BE SPONTANEOUS - When in Rome ft. Hannah Oxton

ROME PHOTO DIARY

Ever booked a holiday mid breakdown and left 7 hours later? Ever travelled alone? Ever taken yourself on a date in a beautiful city on your birthday? 

Be Spontaneous and find out what I did for my 20th Birthday below.

17th July - I'm sat at my desk wondering what an earth I'm going to do for my 20th birthday, I'm saying farewell to my teens and want to see the end of that disastrous decade off in a fabulous way. So I weigh up my options and decide a weekend in the delights of Cleethorpes in not for me and consult my travel bucket list.

I must admit on a side note, I wasn't exactly myself on this day, being a typical girl and acting irrationally but all the same after 4 hours of crying at everything and anything I picked up the phone and rang up lastminute.com - I picked Rome, the setting of my favourite book, my life bible 'Eat, Pray, Love', I wanted to be Liz and I wanted to do something for myself after what can only be described as a bloody awful year. 

 'I WANT TO GO TO ROME TOMORROW' - I felt sorry for 'John' at the end of the line with me shouting my demands but after a short phone call and an exchange of dates and debit card numbers I was frantically throwing the contents of my bedroom into a suitcase, after all I was leaving in 7 hours time.

After what seemed like a 5 minute sleep I headed to the train station at 5am to begin the first leg of my journey Cleethorpes - Manchester.

I arrived at Manchester groggy, blurry eyed and what I can only describe as 'shit scared' - travelling alone with a connecting flight to a big city without even having the time to process what I was doing I was stood in Terminal 3. What does a girl do in this situation? Get some tea and pastries.

My flights went smoothly and I stepped off the aiport bus into the heat of Rome to be met by the one and only Hannah Oxton, 1/4 of my favourite orcas who just by chance happened to be in Rome on her own this weekend - if that isn't fate I don't know what is.

We trundled through the city with my bags and checked into my hotel before heading out for our first evening of wine, olives and pasta with plenty of gossiping and day planning.

The photos below are the best way to show you the rest of my trip, the pure beauty of Rome and the delicious food it had to offer ... 

 

THE FOOD

First night of pasta and day planning | The best pizza in the world | Fresh fruit by the Coloseum | The famous Tre Scalinis Tartufo shared romantically by 2 orcas | Birthday meal Rome Style | Birthday Breakfast ft. Pastries | Gelato at the Spanish Steps | Meal for one on my actual Birthday | The love of my life Gelato.

WHEN IN ROME..

Spanish Steps | Pantheon | Love Locks by the river | Beautiful Streets | Coloseum | Vatican City | Amazing Buildings x 2 | Classic Italy | Pantheon at Night | Street art | Coloseum by Night | Nights in Rome | Setting of my Favourite Book | Discoverin Hidden Streets 

 Rome Ft. Han and Loz

Would like to say the biggest thank you to the best gal above (who looks absolutely beautiful in all these photos) for making my birthday weekend so special and one to remember for years ahead, Hannah Oxton you are a gem x 

Quick Style #9 Work It

Sandals - ASOS

Black Midi - New Look (Old)

Black Peplum - New Look (Old)

Now I've entered the working world for a short 12 week period I have to dress like a presentable, grown up so I turned to my wardrobe to see what I could find. I have tried office style dresses from both Next and New Look and the lining is very tight and restricting (hence my dress underwear disaster) so I teamed these two items together to create something that looked like a dress but is much less restricting because of the comfortable stretchy fabric - much needed when spending my days drinking tea and eating biscuits. The shoes add a pop of colour to a plain black outfit and to be honest you'll have to surgically remove these sandals from my feet they are my 'go to' shoes right now.

Life Lately #2

1 - Firstly and foremostly the biggest change in my life right now is my placement with NELC. I have a 12 week graduate placement doing something I love and learning about so many, cue,  'economic-geography-related' things at the same time and I am beyond grateful for the opportunity and the help I have received thus far by the amazing people that work there. Although it hasn't gone quite as smoothly as I would have hoped with 2 broken dresses under my belt and 2 days of embarrassment and near underwear showing (this would only happen to me) bringing the term cheeky VS to life - nothing like making a good impression. 

2 - I have fallen in love with fresh flowers, peonies, sunflowers and roses fitting with the quote 'Plant your own flowers and decorate your own soul instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers'

3 - In an attempt to be somewhat of a 'strong independent young woman' I purchased #GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso the CEO of Nasty Gal thanks to ViviannaDoesMakeup's recommendation and I read it in a day! Funny, witty, to the point with the term #GIRLBOSS thrown around left right and centre empowering the women in this world and inspiring me to be career minded and follow my dreams. Every girl can be a #GIRLBOSS if you work your arse off for your dream - Sophie did it from nothing so can we.  

   

4 - So, I'm a quote-a-holic and I'm trying to be more positive so have this quote it's a gooden.

5 - On the love life front i'm still unlucky in love, a complete loner experiencing lots of bad luck and many sad times and possibly even more angry times so maybe it's time to rename myself Bridget Jones - but I'm not quite ready to hang up my VS yet. 

6 - Nothing says your pissed off with everything more than getting your hair cut off but yay for haircuts mine was a long unmanageable mane which is now bouncy and lighter.

7 - And nothing reasserts your a complete loner more than eating chips on the beach on your own...