Living for the Good Life: wales

Con Amici is really one of the only places to go to eat if you're in Denbigh, and is where I tend to meet up with one of my bestest friends, B. It's an Italian bar and kitchen that offers delicious food at decent prices.

We headed in, were seated and offered both the main menu and the lunchtime specials menu. I rarely look at lunchtime special type menus wherever I am because for some reason I always find they're mostly, if not entirely, full of meat-based dishes, and being a vegetarian that's no use to me. However, I was pleasantly surprised by Con Amici's offerings.

We both opted for water to drink, and deliberated over the menus for much longer than necessary.

Mine and B's problem is that because we rarely get to see each other, when we do, we could talk for Britain. It usually takes the waiter 3 times of asking if we're ready to order before we actually are.

We finally decided to both have exactly the same dishes. Feeling greedy, we opted to have a starter and went for the 'dolcelatte e noci aranchini', described as dolcelatte cheese & walnut risotto balls, red wine poached pears, frisee lettuce & grain mustard dressing.

I'd had this starter before, a long time ago, and remembered how impressed I was by it.

It's a really grown-up dish flavour-wise, and one that I've never noticed in any other Italian restaurant I've been to. The flavours are intense, and the risotto balls are gorgeously gooey, pairing beautifully with the poached pears. I was nearly tempted by the bruschetta, but then I thought that you can get that pretty much anywhere and so wanted to go for this more unique dish.

For main, we went for one of the options on the lunch time specials menu - the 'Gnocci al pesto', composed of gnocci pan fried in garlic butter with cherry tomatoes, black olives, pesto, rocket & grana padano shavings.

Gnocci can be stodgy and too filling sometimes, but this one had a beautiful crispiness to it from the pan-frying, and the portion size was spot on. I can be fussy with pesto because too much makes me feel a bit sickly, but the amount they added was perfect and complimented the tomatoes and olives wonderfully.

We were both stuffed and groaning by the time we'd finished our main, and quickly declined the dessert menu. However, we then proceeded to chat for so long that our main had gone down a bit and we both wanted more and had to embarrassingly ask for the menus that we'd previously shot down so intently.

I was feeling particularly naughty and opted for ice cream, whilst B chose a hazelnut latte.

You get 3 scoops, and I went for two chocolate and one cappuccino.

Unfortunately the chocolate was disappointing, but then I hit the last scoop, the cappuccino, and all was not lost. It was gorgeous - the perfect strength of coffee flavour. I wish I'd of just had all three as cappuccino now!

B's hazelnut latte, like my chocolate ice cream, was disappointing. However, that is mainly due to the fact that we went to Patisserie Valerie not long ago where she had the best hazelnut latte she's ever tasted and so now nothing compares. Maybe there will be a post on that place in the not so far future...

Overall, it was a delicious meal and we couldn't believe how reasonable the bill was when it arrived. Con Amici is our traditional meeting place now, and I'm sure we'll be back again soon.

Check out Con Amici's menus here.

This weekend just gone I spent some time at home with my family and we decided to have a day out on the Sunday. The weather didn't seem too promising so we opted for an indoor activity and settled on Penrhyn Castle, located in Bangor, Wales, which I'd never visited before.

Penrhyn Castle is a 19th century National Trust property that was originally a medieval fortified manor house. So basically, a stately home type thing. You can walk around the property, as well as explore the vast surrounding grounds, but due to the weather we just stuck to exploring the incredible rooms inside.

You might want to grab a cup of tea for this one, it's a long 'un!...

In the entrance hall there were some incredible metal grid decorations in the floor which, if you look really closely, you can see that people have used them like wishing wells and have thrown money in!

The great hall had stained glass windows that were filled with horoscope zodiac signs.

We then strolled into the dining room, which was set out magnificently. Imagine the dreamy dinner parties that must have gone on at this table.

In the breakfast room hung a painting of Henry VIII - I wonder whether he ever visited Penrhyn himself.

There were some beautiful monogrammed stationary pieces in the various living rooms.

The stairways and hallways were incredible, covered in the most intricate plastering I've ever seen, particularly the ceilings.

The bedrooms featured some gorgeous patterned wallpapers, which reminded me of contemporary Laura Ashley wallpapers and prints.

Inside the castle's chapel lay more stunning plasterwork and stained glass windows. Notice the chevron plastering on the pillars - how on trend.

In one of the studies lay this book, which I was desperate to flick through, but followed the 'do not touch' signs and resisted.

I absolutely love interior design and anything to do with houses, so exploring stately homes really ticks my boxes. Penrhyn Castle was a lovely day out and if you're in the area any time I'd definitely recommend taking the time out to visit it. If you do, make sure to sign up for the free tour of the lounge area that is otherwise closed to general visitors. We did so and it was a lovely addition to the day, and we were told many facts and quips about the place and the history of it that we would not have known otherwise. I'd love to go back and explore the grounds on a sunny day.

For more information on Penrhyn, click here.

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