Half of your friends are messaging from a pool float somewhere and the other half are already thinking about September.
I’ve spent the week in Tuscany, with a slowly lengthening list of things I want to make happen before the end of the summer. Which is, as it happens, the point of this particular week. The Lion’s Gate is open (manifestation-lovers, we hope you’re on it), summer is tilting towards autumn, and this edit is about the pleasures worth chasing while the window’s still ajar, an English cocktail odyssey, a Tuscan villa to daydream over, a tablescape muse to steal from, and a small nudge from the cosmos to help you along.
BOOK A STAY HERE Villa Margherita, Tuscany
If the Lion’s Gate has you setting intentions, start here. Villa Margherita was built as a summer retreat for a Florentine family with ties to the Medici court, and several centuries of la dolce vita later it remains gloriously fit for purpose. It sits in the hills east of Florence, inside 15 hectares of private olive groves and woodland in the Vallombrosa National Park, a 19th-century country residence where classic Tuscan bones meet the kind of design-led interiors that make you want to stay in rather than out. Think freestanding tubs with valley views and nine air-conditioned ensuite bedrooms, sleeping up to eighteen across a fully enclosed estate. There’s a heated pool with open views, a full-size tennis court, e-mountain bikes for the ambitious and a private chef for when cooking ambition passes (and you really want to experience true Tuscan cooking). Florence is 35 minutes away, the Chianti Rufina wineries closer still, and the pretty village of Pelago just ten. This is a trip with a group of friends of multi-generational holiday that is as wonderful sounding as it is to experience.
ENJOY A COCKTAIL (OR TWO) HERE Refuel Bar, The Soho Hotel
Refuel, the clubby, art-filled bar at Firmdale’s Soho Hotel, has never been shy about a good idea, and its latest is a good one. Nine Regions is a cocktail list built entirely around English produce: nine serves, nine corners of the country, each one made with ingredients from a single region and drawn from independent producers who deserve the spotlight. It’s provenance you can taste. Go north for the North East, a honeyed highball lifted with sparkling mead from Northumberland Honey Co., or west for the South West, where Cornish Twin Fin rum meets spiced mulled apples in a glass that tastes like the first properly cold evening of the year. This is a taste of the countryside, poured in Soho.
DESIGN YOUR TABLESCAPE Cosima Swayze x ABASK
ABASK, the design world’s favourite address for beautiful things, has a new maker worth knowing: Cosima Swayze, the LA-based interior curator behind some of the most charming tablescapes going. As the last of the English summer stretches out its evenings, look to Cosima’s signature nonchalance, a West Coast laissez-faire. She’s here to walk us through the whole day, from a languid breakfast to a candlelit dinner. The coolest dinner party is the one that looks like it required no effort at all, and this is is the one to replicate. Her genius is knowing exactly how much to leave undone, the slightly wonky candle, the fruit piled a little too high, the wildflowers that look foraged on the walk over. It’s the anti-tablescape tablescape, and it makes the fussy, symmetrical version we’ve all attempted feel very try-hard indeed.
ENJOY MARTINIS AND DINNER BY THE RIVER Tower House, Richmond
Autumn is on its way, so all the more reason to soak up the long nights and warm weather while we can. From the brains behind Notting Hill hotspot Gold comes Tower House in Richmond. As locations go, it doesn’t get much better – diners sit on an elevated riverside terrace watching punters and paddleboarders float by. The clientele is a well-dressed, affluent west London crowd, for whom this is a new local. The food is designed to be shared and you’ll want to because every dish needs to be tried. The jamon croquettes stuffed with oozy manchego cheese and jalapeño-topped sea bass ceviche with basil and mint are the perfect warm-up acts, especially when washed down with a summer-ready elderflower martini. Follow up with the lamb and yogurt and whole seabream and salsa verde. A special mention must go to the Grilled hispi cabbage coated in a creamy, anchovy-infused chilli sauce – an unexpected hit on our table. Make room for the chocolate mousse drizzled in olive oil and sea salt. We stayed outside drinking up the buzzy atmosphere and views, but the white-washed 19th-century building is perfectly placed for cosy dinners inside too. Tower House is an elegantly relaxed destination to enjoy the last of the summer’s best wine that will appeal to couples and groups of friends who want an evening out that feels special but unfussy. Our insider tip? Pick the right-hand corner table on the terrace for beautiful views of the sunset. – Ella Alexander.
MANIFEST NOW Lion's Gate Portal
A word for the mystically inclined, and the curious sceptics too. Each August, as the sun moves through Leo and the star Sirius climbs back into view, astrologers mark the Lion’s Gate: a portal, they say, when intention travels a little further and the universe is unusually good at listening. It peaked on the 8th (8/8, naturally) and eases over the next few days, which makes this week your last call. You needn’t believe a word of it to enjoy the ritual. Simply pour a cup of something, write down the handful of things you want between now and the year’s end, and let yourself picture them arriving. If nothing else, it’s a lovely excuse to sit still for ten minutes, and occasionally, the list has a funny way of coming true.
We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site.
Any Questions or Tips to add?