Images above from the epic Salone Internazionale del Mobile. The fair is bigger than Ben Hur x 100,000! No kidding.

Images above from Salone Satellite, dedicated to young, up and coming designers.

Hello pumpkins. I’m back! Seriously, for a couple of days there I thought I was going to be stuck in Europe forever! Those damn volcanos.

If you’ve been following my tweets, you probably already know that my volcation included a “slight detour” and I never made it to London as originally planned. I was really sad that I wasn’t going to be able catch up with some good mates {and also leave a trail of destruction at Selfridges, Liberty, Anthrolpologie and good ol’ Top Shop}. Having said that, I wouldn’t change my trip for one second, as a little group of us got to experience an amazing drive from Milan to Hildesheim in northern Germany, via the Swiss alps. Wow. What an amazing road trip, even if six of us had to jam ourselves into a people-mover with all our luggage {I had the back shelf stuck to my cheek for about 8 hours – nice}. That drive has definitely made me want to do a proper road trip through the Alps with husband {but in a fully sick sports car!}

As for Milan, the fair, and all the design events… Well… What can I say… Gee… Let me think… Oh yeah, it was friggin’ AWESOME!! Seriously, I had such a brilliant, brilliant time. There was so much inspiration and talent around, my head was exploding from all the cleverness, awesomeness and attractiveness. Oh yes, Milan is one spunky city people. The locals definitely know how to dress. For real.

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General Milan fabulousness.

I took just over 2,500 photos during my 4 days… oh hang on… make that 7 days in Milan thanks to the Icelandic eruption. My experience during this time included more design than you can poke a stick at, zero sleep, running around, talking to designers, taking notes and photos, phone calls to family and travel agents trying to sort out flights, new friendships, lots of laughs, amazing food, excellent wine and a few too many drinks. I’ve been left with no time to go through any of my photos or do any writing, so please be patient as I sort through all the information I’ve gathered across Salone Internazionale del Mobile, Salone Satellite, Zona Tortona, Spazio Rossana Orlandi {I die!} and various other installations and design events around Milan.

As a picture says a thousand words, I’ll leave you with a 40,000 word essay of my European ashventure to whet your appetite for what is yet to come in my future posts. Please excuse the lack of notes and captions – I will be including those in my posts over the coming few days, so stay tuned.

And one more thing – thank you for all your comments, tweets and e-mails whilst I’ve been away. I am sorry that I’m not able to reply to each and every one of you all the time, but please know that I read all your comments, tweets and e-mails with great care and they truly mean so much to me. Thank you again.

x dana

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Swarovski Crystal Palace on Via Savona at Zona Tortona.

Images from Superstudio and other areas of Zona Tortona. Bottom image from the fabulous Spazio Rossana Orlandi.

P.A.R.T.Y. on Wayne! 5 Beers for 5 Euros at Zona Tortona street party = Trouble.

The seriously fabulous Spazio Rossana Orlandi gave me mini heart attacks every 5 minutes. Amazing! One trip simply wasn’t enough… so I went there twice. Bottom left image from Zona Tortona.

Milan’s Brera area was full of great little finds including Nendo’s mind blowing installation in top image. Can’t wait to share the rest of my photos! Bottom images from 10 Corso Como.

Road trip! The Alps are just incredible, and absolutely magical during Spring. How come I’ve never been there before?

Hildesheim in Northern Germany is a beautiful little town with incredible history. The city was heavily damaged in World War II after it was bombed in 1945. Most of the homes were destroyed and the centre of town was almost entirely levelled. The city was completely rebuilt in the 1980s to reflect it’s original medieval character. Middle images from the beautiful nearby Marienburg Castle. And one of the best {and the biggest} hot chocolate drinks I’ve ever had. Yum!