merry christmas

December 27, 2011


Hope you're having the loveliest holidays. We have nothing planned yet for the New Year's Eve but
hopefully we'll manage to spend a couple of days on the mountains with friends.
There's nothing I crave more than a cosy fireplace with snow falling outside.

christmas alley

December 20, 2011




A master craftsman busy painting a presepi figurine in Via San Gregorio Armeno, Naples.
There are a few places where you can feel Christmas mood so deeply.
The street is best known as 'Christmas Alley' not by chance.

queen nymphet

November 25, 2011



These are from the wedding inspired photo shoot we posed for in one of the last warm days of the year.
I'm particularly proud of Stefano's bow tie I made out of recycled Christmas ribbon, I must say.


a day at the museum

November 10, 2011









Some shoots taken at the Museum of Zoology in Naples, an amazing place we were totally unaware of since a few months ago - it's definitely one of the hidden gems of the city. 
If you happen to stop by check the guestbook: our names will most likely be there. More than once. 
Come to think of it, I could actually live there.

the cat lady

October 23, 2011

 
Me and my fluffy one Chicco, in one of his rare moments of stillness.
He sure is huge and greedy but all that pudge hides glorious nordic muscle.


mirrored

October 16, 2011

It's been quite busy over here in the past few days. Our friend Chiara is opening her own studio and asked us to take a few promotional shots in the amazing setting of the Royal Palace's English Gardens here in Caserta - I will be posting a few of them soon.

In the meanwhile, you can now follow us also on Instagram - just look up for username thewildbunches. See you there!

birthday

October 10, 2011

Bits of my birthday.
(next time I will try a more tempting topping, I swear)

fall

October 05, 2011

As much as fall is my favourite season it also brings many deadlines and its load of mixed feelings.
I had the craziest week dealing with college bureaucracy and stuff, psyching up for the upcoming classes.

On the other hand I had a really lovely birthday yesterday, crowned by my first ever attempt in making cupcakes - and they were actually good! But more on this later.

turn of the century

September 25, 2011



Me playing Lillian Gish.

gimme shelter

September 21, 2011























This cutie here is one of the newest member of the cat colony that I've been hosting in my yard for some time now, despite grumpy neighbors. He's always been hyperactive and playful and the first to greet me everytime I brought them food but suddenly one night he appeared weak and uninterested, so I freaked out.
I must admit that I really took these stray cats at heart so that every sign or change makes me suspicious, even when I shouldn't. But this time my worries proved right when the day after I found one of the kittens dead and him standing alone in the corner all curled up, sick and unable to move.
Still shaken from what happened to the other kitten and fearing that they might've been poisoned I understood that I had to do something if I wanted to save him at least.

Finding an open vet on a saturday night was a lucky break but they didn't give us much hope: he had fever and was severely dehydrated, and though not ruling out poisoning they diagnosed a viral infection.
But the little one was full of surprises and the very next day he showed already promising signs of recovery though still having trouble breathing and eating.
A quiet recess on my balcony sheltered him for five long days with us going back and forth from the vet for the therapy. Watching him behind the bars in his little cage was painful and sad but we found comfort in the thought that he somehow knew we were saving his life.

I took the picture above right before setting him free. He sure was terrified but staring at his eyes, so bright and eager, we felt that all of our efforts had been widely rewarded.

Someone told me that "Nature has its own ways", that I should "let things be".
But to me the only thing against nature is not to care at all.
 
Those eyes will always remind me that.

michela heim

September 15, 2011


You've surely heard of Michela Heim, a talented Oslo-based photographer whose work can be easily found all over the internet. Well, she's not only incredibly talented but also extremely sweet: she was so kind to send me one of her lovely prints that on her Facebook page I indicated as my favourite to be printed.
How cute is she?
As if that weren't enough, she's also such a cat enthusiast, as you can see if you browse through her amazing portfolio, and for me, proud owner of a Norwegian Forest cat, it's impossible not to love her.



set 'em wild, set 'em free

September 11, 2011



Here's another shot from our summer - it seems like ages ago.

Since we got back, days went by in the most ordinary way, doing ordinary things, waiting to get back in shape.
While everybody is sad to see this season end I'm looking forward to the new one and already longing for warm clothes, couch snuggling evenings and bird feeders galore!
Can't wait to see the redstart peeping out my window, back from his migration route.

in a kindly way

September 05, 2011



Here's a footage from our holidays in the mountains, featuring the little friends we happily fed.
Hope you enjoy x

take me where real animals are playing

August 31, 2011

















In my last post I mentioned a place in the Parco Nazionale d'Abruzzo called Pescasseroli. Since this place is so dear to me I thought it would be worth dropping a few lines.

My family bought a house there when me and my brother were kids. It was the typical house that you'd expect to find in the mountains: wooden interiors, a little but effective fireplace, bunk beds and a garden big enough for pony riding the times we were able to convince our father to bring them in from the manege just across the road.

A few years later we moved to a bigger and more comfortable house and though we have grown we still try to spend with our family at least a week during summer holidays. It's our little ritual and, for the past two years, Stefano has become part of it too.

So, as soon as the thermometer read 40°C and the city slowly started to empty, we packed our bags and left for the mountains.

It's been all about walking, cycling and frequent stops at a local animal farm - hence the post title, inspired by this song - where we didn't miss the chance to pursuit our favourite amusement : feeding. Every day we raid the fridge to meet every possible taste: grass for the sheeps, carrots for the donkey and the reindeer -yes, a reindeer, could you believe that? - and a little bit of everything for the pigs. But the most peculiar and stubborn of them all were surely the goats. In Italy we say "curious as a goat" and now I know what that really means!

On the road back home we even encountered a fox and since we're never unprepared we fed her dog food that she seemed to appreciate.

Days spent so peacefully, enjoying the simple things in life make the comeback to the daily routine busy schedules very hard. This put me in a kinda gloomy mood 'cause it reminded me how I long to be anywhere else but here, stuck in this dull and lifeless place.

Was your return to normal as dreadful as mine?

analogica

August 09, 2011





Just got back from a very relaxing week spent among the mountains, in the gorgeous setting of the Parco Nazionale d'Abruzzo. We'll be sharing some pics as soon as the film is developed.
In the meanwhile, here's some experimental shots taken with our beloved Zenit a couple of weeks ago.

Needless to say, these days in the city are so hot that we're already looking forward to going back there again!

How's your holiday so far?

shop update

July 14, 2011


Summer is finally here and it's hotter than ever!
Just added this lovely bright yellow dress with the cutest peter pan collar to the shop.

Have a lovely week-end. x


lara alegre

July 06, 2011


I stumbled into Lara Alegre while browsing the latest issue of Girls on Film Magazine, which featured one of her stunning portraits on the front page and others on the inside.
It's the perfect blending between dreamy landscapes and the richness of the portraits that makes her shots so hauntingly beautiful. In her words:

"I recently spent a year in Norway, and this changed me in several ways. I started a new kind of photography, focused on nature, which I find incredible and surprising. In this new stage I try to show in my pictures the relationship between nature and humans: the immensity and the concrete, the seen and the unseen, the whole and the void."

flea market

June 28, 2011





After days of meticolous preparation, a detailed inventory sorting every item by their color and period, on Sunday we had our first 'real' stand at a local flea market. Once we got there though we had to face the grim reality that - apparently -  our city is not much into vintage clothing. By the end of the day we just managed to sell a couple of items to warm-hearted friends mostly moved by compassion *sigh*.

On the brightside this experience proved to be quite useful: first lesson learned, we have to sell our stuff somewhere else. Even though we had some satisfaction from online shopping through the years, we really enjoyed being there at the stand, talking to 'real' people and watching them browsing around. 

That's why we're gonna give it another try. Who knows what lies ahead?

what I wore today

June 03, 2011


This is the drawing I made for the "What I Wore Today" contest: here's me with my beloved cat Chicco, the only  "wardrobe piece " I can't live without, definitely.

The drawings picked by the author, the lovely Gemma Correll, will be featured in her book so the competition is quite hard - there are more than 5,000 submissions already - but I thought to give it a try anyway.
Though I am far from being a professional illustrator I enjoy drawing a lot and I only wish I had more time for it.

Well, wish me luck... and let me know if you like it! 

P.

wedding in Milan

May 25, 2011



It's always weird when your best friend, the one you grew up with, finally gets married. And it only gets weirder when you're asked to join the bridal parade through the overcrowded streets of Milan under the eyes of a thousand astonished yet amused tourists. 
And suddenly you find yourself on the top of the Duomo - in high heels - in one of the hottest day of the year, wishing every step to be the last (which, of course, isn't). Only a mint flavoured granita prevented us to die by severe dehydration.

Can you imagine just how glad we were when we moved to a beautiful country estate called Villa Zanchi where the wedding party took place. The buffet, acres of green, a string quartet and a very unfriendly duck set the scene for a lovely evening and an unforgettable week-end.


at the gallery

May 10, 2011




Here we are, attending a 70's party at a local gallery surrounded by Modigliani's head sculptures, Warhol obscurities and a bunch of posters, from italian Futurists to Shepard Fairey.

We're not that much into modern art (actually, we can't wait to see the Pre-Raphaelites Exhibition in Rome) but it was a lovely night out anyway, that we gladly spent with our friend Chiara, who took this black & white portrait of us.


we (don't) eat animals.

May 01, 2011





Last night we had dinner with these cute little friends of ours. We are so addicted to anything animal-related that we just couldn't resist when we saw this animal shaped pasta in our favourite health food store.
And these are the only animals we'll ever eat.

We became vegetarian just a few months ago because we thought that our love and empathy to any creature on the planet deserved something more than the mere contemplation. We are so proud of our choice and we couldn't feel any better.

check...

April 16, 2011


Hi! This is our first post.
We will soon be sharing some pics.