contessanally

photograph by manfredi bellati LONDON / TRADITION Time to go home . Sambuca, our hostess's faithful Springer Spaniel is on the door ste...

LONDON/ TRADITION St. James's Palace - The Commanding Officer . Major-General Sebastian Roberts OBE , here in the role of the Regimental...

LONDON/ FASHION At the V & A - The Big Boss. Art and creative director, Ronnie Newhouse and her husband, Conde Nast's Internationa...

LONDON/ FASHION At San Lorenzo - The photographer. Catherine and David Bailey are among the chosen few at San Lorenzo for the dinner giv...

LONDON/ TRADITION St. James's Palace - lunch. It was quite an honor to be invited to the Queen's Guards Officer's Mess in St....

LONDON/ FASHION At the V & A - The editor-in chief and the "newcomer". Italian Vogue 's, illustrious editor-in-chief, Fra...

LONDON/ FASHION At the V & A - Anna and friends. Anna Piaggi poses with her friends, London-based South American socialite, Victoria F...

LONDON / FASHION At the V & A - The Milliner. One of Anna Piaggi's greatest indulgences are her hats and one of her favorite desig...

LONDON/ TRADITION MEETS FASHION St James's Palace. We were invited for lunch in the Queen's Guards Officer's mess inside St. Ja...

LONDON/ FASHION At the V & A - more designers. Self-confessed eccentric fashion editor, Isabella Blow is famous, among other things fo...

LONDON/ FASHION At the V & A - the designers . Erotic jewelry designer, Betony Vernon "...... I live happily in Paris most of the ...

LONDON/ FASHION At The V & A - The Painter. Tally-Ho! Sporting a "pink" coat, but no horse, pop surrealist painter, Dougie Fi...

LONDON/ FASHION At San Lorenzo. What better tribute to London and England than to be inspired by Britannia . Quote: "Since 1672, Brita...

LONDON/ TRADITION The Mall. Major General Sebastian Roberts , General Officer Commanding and Major General Commanding The Household Divisio...

LONDON/ FASHION At the V & A. The Daily Telegraph 's award-winning fashion director, Hilary Alexander is one of my favorite jour...

LONDON/ FASHION At The V & A - The photographers. Photographer and interior designer Manfredi Bellati 's latest book of mysterious ...

LONDON/ FASHION At the V & A - The Art Directors. Luca Stoppini , talented art director of Italian Vogue and designer of Anna Piaggi ...

LONDON/ TRADITION The Metropolitan Mounted Police . It was the first time I saw a woman mounted police officer on duty. Horse and rider are ...

LONDON/ FASHION At the V & A - The de Villeneuves. Photographer, Justin de Villeneuve has collaborated with Anna Piaggi for Italian V...

LONDON/ FASHION At the V & A - The Designers. The anti-establishment fashion doyenne, Vivienne Westwood , OBE seems to have calmed down...

LONDON/ FASHION At The V & A. Manolo Blahnik is Anna Piaggi's favorite shoe designer. His shoes are universally known as 'Mano...

LONDON/ TRADITION Changing of the guard. The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment band lead the Irish Guards from St. James...

LONDON/ FASHION At the V & A. The exhibition Popaganda: The Fashion and style of JC de Castelbajac (until 1 May 2006) runs alongside ...

LONDON/ FASHION RULE BRITANNIA, Anna rules the V & A....... we have come over to London especially for the opening at The Victoria and A...

photograph by Manfredi Bellati LONDON/ TRADITION SUNDAY LUNCH. I just have enough time to unpack while I wait for my husband who is flying i...

LONDON or MARRAKECH??? Where are we? So engrossed in the papers that when I look out the window, just before arriving at Waterloo, I wonder...

PARIS/LONDON Gare du Nord-Eurostar. My less than forty eight hours in Paris are over. Just one day at the Maison & Objet fair and one ...

PARIS After a disappointing Lunch in the "great" Paris Bistro Brasserie Balzar we took a taxi and strolled around the arcades of...

PARIS Muriel Grateau. Refined French designer, Muriel Grateau 's name has been buzzing in the air for quite a while now, on both sides ...

PARIS Au Nom De La Rose is a chain store of French florists that offers only one variety of flowers, the rose. I usually don't like cha...

PARIS Le Prince Jardinier and Deyrolle . To get out of the cold and pretend that we were in "Africa" we went into Deyrolle which ...

PARIS I love Paris 2006 says the Hermes shopping bag in the window and so do I though it was far too long since I'd been there. Unfort...

FIRENZE Italian Furniture scholar and art consultant Fausto Calderai is the most elegant man I know! He loves fabrics and these are the sta...

FIRENZE Look out for the "enfant terrible" of Indian fashion! I'm sooooooooo excited. In a little corner of one of the most ap...

FIRENZE GEE Italian Toy Tour These designer, one of a kind, 16 inch Qee (pronounced KEY) are "marching off" to Ebay to be auction...

VENEZIA Let's start this 2006 blog edition of Contessanally with this heavenly "firework display" of unusual sculpture-jewel...

photograph courtesy Manfredi Bellati HAPPY HOLIDAYS

photograph by moris moreno courtesy Aponwao Design Inc. FLORIDA/VENETO "ART" # 4. Am I seeing double was my first thought when I o...

MILANO/NEW YORK or when NYC comes to Milano. Maily Zegna hosted a trunk show of Laudomia Piccolomini 's jewelry in her beautiful apartm...

MILANO Art # 3 - Galleria Salvatore+Caroline Ala. This spetacular retrospective show of eighty six year old artist, Emilo Vedova (till Feb...

MILANO ART # 2. Watercolorist, Francesca Brandolini d'Adda showed her work last week in a "pop-up space" in Palazzo Saporiti ...

CHRISTMAS CARDS I have just finished the "tedious job" of writing one hundred plus Christmas cards, though I must say I do enjoy t...

MILANO ART # 1. Nowhere Gallery. Being Art Basel Miami Beach week, I want to concentrate a little on local talent over here. Orio Vergani ...

VENICE Peggy Guggenheim Collection. This photo from the series "The Walls of Venice" by Manfredi Bellati really stood out at the...

MILANO From luxury shopping to pop-up retailing. Ape Malandra is a mobile clothing store that sells classic and stylish clothes in beautifu...

ROMAGNANO SESIA Dear Friends, this is one of the most precious addresses I can give you! Though it looks like a boutique hotel lobby it is, ...

MILANO Premio "Il Ponte" 2005 - is the bridge between business and non-profit organizations. This year this prestigious prize, in...

NYC NOVEMBER - TUESDAY The Rubin Museum of Art. I wanted to leave New York (and you) with a beautiful image and here is the Red Wolf-Headed...

NYC NOVEMBER - TUESDAY Shopping on the streets of NYC . It's time to go home, back to Italy ....No, this is not our mode of transport to...

photograph courtesy Tiffany & Co. NYC OCTOBER - MONDAY Hulaween #2. The Divine Bette Midler co-celebrated her 60th birthday with the 10...