Sara Santini - Pretty Little London: A Seasonal Guide to the Citys Most Instagrammable Places

Primrose Hill

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Drink

Parks

Walking

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Museums/Galleries

Marylebone Village

Its happened. Its actually happened. We have written a book. How is that even possible? Sometimes we still cant believe how quickly things have moved since the day we decided to start our Instagram account and blog, Pretty Little London. It all started as a hobby, as a way to get creative in a city that sometimes sucks all the energy out of you and makes you wonder what you are really doing here if you are chasing a dream that will never come true or if there actually is something here for you. The day we started this community, which has now become our life, we knew we had found what we had been looking for. It was an incentive for us to get creative, get out of our comfort zone and explore more of the city we lived in, which we found out we knew very little about, even though we had been in London for over a year. So how did it all start? Here is Pretty Little Londons story.

ANDREA and SARA moved to London from Italy in August 2014. Andrea is originally from Capaccio Paestum, a little town around an hours drive from the Amalfi Coast in southern Italy, while Sara is from La Spezia, near the Insta-famous Cinque Terre in the north. Andrea had come to England for his masters degree in medical and institutional translation, while Sara was ready to start her bachelors degree in fashion marketing and business management.

How did they meet? They were housemates (what a clich, right?) in a place they both shouldnt have even been in the Italian agency that set up their accommodation messed everything up, sending Andrea to Wood Green rather than Willesden Green. But the urban streets of Wood Green are not where the idea for Pretty Little Londoncame to life!

A year had passed since their initial introduction to London and Andrea had found an internship as a project manager at a translation company on Oxford Street, with long hours and no pay. He was also working at weekends to pay his rent and writing his masters dissertation. Not the most inspiring of times. After leaving the office yet again at 8.30pm on a warm August evening, life in London, for Andrea, had started to feel unsustainable. Sara was on her summer break from uni and would often wait patiently for him after work, browsing the streets around Oxford Street. That particular evening fuming, after waiting three hours for Andrea, and having checked out every store in the area she had had enough. You always say youre great at taking pictures, lets buy a camera, she said, but Andrea couldnt afford one; he barely managed to pay the rent. Ill buy it; you can pay me back in photos for my Instagram! And they went straight to John Lewis to buy their first Nikon, a D3200.