As you might have guessed from my Milan Guide and my constant mentions about the city, Milano holds a very special place in my heart. I take any opportunity to go there and in the case of this #tbt travel diary, that’s not necessarily a good thing. I was invited on a last minute trip — I’m talking 2 days before booked co. booked the tickets despite planning supposedly for weeks — to Milan with a leather goods start up. They were Italian, trying to bring the Florentine fine leather manufacturing, direct to consumers in the US. Sounds great right? They definitely sold my friend on it who signed on to consult with them and brought me on to cover the trip which was to be a fashion week bonanza between all of their contacts, events and shows we were to go to.

As I was sitting at the hair salon, complaining to my stylist and telling my friend it’s weird they haven’t booked our tickets, something told me things weren’t right…. Flash forward to a terrible Air BnB, a rude Lithuanian fiancé and a disaster of a dinner and I found myself needed to turn lemons to lemonade and think of a plan B.

GO WITH YOUR GUT!

One of the businessmen ended up being a con artist and something didn’t sit right with me from the beginning and our first phone call. At the aforementioned disastrous dinner, I realized. I had met him before! I rapidly texted Gabriel and immediately knew. He hung out one night with us in NYC with some Italian friends. I immediately didn’t take to him or his fiancé and actually retired shortly after they joined us for drinks. I have very good intuition and I’ve learned not to ignore it. So plan B.

Well I had to make sure Gabrielle and I made the most of this trip. We were in one of my favorite places after all. And while before that moment of realization, I had left planning up to the buffoons, it was now time to do Milan my style. So naturally, we ended up at the AMFAR gala, my favorite event during Milan Fashion Week. Not only is it a beautiful cause with amazing people, it’s always a FUN night. It’s why I ended up at a regatta in Loano. This time? After
party at then Pucci designer Emilio Dundas’s house with Ciara cooing that I was pretty. That week in Milan I also met dear friend, Vogue Italia editor Lucia D’Angelo, and was subsequently featured on Vogue.it.

So there you have it, what started out as a frantic phone call to my mom saying “I can’t stay here” turned into another awesome trip in one of my favorite cities and a little one-on-one time with a dear friend. As for the buffoons… they turned out all right at the end. Still conning. In the meantime, here’s my photo diary.