Here and There #6

Creative director Pia Baroncini’s packing hacks for a month in Italy with her family, our September Moodboard, and an easy canapé trick from Patmos

It’s my first September in almost 20 years that I wasn’t sending my daughter off to school, so this post-summer reentry week feels very different. (For all of you who are in the thick of getting back into it, maybe you’ll read this in a couple of weeks.) Welcome back—thanks for being here!—and we have a lot of stuff we’re cooking up this fall that I can’t wait to share. —Yolanda

September Moodboard

This Instagram account of vintage postcards and their endearing messages.

Forever lovers of the printed page, we’re so thrilled about Library 180, a new image reference library stocked with old magazines in New York’s WSA building that anyone can peruse with an appointment—where nothing is behind glass or off limits to scan.

Jules Perowne and Richard E. Grant just launched a new podcast, Hotels with History, and we can’t wait to hear about the hidden narratives, legends, and scandals that shaped some of the most iconic hotels in the world.

The Linea Carta Slow Art retreats in Sardinia and Corsica this fall still have spaces available, but if you can’t make it in person, they host digital watercolor classes you can join from anywhere.

This Smythson travel and experiences journal.

While JFK is a total mess due to its massive reconstruction project—which means shuttles to car service parking lots and endless taxi-stand lines—our workaround is to book an Uber Black, which picks up directly from arrivals in terminals 1, 4 and 8.

Summer’s not over until the 21st, so we're still slathering on Australia's fav sunscreen, Ultraviolette, which is finally available in the US.

We’re not exactly “cruise people,” but the beautiful new Orient Express Corinthian sailing yacht, embarking on its inaugural Caribbean voyages next year, could change that.

We love Sho Shibuya’s newspaper series, and if you’re in London this September, he has a solo exhibit at Unit Gallery that will showcase some of his pieces centered around the beauty of rain.

Ponant just announced new 12-night explorations to the Geographic North Pole aboard the world’s only luxury icebreaker ship, Le Commandant Charcot, that will set sail from Longyearbyen in 2027.

On Lake Como, Il Sereno’s new Darsena Listening Suite is the world’s first hotel suite created entirely around the art of listening, with heritage-grade analog equipment—horn speakers, turntables, a vintage reel-to-reel deck, and vinyl library of 500+ records—and of course the soundtrack of waves lapping on your private dock. They join a crop of other hotels that we love with listening rooms: our friends at Pagostas pride themselves on their vinyl collection and play records every night from their incredible sound system. Potato Head in Bali also has a room in their lobby dedicated to a small portion of their record collection, where guests can rifle through and listen to vinyl on record players.

Some hotel news: Pellicano Hotels bought La Badia, and we can’t wait to see how they transform the Umbrian estate. Corinthia opened two new hotels in Bucharest & Brussels this year, both in exquisitely restored historic buildings (read Yolanda’s Corinthia Brussels Guest Book here). Vista Ostuni just opened in a 14th-century palazzo and former tobacco factory, with endless views over Puglia’s olive groves, just steps from the center of the whitewashed hilltop town. Proper Hotels became the first hospitality brand to ban seed oils, eliminating them from the kitchens across all their hotels. Spier Hotel and Wine Farm in Stellenbosch, South Africa, reopened after an extensive redesign earlier this year, including new villas designed by Cape Town interior designer Jacques Erasmus. This fall, Awasi will open the doors of two new lodges: Awasi Mendoza in Argentina, surrounded by vineyards at the foothills of the Andes, and Awasi Santa Catarina on Brazil’s Emerald Coast. Speaking of Brazil, beloved Brazilian hospitality group Fasano is heading to Italy, with their first opening in the Mediterranean on a glassy beach in Sardinia’s marine protected area. Closer to (our) home, Chatham Bars Inn is hosting a dinner to benefit the James Beard foundation on September 20th, set on their massive farm just a short drive inland from the best address on Cape Cod—but if you can’t make that one, their epic farm dinners run through November!

Italy Packing Diary: Pia Baroncini

Each summer, our friend Pia Baroncini and her husband, Davide, head to Italy for a multi-week trip—visiting family and friends in Davide’s hometown, drawing inspiration for their respective labels (LPA and Ghiaia Cashmere), and working on their importing business, Baroncini Import & Co. In recent years, they’ve brought along their kids, Carmella (4) and Carlo (1), managing to balance work with beach days and gelato runs. Pia shared her packing tips with us a while ago, but now that she’s on Substack (and has a second kid in tow!), we wanted to hear what still makes it into her bag.

Tell us about your trip! You were gone for a month—I’m assuming for a trip that long you have to check a bag, right?

Oh my god, yeah. On this trip Davide brought one suitcase for himself; I had two suitcases and a rolling carry-on and a bag carry-on. I could have done just one of the biggest Rimowas for me if I’d wanted to, but I brought two because we’ve learned that we always need to bring things back. We buy antique pieces and little things from flea markets, but we also bring back samples so that we don't have to ship them back.

I try to keep it concise, because we always wind up taking a multitude of road trips, as we did this time, from Naples to Sicily. Italian cars are obviously much smaller, so once we know the start date of our trip, the most important thing we do is to book our car through Sixt and make sure that we get one that can fit all our luggage. Everything fit perfectly in the back of the Audi SUV that we rented. And then we also rent a car seat while we're there for Carmella, and our son is in the Doona.

What’s your strategy for the carry-on?

My bag carry-on is the LL Bean Boat Tote, in which I keep everything that the kids need immediately on the plane—snacks, water bottles, diapers, outfit changes, toys—and then I use it as a beach bag on the trip. It just becomes the bag, and then I have a purse, because I don’t use a diaper bag. I have to have some sort of dignity.

In my rolling carry-on, I keep all of their clothes and extra diapers. I like to assume that there will be at least one outfit change on the plane for a spillage or a pee leak or something. I don't want that LL Bean bag to be too cumbersome, because it's cumbersome anyway. So if there’s an emergency, then all their clothes are in the rolling carry-on Rimowa. On this last trip, it ended up being priceless because we missed our connecting flight from Paris after our first flight was delayed. We couldn’t access our checked luggage, but thank God I had all the kids' clothes, because we had to spend the night in Paris.

Can you walk us through how you actually pack for a trip like this?

I use packing cubes, and I pack by category—short dresses, long dresses, bathing suits. And then I only unpack a little bit at each stop. We moved around a lot—we were in four different hotels and rentals over the month. So by the second half of the trip, the stuff that I wore on the first half of the trip (which I wasn’t going to wear again) got packed in the second suitcase, which is storage. I didn't even open the suitcase on the second half of the trip until the last day, when it was time for me to pack up other things. So I only unpack what I know I need for certain days.

Do you do the same for your kids?

No, I just put all their stuff in my little Rimowa. When we flew back, one of the cubes was dirty laundry, so I just took that right out into the laundry room. The other half was stuff that's clean and separated. When I unpack at each stop, I'll take out only what I know they'll need. And then I always over-pack for the kids, because kids are so messy, and I just need to be better at remembering that they are, like, naked for most of the trip.

So you do laundry while you’re on the road?

We do laundry throughout the trip, especially for the kids. If we're at a house rental, we do the laundry ourselves. We did it multiple times while we were there. And then we had to have the hotel do laundry for us once, which I don't like doing because they charge so much. But the smell of laundry is so good, and they use insanely fragrant detergent that I would never use at home. Davide’s favorite smell in the world is laundry that's been done in Italy.

For yourself, do you plan full outfits in advance or just sort of throw in pieces that you're loving right now?

I throw in pieces. I never pre-pack. I never pre-try things on. I have to tell you—and this is going to be a controversial statement—but when I see that people pre-plan what they're going to wear every day on a trip with photos, it seems to me a little like, is that really your personal style if you planned it so much? But I also understand that's a judgmental statement. Some people need to focus on things other than thinking about what they’re going to wear every day.

For me, I just pack the things that I love. I pack the new LPA stuff. I pack things that are cozy, and I pack a few accessories that are trendy for that season. That makes me feel like I put in some effort, and then I just catch the vibe of how I feel on the trip. Sometimes I feel more dressy, but, you know, I make clothes, and so I just get excited to be able to wear them in the place that they were designed for.

Were there any pieces you love that you kept reaching for on this trip?

These Evelyn shorts—I'm wearing them right now. They’re white shorts that I was nervous to make, because I never make short-shorts like that. But I just wore them non-fucking-stop. The Kate midi dress is this low-back dress that's kind of shimmery and kind of sheer, and every time I put it on, I was like, I'm a princess. And then the Emmy midi dress I made with Italy in mind. It's an off-the-shoulder dress and just so comfortable. I saw so many other girls wearing it when they were traveling this summer. All this stuff just rolls up really easily.

Almost every day I wore LPA and I felt fantastic. All of our swimwear is just a 10 out of 10. My body's been through a lot of transformations having kids, and I just felt so confident in everything that I wore. The other thing that I wore a lot of is Helsa—Elsa Hosk’s brand—and Dôen.

What about shoes and accessories?

I wore Havianas and water shoes as real shoes—my husband and I like the Italian jelly ones. I basically pick a sandal for the summer. I wore the jelly shoes to the beach and then wore them out at night. And I always pick a necklace or two, or an earring. I brought two necklaces that I love and wore to the beach, and then wore them out at night, because I like when they are lived in and a part of the trip.

Do you roll or fold?

Everything folded up really well into the packing cubes on this trip, but I will roll sometimes if there’s something that tends to get more wrinkly. I did both.

For toiletries do you buy anything there or do you bring everything with you?

No, I love minis. I'm obsessed with travel-size versions of things, and I have the travel toiletry case from Parallelle. It’s the absolute best travel makeup bag on planet fucking Earth. It stands up and then the sides fold down. Mine is the medium, and I’ve been using it for years. There’s nothing better.

And what goes in the bag?

I have the Barefaced Hypochlorous Spritz, which I reapply like 18 times on the plane to kill bacteria, and then I spray my hands with antibacterial and then I use the Summer Fridays Jet Lag Mask. I don't wear makeup on a plane.

I also brought Crown Affair Shampoo, Conditioner, Leave-in Conditioner, and a mini Necessaire Body Oil, because we get so dry. We baked in the sun every day, so that oil was really important. I brought minis of the Evereden Detangling Spray for my daughter, because her hair is down to her waist. Also the Saie Glowy Super Gel, the Osea Ocean Cleanser and the Osea Wave Cleanser, a mini Tweezerman, a mini nail file, the Skinny Confidential Mouth Tape, and a mini of the Photo Finish by Smashbox. The original Photo Finish Smooth and Blur Primer is really good if you're going to events in Italy, so your makeup doesn't sweat off your face.

Is there anything you bring on the plane for your kids to keep them entertained?

This will be controversial, but I give them melatonin. I’ve seen parents try to be heroes. We wake up well rested when the plane is landing and we'll see other parents who refused to give their kids melatonin and they have not slept for 11 hours, and then have to get luggage and the car rental and then drive two hours. You're just starting your trip on the wrong foot.

I also give them busy books that I get on Amazon—little pads where they can draw, and it's not a real pen. I got the mini set of Magna tiles, and what I realized is you do not want to travel with small pieces. Carlo sleeps with a stuffed soccer ball, so I brought that with him on the plane and he was really happy to have it. I have pre-loaded shows on an iPad. That's the only time they're allowed. They love Post-It notes on a plane—they peel each piece off, they'll stick it to the wall, and then they think it's so funny to take it off the wall and stick it on each other. They both love the emergency pamphlets on the back of the seats, which is so funny.

Anything else you bring for the kids?

Coterie Travel Wipes. Otherwise, you're carrying a brick of normal size wipes in your bag, so I travel with both sizes. I'll always keep three or four of the travel wipes with me in my bag, but then I bring two packages of the regular wipes, and those stay in our hotel room.

Anything else you need is in Italy. I bring a lot of diapers, but then if they run out, I get them in Italy, no problem. But I will tell you, the Coterie wipes are just superior to any wipe that I've ever found anywhere. My other secret that is life changing is that micellar water and a wipe will get off stains, or anything stuck under their nails. If you just do a squirt of the micellar water on a wipe, you can get anything off of them.

Copy That

I’m just back from Patmos (I’ll be writing all about my August travels in next week’s post), where our friends at Pagostas (one of my favorite small guesthouses in the world, which I wrote about here) invited us over for sunset drinks. They served us these lovely, simple, and delicious little canapés, which I loved for their ‘70s vibe and graphic presentation. They’re so simple—stuff you would likely have in your fridge or freezer, no matter the season: white bread toasted and cut into squares, anchovy butter, and a tiny caper or dot of fish roe on top.

Side note: If like me you were unclear on the origins of the word canapé (I knew from my rudimentary French that it means sofa—but was unsure how this relates to food), I can tell you that canapés originated in 18th-century France, evolving from simple toasted bread with savory toppings, referencing how the topping sits upon the base, much like a person on a couch.