On my recent trip to St. Petersburg I had two main goals.... shopping and spending as much time on the beautiful beaches as possible! Although I didn't have as many opportunities to sneak away and explore as I'd have liked to, the few places I did go were beyond great! The first gem I unearthed was ARTpool. An amazing shop downtown that sells, wait for it... vintage, local designers, and local artists. Yes, typical me. But the store was so so cool! I had the sincere pleasure of chatting with the owner, designer, and artist herself, Marina Williams and we were instant friends. I found two vintage dresses I couldn't live without and had I been smarter I would've also snagged the necklace I was salivating over, designed by Marina herself. I'm still thinking about it. You can check out some of her extremely cool vintage finds at her online store HERE and if you find yourself in the gulf anytime soon, this place is a must. Now, my other favorite pastime is definitely eating. Lucky for me, this was a love shared by everyone in my group, so we treated ourselves to many delicious meals. My favorite dinners were at Ceviche and Black Palm. Both had incredible Latin fusion menus and Ceviche had the best sangria I've ever tasted. I drank almost a whole pitcher by myself. WOW. The next couple of days I enjoyed Mazzaro's Italian Market, which I would probably go to religiously if I lived there, and the Dali Museum! I loved both so much! I never knew Salvador Dali did a prismatic 3-dimensional hologram of Alice Cooper, wearing Harry Winston jewelry I might add, and now it's maybe my favorite thing in the world. The trip was such a pleasure. I feel like what I saw from the tip of the iceberg was definitely enough to warrant a second visit. Maybe I'll even try to swing a stay at the Don Cesar. That enormous pink beauty seen above. But one thing is certain, next time I'm renting a car!
