked by about 7 cameras}, it was amazing to see it in real life. 

Once we'd taken in as much art as we could handle, and as many photos as our phone battery would allow, we headed back to our apartment to get ready for dinner. We booked Ober Mamma for dinner, as Pink Mamma was fully booked. If you like Italian food, then you'll love it here...or if you like any of the Big Mamma locations in London {Circolo poppolare, Gloria, etc} then you'll love it, as it's exactly the same. 

After dinner, we headed to the Trocadero to catch the Eiffel Tower sparkling at midnight which was truly fabulous - one of my favourite things to do in Paris! 

Catch up on our second day in Paris here. 

xo Becky 

Vodka rigatoni is one of my all time favourite pasta dishes (although the list is about 10 recipes long). It's creamy, cheesy, tangy and filling, making it the perfect comfort dish, and if like me, you think cooking is a great way to unwind, this fits the bill as it does need a little (but not too much) prep. 

You'll need: 

2 tbsp olive oil 

1 shallot 

3 cloves garlic 

A pinch of chilli flakes (add more if you like it spicy)

100g tomato puree 

5 tbsp vodka 

100ml double cream 

200g rigatoni (you could use another shape but this is a personal favourite) 

30g parmasean 

Method:

1. Finely chop the shallot and the garlic and start cooking the pasta in salted water. 

2. Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the shallot and cook until translucent. Then add the garlic and chilli flakes and cook for a further 30 seconds. 

3. Stir in the tomato puree and cook for 2 mins, then stir in the vodka and cook for 3 mins until a paste has formed. Then quickly stir in the cream and remove the sauce from the heat. 

4. Reserve 50ml of your pasta water, then drain the pasta. 

5. Add the pasta water to the sauce, followed by the pasta and stir to combine. 

6. Add the parmesan and stir until it's fully combined, then serve with extra parmesan and lots of black pepper - enjoy! 

xo Becky