A taste of summer

Suddenly, there was a week of summer. Oh, the magic!

The summer week started with me being sick with a fever. When I came back to life, I met Chris for an evening stroll. We went to Kødbyen and ate delicious tacos from Hija de Sànchez.

The next morning I met with AnCa in her new part of town for a brunch out in the street. I was headed for work afterwards, but we squeezed in a walk around inner city before I was off.

On Tuesday night, it was my turn to host our monthly food club and we took it up on the roof. That's when a rooftop terrace comes in handy. We stayed up there until the light had vanished and it was such a beautiful night.

A few days later, I found myself being filmed. For what I will unveil later, but it was definitely a new experience, both humbling and very fun.

We went out to a little container town north of Nordhavn, a place I'd never been to before. That's always interesting.

Later, we headed to Christianshavn to photograph the golden hour in one of the prettiest places in town.

And then we finished off at Papirøen where I fell even more in love with this city. I'm so happy I decided to come back two years ago!

B A T H

My mom and I gave each other a trip to Bath last Christmas. We had been looking forward to a few days just her and me, and we had so much fun.

Bath is on the world heritage list and everything is so neat and adorable. It's like walking around in a Jane Austen movie. As my mom is also something of a tea addict and loves everything British, taking her to Bath was just right. We stayed in a bed&breakfast in a historic townhouse, we had coffee and tea all the time, spent hours in several bookstores (I brought 7 books home...), talked and laughed and ate good food.

The Circus is the most elaborate square. Completely round and beautiful.

My mom doesn't drink coffee and I don't drink tea. Luckily, we lived right next to this café, so I went there several times a day for a cup of wonders.

This Pulteney Bridge is lined with small shops and café overlooking the Avon. Again, Bath is on the world heritage list...

We spent a day at Dyrham Park, an old estate from the 17th century. It wasn't as beautiful and elaborate as Tyntesfield last year, but it was good to walk around and also see some of the countryside on the drive there. I love this photo of my mom. She only wears colours (as opposed to my black uniform), and she looks happy and giggly here with what I can imagine is her 6th or 7th cup of tea that day.

A Dyrham selfie.

Italia, due

A must when visiting Abruzzo is going up on Campo Imperatore and Rocca Calascio. I've shown you pictures of that place before (here and here), and it's always marvelous. I think my favourite time to visit is in the summer when the sun has scorched the colours into brown and dusty yellow.

"Quickly, take the photo!" my uncle said. He was completely soaked afterwards... But it looked cool, especially the mark he left in the snow. That must have confused people driving by afterwards.

When entering Gran Sasso, we listened to ABBA, and we turned it up so loud. It made a sort of strange soundtrack, but it was so great. The love for ABBA runs deep in my family...

The road over to the old, scary hotel was blocked by the snowfall, so we drove back down to Castel Del Monte for lunch. Nothing was open, but a guy behind the counter at a café promised to fix us a panino. We were happy he did because it was so good! Just plain bread, good chunks of cheese, and grilled zucchini. The oil was running down our arms, but it tasted heavenly.

We drove up to Rocca Calascio. I think it's the most beautiful place I've been. Just surrounded by mountains, it makes me feel like a small dot in a big world and there's something utterly powerful about that feeling.

My uncle took the photo of me standing out there on the ridge. It doesn't look that scary from here, but when you stand there, and the wind blows and you feel like you're going to fall off the cliff, it's something else.

Before heading back home, we had ice cream in the little town of Santo Stefano di Sessanio. It's a town built entirely out of these grey stones. It's like someone has just carved out little houses and streets from a mass of stone. It's definitely something. Ah, it was great to be in Italy. As always!

Italia, uno

Oh, the mountains. It's no secret here that my father has a house in Italy. It's in Abruzzo, a region not so well-known - it ought to be, though. Because it's so beautiful, pure and completely relaxed. There's no fuss there and that's what makes it somewhat magic. I usually go there a couple of times a year. This time wasn't exactly planned, and the weather was kind of dramatic, but it's always nice to visit Abruzzo.

I flew late at night and woke up to this view. The beautiful thing about that place is that it's ever-changing. One minute you can see the snow on the Maiella mountains, the next the mountain has disappeared behind a wall of clouds. I can gaze out over the valley for hours.

The first day, we took a drive over to the little town of Pietranico. It was practically deserted, I guess it was siesta. We found a little café and had a couple of espressi macchiati. I got to talking to one of the men in the café and suddenly he handed us a fistful of freshly plucked beans. I love Italians like that.

My uncle was the reason I went to Italy. He's going through a personal ordeal and had been in the house for 10 days before I came. We had long talks and I think it was a good change of scenery for him to have some company.

Look at that light! And those roofs.

After Pietranico, we drove up to Forca di Penne, an old ruin. The sky continued to be dramatic and I don't think I've ever seen such a deep blue colour like that.

Forca di Penne was muddy and we had cakes of dirt on our shoes. But the view didn't disappoint.

Later, we drove to Loreto Aprutino to do some shopping but the supermarket was closed. So we had a coffee while the rain poured. On our way back home, the mountains were barely visible for clouds that lay low. "It looks like Mount Fuji in Japan!" my uncle cried, and we had to pull over to photograph.

I've been wanting to photograph Catignano for years. We always pass it in the car and I adore the fact that it's built on a ridge like that overlooking the fields. This time I made my uncle pull over so I could snap it. It looked amazing with the lush green.