Wacky suggestions for summer

So here we are, July and it's scorching hot where I live, my inbox keeps spitting out messages labelled URGENT, and I haven't the faintest idea what I'm going to do this summer. I could drive myself mad with the Everyone-Is-Going-To-Have-Crazy-Fun-Except-Me anxiety, feel sorry for myself, or even worse, rush to organise a serious last-minute trip, but you know what: who cares! Uncertainty often leads to memorable vacations, so I'll focus on my summer list of good resolutions.

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There was a time when, while folding my swimsuits to pack, I would tell myself I’d only eat fruit on the beach and I’d read at least three books a week, do yoga at sunset and a relaxing face mask before going to bed. Needless to say, when those blasted friends of mine unwrap a focaccia, I resist for 3, 2, 1 before coming out with: “Come on then, just a little piece”, luckily they know me well enough by now to get some for me when they stop by the bakery. Yoga also ends in a mess, replaced by a gossip and giggling session. As for the mask, it never happened, I forgot to put it in my beauty case and never bothered to go looking for a store for a replacement.

For this reason, I’ve decided that 2025 will be the year of wacky resolutions. Stay with me, there’s logic to my plan. If all my life I have disregarded my good and meaningful intentions, let's see what happens when I launch some wild ones. Maybe my contrary little head will end up making me do all the things I’d never have considered in life.

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Now, if you think it's easy to make a list of bizarre things, I invite you to think again. I've been pondering on it for days, and for now I'm stuck on these five:

- Learn how to use a scythe to cut grass in the garden.

- Try the blue Smurf flavour that has always filled me with dismay at ice cream shops.

- Buy at least three Christmas gifts by August 31st.

- Convince a bartender to let me stay by his side for an evening and mix cocktails for customers at the bar (without poisoning them, I promise).

- Invent a bedtime story for myself every night.

I feel pretty confident about the Smurf-tasting. Ultimately, at worst all I’ll lose is a micro-investment, and who knows? I could even find myself liking it. Even being a mixologist for a night isn't that unfeasible: if I was able to convince a grouchy metal-detector officer at New York airport to let me pass with a spare motorcycle part to take to a friend, do you think I wouldn't be able to mix a good drink? The challenge level increases for bedtime stories: I've always had loads of imagination, the problem, if anything, is staying awake, because as soon as I lie down my eyelids close just like a doll. Regarding the scythe, I feel motivated; in fact, while writing this, I started studying some tutorials on YouTube, and I’m encouraged by the experience: using the scythe isn't tiring.

I can already see myself in the countryside taunting my accursed little tractor, which breaks down every other day. The biggest challenge is Christmas presents by the end of August. I usually start thinking about it around December 20th, then wander around the shops downtown like a tarantula.

Of course, if I start monitoring the Marina Rinaldi e-store right after mid-August, I think I'll might be able to get gifts for my friends. At which point, I will only have one incredibly hard job left: to remember where I hid them until Christmas Eve!

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Cristina Manfredi: Who is the pen behind the Marina Rinaldi New Fashion Journal?

Originally from Biella and Milanese by choice, she is a fashion, lifestyle and society journalist with a vibrant, upbeat attitude. She worked as a journalist for Milano Finanza Fashion before moving to Vanity Fair, later resigning to focus on personal projects, including writing, tango, running, and spending time with her beloved cats. Today she is a contributor to Vanity Fair, L’Officiel, Marie Claire and the Style Magazine - Corriere della Sera.