Shoes, shoes, shoes! You can never have enough

I was speaking to the owner of a little boutique-clothing store in Rome and asked her if she could tell me where she likes to buy her shoes.  She gave me 3 great recommendations for fun and interesting and not overly priced places to shop, all of which were in the Campo dei Fiore area of Rome.  I ended up buying a fantastic pair of boots at one of the stores she told me about as well as another pair at a neighboring store.  This was a great area.  These are the stores she told me about:

 Loco, Via dei Baullari, 22; Posto Italiano, Via de Giobbonari (it doesn’t have a name on it but you will be drawn to the shoes in the window), the last one is Borini, Via dell’Arco del Monte.

Tips from this last trip

I am always looking for a fantastic dining experience.  Especially when I am on vacation in a place that is known for it’s great food.  Often however, if you get stuck in the tourist areas or simple just don’t know where to look, your meals are less than you hoped for.

In both Rome and Venice I found fantastic local guides to restaurants and nightlife.  Weirdly, I found them both in Museums.  So, the next time you find yourself abroad and are looking for some help in finding a great place to eat, look at the gift shop of a museum.  They might just have the skivvy on what you are looking for.

Venice.  What can I say, it is beautiful and has some of the most well known architecture going but absolutely has the worst maps for trying to figure out how to get around on foot.  We ended up finding our way because Skye has an IPhone and she used google maps to navigate us.  The published maps don’t have half of the street names on them and sometimes there are more than one of the same street in different sections of the city.  If you don’t have an IPhone, the water taxis are the best bet to get you at least close to your destination.  Or see if you can get google maps on your phone.  This will be especially helpful if you are only in Venice for a couple days and want to see as much as possible.

Joid'art Jewelry

So when I go to a foreign country I always like to do a little shopping and have “That Thing” that I got in some far away land that people will stop me on the street and say, “Where did you get that?”  Well in Barcelona I found “That Thing” for me was jewelry.  My favorite store on this trip was Joid’art.  Not only is the jewelry amazing (I get compliments on it every time I wear it – and people do stop me on the street) but they also donate 1% of their annual sales from outlets to development projects which work to improve women’s life conditions around the globe.  

They have several locations including an outlet store on pl. Santa Maria, 7 (which has fantastic discounts).   We found the store closets to the Picasso museum to be our favorite.  The woman who works there is so lovely and so helpful.  She is almost as delightful as the jewelry itself!  The jewelry is made up from 4 designers so everything is really different and there is something for everyone.  Whether it be a gift or someone else or for yourself go to Joid’art.  It is interesting, beautiful and one of a kind.  Go ahead and treat yourself.  You deserve it!