Greta Bellamacina’s Perfect Summer Weekend
Image: @GretaBellamacina
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Greta Bellamacina’s Perfect Summer Weekend

Lighter evenings, rosé at the pub and trips to the park – we love summer, so we’ve asked a handful of our favourite women to share what they’re most excited about for the rest of the season. This time, it’s author, actress and model Greta Bellamacina. From sprawling days on Hampstead Heath to cooking with homegrown veg, here’s what a perfect summer weekend looks like for her…
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Image: @GretaBellamacina

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@GretaBellamacina

FRIDAY NIGHT

I live in the Kent countryside. I’m not far from London, but I am surrounded by apple orchards and vineyards. Our local vineyard is a place called Mereworth, where the wine is delicious and you can order a glass or a bottle and sit outside among the vines. It’s really special. If I was in London, I’d go to The Holly Bush pub in Hampstead for a bottle of red wine, recalling poetry and stories and dreams with my husband, the artist Robert Montgomery.

I LIKE TO MEET VARIOUS FRIENDS at different spots in Hampstead Heath. LISTENING TO MUSIC, swimming in the mixed ponds, getting lost…

I love long evening walks at this time of year. The evening sun is the ceremonial sun. It’s the last look at the golden world. I love when the evening light dances across the garden, spotlighting the windows, and flies into the house. It’s a magical few hours when everything feels done and said and glowing. It feels like that moment on holiday when everyone sits outside for dinner and plays card games.

Ben Venuti
Ben Venuti

SATURDAY

My perfect Saturday would be spending most of the day on Hampstead Heath. I grew up in Hampstead and went to school on the Heath. I love the security of feeling in the city but in the wilds at the same time. It feels like walking around a magical forest, with frogs and ponds that you can swim in all year round. 

I’d start the day with breakfast at Kenwood House. Then I would walk across to Parliament Hill Fields and sit on Kite Hill. Then I would meet various friends at different spots in the park. Listening to music, swimming in the mixed ponds, getting lost. I like to stay all day until it gets cold, and then I walk over to the Southampton Arms for a drink (my go-to cocktail at this time of year is a peach bellini) and dinner. 

If I’m meeting up with friends, we’ll often have a long lunch that turns into dinner. Wild By Tart is delicious for lots of small plates. I also love the restaurant at Petersham Nurseries – you feel like you’re in Italy sitting among the grape vines and the giant terracotta pots.

I am currently living in Loretta Caponi night dresses. I like to wear them in the daytime. I am currently wearing a short pale pink one, with white ruffled sleeves. I discovered the shop in Florence – it's family owned and they also make the most beautiful, embroidered tablecloths.
@GretaBellamacina; Safia Shakarchi; Wild By Tart

SUNDAY

My favourite things about this time of year are the flowers, the butterflies and the ladybirds. I love gardens. I just came back from The Newt in Somerset. The hotel is set in the most beautiful gardens, 22 acres, with a permanent winter garden and a permanent summer garden. It’s all set facing the mythical hill of Camelot. 

Over the summer months, I love to cook anything I can grow in the garden. At the moment we have lots of tomatoes and have been making simple tomato salads with garlic and basil and olive oil. I’m also loving yellow and green courgettes. We’ve been growing them, and we seem to have an endless supply. We’ve had them in pesto, with eggs in the morning, and raw in a salad. They are such a versatile vegetable and very low maintenance to grow. 

For inspiration, I love cooking from the Café Cecilia cookbook. I am desperate to make the Guinness bread recipe. Linda McCartney’s Family Kitchen is great for delicious vegetarian simple recipes. 

At the moment, I am loving The Food Doula as I recently had my third child. All the dishes come ready to heat up in a pan and they taste incredibly healing and nourishing, almost like someone in the family has prepared them with love.
ARKET; The Newt In Somerset
IF I HAD A WEEKEND TO MYSELF, I’d take myself to the cinema. There’s SOMETHING SO REFRESHING about seeing a film in the daytime alone and walking out when it’s still light outside.

If I’m in London, there’s a little Italian café in Victoria that I think does the best coffee in the city. Ben Venuti also does olive bread and fresh pasta that is always such a treat to take home.

If I had a rare weekend to myself, I would take myself to the cinema, especially if it was a rainy London day. There is something so refreshing about seeing a film in the daytime alone and walking out of the cinema and it’s still light outside. Everything has shifted a little. I love that feeling. I just discovered Agustina San Martín’s films. To Kill The Beast is a powerful and mystical film set on the Argentina-Brazil border about a young girl searching for her brother. I highly recommend it. I also just watched and loved La Chimera directed by Alice Rohrwacher, and Parthenope by Paolo Sorrentino. Both films are deeply poetic stories of identity and time. 

I just finished reading Swimming Pool by Deborah Levy. I love Levy’s writing, it’s so immediate. I’m now loving The Book of Revelation – Women and Their Secrets, which was sent to me by my literary agent Clare Conville. She has the best taste in books. 

For more, follow @GretaBellamacina – and you can buy ‘Who Will Make The Fire’here.

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