THE
DIARY Entry No.1 April 2019
diary /’dʌɪəri/
noun A book in which one keeps a daily record of events and experiences. synonyms: journal, memoir, chronicle, log, blog
The following is an extract from her diary.
E N T R0Y1
Dear Diary, I am so excited to be writing the first editors letter for The Diary! Quick introduction - I’m Heidi and this is my latest project - THE DIARY! You’ll come to know a lot more about me with the more you read, you’ll find a new copy of The Diary every 3 months - so keep an eye out. Here you’ll find all kinds of issues that you’d write or (rant) about in your diary. We want you guys to be up to date with worldy matters, and we’re also here to discuss hot topics and give you more insight. Let’s not forget about fashion, because just like my favourite quote says “Fashion is part of the daily air and it changes all the time. You can even see the approaching revolution in clothes. You can see and feel everything in clothes.” - DIANA VREELAND In this issue of The Diary we discuss the impact social media has on our lives today and chat with Instagram Influencer, Sophie Milner about how to take a break. Chatting about the impact that Girl vs Cancer has had on the entire conversation that surrounds the C bomb, and how one woman is beating the cancer taboo. We’ll also be looking at some of Fashion’s hot topics this month, the continuing growth of fast fashion and discussing why major fashion houses are sharing the same logo font. Finally, you’ll find some travel entries from my trips last month providing you with some must do sight seeing and of course the BEST shopping places in the cities. Hope you guys LOVE our first issue. It’s been a lot of hard work. See you guys in our next entry.
Heidi Ella
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VERGE GIRL www.vergegirl.com
CONTENTS 4
Editors letter THE DIARY;'S FIRST EDITORS LETTER
hope is Dope hOW GIRL VS CANCER IS BEATING THE CANCER TABOO
time to Delete? What’s Stopping Us From Taking a Break From Social Media? ft. Sophie Milner
The Fashion Entries: Where is the Origiality?
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Why Every Fashion House Looks The Same..
Fast Fashion overkill? are we experiencing an overhaul of fast fashion?
The Travel Entries: City Hopping
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AMSTERDAM//COPENHAGEN//MILAN
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HOPE IS DOPE:
HOW GIRLS VS CANCER IS BEATING THE CANCER TABOO Girl vs Cancer goes back to 2016 when founder Lauren Mahon was diagnosed with breast cancer. Of course, hearing you are diagnosed with the C-bomb is a shock to anyone but Lauren was particularly surprised as she thought breast cancer was for women of a certain age and breast size - not something you’d hear at 31. .
After looking for some comfort and reassurance from women in a similar position to herself, Lauren couldn’t help but notice that the majority of online forums were catering towards women in later life stages. This led Lauren to begin to share her own story on her blog and Instagram using #girlvscancer to be an outlet for other women in her position looking for some relatable advice online and with the hope of eliminating the stigma of breast cancer patients generally being over fifty as well as encouraging piers to take responsibility for their bodies. Lauren achieved her wishes of opening up the conversation around cancer whilst showing the reality. Almost 3 years later, Girl vs Cancer has grown an Instagram following of over 30,000 and Lauren is the co-host of BBC podcast You, Me, Big C – continuing to beat the taboo of cancer. During treatment Lauren was unable to work so used her new blog outlet as a source of income by selling her own merchandise, Girl vs Cancer still sells the witty, tongue in cheek slogan apparel and their most recent drop has soared. The latest collection was released at the start of this year, on world cancer day, the T shirts, sweatshirts and totes to continue to raise awareness and funds for cancer charity. With slogans ranging from fun bags, to knockers to hope is dope, the collection is made to make the wearers ‘feel
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kick-ass when they probably feel anything but’ whilst using tongue in cheek alliteration. 25% of all the proceeds is split equally between all the Girl vs Cancer partnered charities.
COPPAFEEL! coppafeel.org TREKSTOCK trekstock.com FUTURE DREAMS futuredreams.org.uk
LOOK GOOD FEEL BETTER lookgoodfeelbetter.co.uk
Collaborating with some of the internet’s most popular lifestyle and fashion influencers has created huge demand for Tit-Tee shop’s sassy T shirts, working with the likes of Lily Pebbles, Anna from The Anna Edit and fashionista Lorna Luxe. These are the kind of #ads we love to see. To purchase Girl vs Cancer tees and other information visit girlvscancer.co.uk and make a clothing purchase that makes a difference.
Glossier.
TIME TO DELETE? We don’t think twice about doing a juice cleanse, so what’s stopping us from taking a break from social media?
It’s easy to feel like you’re a prisoner to your phone, with most of us in the habit of checking it before we sleep and as soon as we wake up. Most social media apps are outlets make it easy for us to look for praise from those whose opinions we care about, with the ability to feed our desire to portray ourselves positively. We’re in a year where online influencers are no longer purely fashion and beauty related, with cleaning, family, sports and food raking up huge followings – facilitating us to compare almost every aspect of our life’s. A UK parliamentary report suggested that young people using social media often struggle with mental health more than those who use it less frequently with the ability to feed our low self-esteem by making us wish we were better looking, have a better wardrobe or just more put together like the girls and guys who fill our newsfeed. Becoming one of our worst habits, its easy to scroll without even thinking, whether that’s when we are alone or with company.
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The only way to avoid feeling this way is if we stop spending our time scrolling when we know the outcome, but deleting social media is harder than it sounds and can result in major FOMO. If you’re brave enough to delete your accounts then props to you – but if not, here are some other key things we can do to improve our relationship with social media:
There are three main factors about our social media usage that can determine our mental health struggles:
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The risk of low self-esteem is encouraged by the unrealistic posts we see daily. The more we believe that what we are seeing online is reality gives a higher risk of us feeling crappy about ourselves. Thinking of ourselves as being alike those who we are following and comparing ourselves – this shows that we have totally missed the boundaries between reality and social media. You could post a million things online and be a totally different person IRL. The amount of those we health. The the higher
Unfollow the accounts that you know you will compare yourself to – if they don’t make you feel good, hit the unfollow button!
Mute – Its not only influencers and celebrities who make us feel low, sometimes we can compare ourselves to those we know personally – different life stages can make us question our own achievements. By muting someone’s posts or stories you don’t have the awkwardness of unfollowing.
of time we spend looking at the lives see online contributes to our mental more time we spend comparing = the risk of us struggling mentally.
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Avoid the insta homepage. Speaking for myself, my Instagram home page is full of beautiful women who have their shit together (and weird life hacks) which sometimes makes it hard to look at and not doubt my own image and accomplishments.
Whilst looking at the lives of Instagram influencers can be tough for us, many bloggers have spoken out about struggling with their own mental health, with many suffering from imposter syndrome and doubting their big achievements. The Diary caught up with Sophie Milner from fashionslave.co.uk, an award-winning blogger and co-host of Keeping It Candid podcast. Sophie’s Instagram feed is total goals for OOTD’s and aesthetics with incredibly real and down to earth posts. As well as having her personal blog with 171k followers, she also has @ reallifesophie – showing the reality of her Instagram pictures whilst providing the lol’s in the captions. Speaking to us about her own thoughts on social media and mental health, Sophie weighs in on both the positives and negatives and gives some of her self-care tips.
What are your thoughts on social media’s effect on mental health of young girls/women?
It can be positive and negative. It’s a total double-edged sword. It can be
negative as it’s a new place to allow insecurity and inadequacy to breed via comparisons. Girls have always had issues before social media, I think social media gives it a new way to manifest. But on a positive note, it can be an incredible place for people to find communities that help them.
As an influencer yourself do you feel pressure to look a certain way for your followers?
I don’t feel a certain pressure to look a certain way for anyone else other than myself really. But I like to look my best because I’m on social media a lot! Like if I take a bad photo I won’t post it, but it’s not because I don’t think others will like it, it’s just because I don’t like it.
Do you ever find yourself comparing yourself to other influencers/celebrities online?
All the time! Sometimes you don’t notice you do it, but when I realise I stop myself and put my phone off. I use the downtime and screen time apps on iPhone to limit my social media use.
Do you have any self-care tips for when you’re feeling down?
Read a book. Light a candle. Get your friends round for dinner! Or shopping...
You made real life Sophie to show the realities behind your Instagram posts - what made you make that account?
An Aussie influencer called Jade Tunchy has a similar thing and I just loved her - I thought she’s so beautiful but also funny. I wanted to show a different side of me. To show it’s not all perfection, that I am just human.
Many influencers have spoken out about imposter syndrome, do you have any particular tips for overcoming self doubt and being proud of your achievements?
It’s something I’m still trying to deal with but I just have to remember how far I’ve come and how much I have accomplished. Live in the moment, not the past or the future.
Sophie’s Social:
Instagram: @sophiemilner_fs / @reallifesophie Twitter: @sophiemilner_fs Blog: Fashionslave.co.uk Youtube: Sophie Milner
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F L O W E R B O M B THE FIRST PERFUME BY
VICTOR
&
ROLF
THE FASHION ENTRIES
ANEL MIU MIU CELINE SAINT LAURENT GIVENCHY BERRY GUCCI LOUIS VUITTON BALMAIN GIVENC LENCIAGA CELINE SAINT LAURENT LOUIS VUITTO NCHY CHANEL BURBERRY BALENCIAGA MIU MIU ANEL MIU MIU CELINE SAINT LAURENT GIVENCHY BERRY GUCCI LOUIS VUITTON BALMAIN GIVENC LENCIAGA CELINE SAINT LAURENT LOUIS VUITTO NCHY CHANEL BURBERRY BALENCIAGA MIU MIU CHANEL MIU MIU CELINE SAINT LAURENT GIVENC BURBERRY GUCCI LOUIS VUITTON BALMAIN GIVE BALENCIAGA CELINE SAINT LAURENT LOUIS VUIT GIVENCHY CHANEL BURBERRY BALENCIAGA MIU M CHANEL MIU MIU CELINE SAINT LAURENT GIVENC BURBERRY GUCCI LOUIS VUITTON BALMAIN GIVE BALENCIAGA CELINE SAINT LAURENT LOUIS VUIT GIVENCHY CHANEL BURBERRY BALENCIAGA MIU M HANEL MIU MIU CELINE SAINT LAURENT GIVENCH RBERRY GUCCI LOUIS VUITTON BALMAIN GIVEN ALENCIAGA CELINE SAINT LAURENT LOUIS VUITT ENCHY CHANEL BURBERRY BALENCIAGA MIU MIU HANEL MIU MIU CELINE SAINT LAURENT GIVENCH RBERRY GUCCI LOUIS VUITTON BALMAIN GIVEN ALENCIAGA CELINE SAINT LAURENT LOUIS VUITT ENCHY CHANEL BURBERRY BALENCIAGA MIU MIU CHANEL MIU MIU CELINE SAINT LAURENT GIVENC BURBERRY GUCCI LOUIS VUITTON BALMAIN GIVE BALENCIAGA CELINE SAINT LAURENT LOUIS VUIT IVENCHY CHANEL BURBERRY BALENCIAGA MIU M CHANEL MIU MIU CELINE SAINT LAURENT GIVENC BURBERRY GUCCI LOUIS VUITTON BALMAIN GIVE BALENCIAGA CELINE SAINT LAURENT LOUIS VUIT IVENCHY CHANEL BURBERRY BALENCIAGA MIU M ANEL MIU MIU CELINE SAINT LAURENT GIVENCHY BERRY GUCCI LOUIS VUITTON BALMAIN GIVENCH ENCIAGA CELINE SAINT LAURENT LOUIS VUITTON NCHY CHANEL BURBERRY BALENCIAGA MIU MIU ANEL MIU MIU CELINE SAINT LAURENT GIVENCHY RBERRY GUCCI LOUIS VUITTON BALMAIN GIVENC
Y CHY ON
Y CHY ON
CHY ENCHY TMIU CHY ENCHY TMIU HY NCHY TON U HY NCHY TON U CHY ENCHY TMIU CHY ENCHY TMIU
HY N
Y CHY
Where is tHE ORIGINALITY? why every fashion house logo looks the same.
In 2018, we saw the rebrands of many fashion house logos, all resulting in a similar, cleaner style and font - raising the question of originality within the fashion industry. There is no wonder why we are seeing similar typographic logos amongst high fashion brands, the millennial generation is effortlessly cool with less fuss than previous generations. A brand’s logo is one of their biggest representations, with the right font being able to communicate the perfect level of sophistication for the brand and getting the right font can be tricky and one wrong choice could take a brand from expensive to cheap. Less is more and we are not only seeing rebrands of fashion house logos, Google, Spotify and AirBnb are amongst the non-fashion brands creating cleaner logos. Having a clear logo communicates that the brands are straight-to the point and clear without any extra fuss. Towards the end of last year, we saw the rebrands of many high fashion house logos, including Yves Saint Laurent, Celine and Burberry creating some uniformity amongst the fashion houses. Burberry’s updated logo was revealed at the end of 2018, shortly before London Fashion Week. Created with graphic designer, Peter Saville, Burberry ditched it’s italic font – similarly to the other fashion houses – to a bolder all-caps, sans-serif typography. Saville stated that the fresher, modern utility design “looks like it’s been there forever, but it is still contemporary.” The most controversial logo rebrand was that of Celine before new creative and image director Hedi Slimane’s first show last September. Many of us were shocked by the Celine revamp after the logo was simplified resulting in the loss of the French accent on the ‘E’. Similarly, to Burberry the brand opted for a bolder, sans-serif logo. This wasn’t Slimane’s first brand revamp as she initiated the drop of ‘Yves’ from Yves Saint Laurent back in 2012 as creative director
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Of course, the similarity raises the question of originality in the fashion industry – how creative are the rebrands if the outcome is the same for every brand? Do we really want to walk through the concessions of Selfridge’s and see logo after logo in the exact same font? These logo revamps are similar to fashion trends – minimalism is what’s in right now, and is proving as a success for many of the brands – how many people do we see wearing the simple ‘GIVENCHY’ or ‘SAINT LAURENT’ (inspired) tees? If consumers are looking for more minimal styles then isn’t it right for the logo to match what the brand has to offer? There are many pros for the use of simple logos amongst fashion brands, a main one being that the brand has more creative freedom when it comes to tackling new trends as a minimal logo has the ability to work alongside any of the fast-paced movements. A cleaner and more minimal logo is more legible for consumers and has the ability to work across a number of media platforms, and with the growth of digital media it was only a matter of time before fashion brands started to embrace it. Using the same logo amogst all media outlets creates more of a trademark for the brands, resulting in them being more memorable for consumers and the public.
For now, we’re stuck with sans-serif – but who’s to say that in 10 years we won’t be seeing comic sans everywhere?
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ASTRID & MIYU www.astridandmuyi.com
FASTFASHION OVERHAUL Fast fashion is an industry that has grown rapidly over the last decade, with many fast fashion brands offering similar products at competitive prices and releasing thousands of new products each week. We are even seeing fashion bloggers slow down on haul videos and provide more sustainable content. Are we experiencing a fast-fashion overhaul?
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Fast fashion isn’t as recent as we think – the 60s saw cheap fashion become more available, allowing young people to embrace new trends and ditch the previous traditions. The new demand then resulted in fashion companies across the world outsourcing their labour to produce the garments – pair this with the advances in technology and we get the growth that we have seen in the last decade. Social media has a huge part to play when it comes to the rise of fast fashion. Many of the fashion brands are aiming towards Generation Z and Millennials, driving sales by using fashion influencers - dropping style cues on social media platforms for their impressionable audience. For the last 10 years, fast fashion has been benefitting its consumers by providing us with new trends just hours after they have been debuted, whether that’s from fashion week or taken from celebrities’ wardrobes. Many of the big names have recreated designer prints using their own logos, with Missguided recreating Louis Vuitton style denim and PLT taking inspiration from Fendi. It was only last month that Kim Kardashian-West revealed that she was suing fast fashion retailer Missguided for re-creating one of her looks – before she even debuted it herself. It truly is FAST fashion. We now have so many fast-fashion brands on the high street and online that shopping itself can feel a little overwhelming. Choosing where to look first is tough enough in itself but with some fashion websites having over 2000 new-in items each week, it can take hours to scroll through and find what we are looking for. Sometimes less is more and it can be much easier to choose a dress for a night out when there is less choice. One of the problems with the current fast-fashion market is the lack of originality in the e-commerce sector – many of the major market holders share the same supplier and have no shame in copying designs from each other, and other designers. It can be hard to differentiate between websites such as Pretty Little Thing, Missguided, Boohoo and Missy Empire – sharing the same styling, hair and make-up.
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The reality of having an overflow of cheap products means that we buy much more than we need, many of us make purchases and then only wear clothes a handful of times before we dispose of them. Charity shops saw an overflow of donations last year, with an Oxfam spokeswoman telling the Independent newspaper last year: “Our shops tell they have seen an increase in clothing donations in the past five years, and this is probably due to fast fashion. But we believe Oxfam slows down fast fashion in the UK because clothes donated to us are given a second chance to be sold.” Whilst donating to charity shops definitely does pro-long the life of our fast fashion items, there is only so long that the low-quality materials can last before they end up on a landfill. Bloggers and influencers are now urging their followers to shop more sustainably, encouraging them to focus on a capsule wardrobe of longer lasting items that fit into every trend and can be worn year after year. YouTuber and Blogger, Samantha Maria, discussed in a video her new attitude to buying fast fashion and her new aims to invest in her wardrobe. Since then she has replaced her weekly haul videos with new content such as “What I’m getting my wear out of?” and “Wardrobe clear out and recycle” – raising awareness to her 1.8 million subscribers. In a blog post titled Fashion Haulers vs Sustainability, Sammi opens up the topic of fashion influencers and sustainable fashion – how can they progress their blogger businesses if they are no longer giving their audience the hauls that they want to see? “It is the excessiveness of ‘Hauls’ and the level of influence that they (influencers) have on viewers to then go out and consume clothes that will eventually end up on landfill sites decomposing for hundreds of years that make us an important group of people to ‘awaken’ to the impact we are having.” We need to see more fashion influencer using their platforms to speak out about sustainable fashion and the impact of fast fashion as they have the power to influence their impressionable audiences.
“It is the excessiveness of ‘Hauls’ and the level of influence thattheyhaveonviewerstothengooutandconsumeclothes that will eventually end up on landfill sites decomposing for hundreds of years that make us an important group of people to ‘awaken’ to the impact we are having” To buy more sustainably we have to be spending more money on single items and buying less in excess, which can be a hard move to make when you don’t have an endless supply of money. But when we think about money per wear, investing into an item work out better for our purses. We all know that a £5 T shirt from H&M will be misshapen after one wash and most likely thrown away after a few months – whereas a pricier T shirt from & other stories will last us much longer and keep its high quality, saving us money in the future.
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THE TRAVEL ENTRIES
BRB TRAVEL
#BeRightBack berightback.travel
catch FLIGHTS not feelings
entry 01: City HoppING January
is always a major drag, and the January Blues seemed realer than every this year. I ended my Christmas celebrations by submitting my uni assigments and was left with a spare two weeks to either binge Netflix or do something productive. Five days before we took off my boyfriend and I decided to book some last-minute flights and head to Copenhagen followed by some days in Amsterdam and Milan. The last-minute planning resulted in us spending most days googling what to do and trusting the reviews of strangers, so I figured it would be a lot easier to have all the city must haves in one place. These are my City Must Do’s, to give you some inspo on how to spend your time in these beautiful cities, as well as the best places to go if, like me, you enjoy (window) shopping.
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amsterdam
erdam
Amst
2019
De Pijp
(Window) Shopping:
Again, finding shops in Amsterdam is not tricky – you could find them just by walking round the city, but if you want to avoid the many souvenier shops offering a range weed T-shirts and socks then I have listed some of the main fashion district areas.
As one of my favourite cities I figured I would kick my trip off in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.One of the prettiest cities to get lost in, you really don’t have to do much other than wander to enjoy your time here, but of course there are many tourist attractions as well as off-the-grid areas that are worth a visit.
Moco Museum: Banksy
The Moco Museum currently has a Banksy and Salvador Dali exhibition open to the public, whilst I didn’t enjoy the Dali art quite as much as Banksy it was still a fun way to spend an hour of my day. The Banksy exhibition is so popular that it has been extended to be open until September 2019 and offers some of the artists private artwork.
De Pijp
Considered to be Amsterdam’s coolest neighbourhood, the Latin quarter is a lively and colourful area situated near the Heineken Experience. The Bohemianesque streets offer an array of diverse eateries and some of the hippest shops. It is a fun place to explore with opportunity to grab a bite to eat and take in the scenery. Popular market, Albert Cuypmarkt is located in De Pijp, an open-air market that is open every day of the week, offering souvenirs, food and clothing. If you are looking for some authentic Dutch delicacies then I recommend tasting Stroopwaffles and Dutch cheese.
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De Negen Straatjes
The nine streets are based in the main canal area in very centre of Amsterdam. You can find vintage and fashion boutiques,jewellery shops and art galleries scattered throughout the streets.The range of styles and prices is what makes De Negen Straatjes heaven for shoppers.
Dam Square
It’s a given that youll walk through Dam Sqaure at least once during your trip, one of those times you have to visit De Bijenkorf and Magna Plaza, both located around the square. De Bijenkorf – or The Beehive, is the Dutch equivalent to Selfridges or Harvey Nichols whilst Magna Plaza is located in the old Post Office of Amsterdam and is home to shops including Mango and dutch brands Sissy Boy and America Today – I wouldn’t recommend the Plaza for the shops alone, but the building itself is impressive.
The Kalverstraat & Leidsestraat
These two streets are considered the main shopping streets in Amsterdam, offering more high street brands. On Kalverstraat you will find the more mainstream brands such as H&M, Urban Outfitters and Zara. Leidsestraat offers a more higher end side of the high street with shops including Michael Kors, COS and Pauw.
Christiania
Denmark is one of the few countries to have a free town within the city. Going back to the 70s, the Danish government has a lenient approach for the law in Christiania particularly with the sales and use of marijuana in the area. Aside from the differencing law, Christiania is loved by many for its major 70’s feels and free attitude, many of the homes were built by the community, giving the town unique architecture everywhere you go. With almost every building and wall you walk by looking like art, Christiania is a popular spot for tourists, however, during my time here I barely saw any. Tip: avoid the skate park as that’s where you’ll find everyone trying to get their best angle for instragram. You will find all sorts of cultural experiences whilst in the freetown, ranging from eco-friendly restaurants, galleries and music events. If you want to get a different experience of Copenhagen then I would recommend Christiania, you feel like you’re in a totally different place when in fact you are just 15 minute’s walk from the city centre.
(Window) Shopping -
Like most big cities Copenhagen is a great place if you’re looking to spend money or if you’re just window shopping. Even if you have no intentions to shop, walking down through the shopping district is an experience itself with beautiful architecture and many cafes with outdoor seating giving the perfect chance to rest your feet and people watch. There are multiple shopping streets for different tastes and budgets:
Læderstræde
Located right behind Stroget street you find a quieter street offering boutiques for clothaing, jewellery and interior as well as quieter cafes. Kongens Nytorv – This is where you will find many well-known Danish brands, including the flagship store for Bang and Olufsen and some hygge interior design shops.
Tivoli
Maybe it’s the big kid in me but Tivoli was the highlight of my trip. The theme park is located in the very centre of the City, but has the ability to make you feel like you’re miles away. Founded in 1843 it is said to have been the inspiration for Disney World after Walt Disney visited Tivoli. Similar to De Efteling – a theme park in The Netherlands, it is unlike any theme park I have visited in the UK – you literally feel like you are in a different land. Each season gets a different theme in Tivoli and the Winter theme was magical with lights draped everywhere you go and fake snow making you feel as though you are in Narnia.You can buy an entry pass into the park to just walk around and experience Tivoli, giving you access to the many bars and restaurants – ranging from grabbing a hot dog to dining with oysters, or you can buy a full pass that gives you access to the park and pay for a few rides as we got on – looking back I should have bought the unlimited ride pass but I was worried about my hair frizz from too many rides, priorities.
StrøgetStreet
The 1.1km street is one of the longest pedestrian streets in Europe and offers enough shops for everyone’s needs. From Prada, Louis Vuitton and Gucci to And Other Stories, Zara and H&M it meets everyone’s budget. You can also find the big department stores on this street, Magasin and Illum.
Jægersborggade
If you’re more of a thirfty shopper then this is more your scene, the colourful street is full of second hand shops as well as being the host of a popular flee-market.
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COPENHAGEN
Another one of my favourite cities was my second stop - Copenhagen. This wasn’t my first time visiting this city but it was the first time I was planning to do it the touristy way. Just a head’s up – do not visit the Guinness World Record Museum – that is 215 Krone that I will never get back. Travel tip: Take the metro, it’s cheap and the fastest transport available in the city.
To be honest, my trip to Milan didn’t involve much sight-seeing or culture, I met up with some friends and we spent the majority of the weekend eating, drinking and walking around the city. Milan is a beautiful city to wander in, every street looks like it’s from a postcard with cobbled roads and pretty architecture - I was quite happy to walk until we found a nice café to chat over some good coffee. Saying all of that, I do have a couple Must Do’s to share:
Take a Tram through the City
Milan is filled with old fashioned trams, running through the centre of the city and the outskirts it is perfect if you are staying just outside of the centre. One (hungover) morning, we decided to just get on a tram and take in the scenery until we got somewhere that we could find some coffee. You really feel like you’ve gone back in time when you get on these trams, and I’m pretty sure it’s free – or we got very lucky and had no one around to take our money.
MILAN
Duomo Di Milano
Obviously, this was going to be on my list. The Cathedral is beautiful and you can see the vivid detail’s from standing a few meters away. The original plan was to go inside and take the elevator to see the 360-degree panoramic view from the top, however the queues were insanely long and I didn’t want to spend three hours waiting to get inside – maybe next time. You can also find churches all throughout the city that are open to the public and share the beautiful architecture that you’ll find in the Duomo.
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele
Also known as “The living-room of the Milanese”, the shopping centre is perfect if you have a high budget, but also if (like me) you have a low budget but can admire the window displays and structure of this shopping centre. It is Italy’s oldest, active shopping mall and you will see people taking pictures for the gram pretty much everywhere you look.
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BRB TRAVEL
#BeRightBack
berightback.travel
The Diary