As far as Sydney’s winter goes, we had a bit of everything last week. Bright, warm sunny days, freezing cold days, lashing rain and whipping winds… and to start the week this freak fog that descended over one particular part of the city.
It’s another gentle reminder that summer’s still a while away. But with some travel up north for us later this week, we’re hoping for a bit of respite and some warm weather.
In the meantime, here’s what’s been happening with us this week just gone in our latest IG Edition:
Waking up to this sea fog sitting on top of the Harbour Bridge was quite a shock this morning. It’s so strange to see the Bridge almost completely invisible under a huge cloud. It’s made for some great photos though!
Just the other side of the Harbour Bridge – at Circular Quay – my ferry’s greeted to this! It’s like being in two cities! Look at that blue sky!
Tonight Mrs Romance and I are attending the media launch for this year’s up-coming Sydney Craft Beer Week. We’re at the Union Hotel in Newtown, which is full of great food and beers anyway, to try out a few of the brews that’ll be involved in this year’s SBW.
Today marks the start of tickets going on sale for all the different events – over 75 in fact – celebrating Aussie craft beer. Here’s a list of all the events on the SCBW site.
Make sure you don’t miss out on tickets to the different goings on in October. It’s set to be a great year for great beer. Talking of great beer, make sure you get to try one of my new all-time favourite beers – the Squealing Pig APA by Tumut River Brewing Co. This stuff is absolutely spectacular!
And talking of tickets, this is the perfect event for all you manly men reading to work on keeping your bromance alive – our post from last week all about ways to make sure you and your best mate are keeping it tight.
It might be pissing down outside, but in the Council Chambers in Chatswood everything’s cosy and happy. My mate Pete has become an Australian citizen today. It’s an interesting experience to watch what happens at one of these ceremonies, so if you ever get the chance to go to a friend’s ceremony, do it.
There are also free Tim Tams at the end!
Tonight – short of ideas for dinner and feeling like a treat – we’ve decided to cook up some of these bad boys. They’re pizza scrolls that our mate Lorraine from NotQuiteNigella.com came up with and we can’t stop making (and then promptly eating) them.
They’re pretty easy to make – especially if you cheat and use pre-rolled puff pastry – and are absolutely delicious.
It’s about that time, isn’t it? That’s how Mrs Romance prompts her knock-off time martini. And who am I to argue? Especially as that means a martini for me too! Mrs Romance’s cocktail is made with Four Pillars gin and a thin slice of orange.
Out of shot is my (swiftly disappearing) martini I’ve made myself using my new favourite gin from Loch Distillery. Their new Weaver gin is a hefty 50% but is as smooth as liquid chocolate. It’s a sharp little number, so I’ve gone with a lemon twist for my garnish.
What a way to see out a Thursday afternoon!
Tonight Mrs Romance and I are out to dinner at Uccello in the city. Overlooking the Pool Bar at Ivy, this Italian restaurant is a real treat for a romantic meal. The service is excellent and the food’s top drawer.
This week’s travel recap
Each week we go back in time over some of our favourite travel destinations using never-before-seen photos of our travels. Here’s where we’ve been looking back on this week.
The doorways in Burano – the colourful island north of Venice – are all like this. Bright, cheerful and with decorative curtains across them in the summer keep the airflow coming through these centuries-old houses yet give some privacy too.
Burano is definitely worth a visit when you’re in Venice. It’s got to be the happiest, friendliest and prettiest part of the city. Here’s more of our trip to Burano and here’s our guide to using the ferry system in Venice – the vaporetto.
Chicago is one of my absolute favourite cities in the States. There’s something about this place that really got me. And the view from up the top of the John Hancock Building are stunning. It’s hard to believe that this is a lake and not the ocean.
The little quaint town of Piran in Slovenia is one big picture postcard. There are no cars here in the town centre, but that doesn’t stop it being crazy busy here in the summer. Don’t let that put you off though. This is a part of the world we wish everyone could experience, it’s that pretty.
Piran’s coastline does the Adriatic full justice. Its crystal waters and pretty fishing town feel are exactly what you’re hoping for as you arrive here.
Piran’s only an hour’s drive from the northeastern Italian town of Trieste, which is also a must see.
The walled city of San Gimignano is one of our favourite places in Italy. An old family friend, who’s from Tuscany, gave us a list of places to visit while we toured Tuscany. He was absolutely right when he said that San Gimignano is a must-see. It’s known as the Town of 100 Towers, because there used to be over 100 enormous monolithic towers sprouting from within the town’s walls.
Over time, most of these have been destroyed or fallen, and there are only a handful left. Still, even from a distance, the silhouette of San Gimignano is like no other on earth.
Click here for more on what we’ve seen, done and what we know about Tuscany.
We’ve been fortunate enough to visit Italy a number of times. One of our visits was to attend a good friend’s wedding in Tuscany. He found a little castle in the Tuscan hills called Castello di Modanella, which is pretty much the most romantic wedding venue I’ve ever seen.
The wedding reception was right where Mrs Romance is standing now in the courtyard of this ancient castle, with swifts flying overhead in the dusk and the warmth of a perfect Italian summer evening. It was a beautiful day and one we’ll never forget.
However, at first we were apprehensive about going to a wedding so far from home. Destination weddings can be a real pain, but as it turned out it was the first of many weddings overseas we’ve been to. As a result, we’ve put together this guide for you on how to attend a destination wedding and what you should expect.
And so endeth this week’s IG Edition. We hope you’ve enjoyed this update, and – if you haven’t already – remember to sign up to our weekly newsletter that comes out every Friday. It has a rundown of the week’s posts plus news on what’s going on with us.
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Now tell us, what’s been going on with you this last week? The comment section below is all yours!
