Vicente Wolf

On my last day in Johannesburg I was the guest speaker at a Conde Nast House & Garden reader event hosted by the Editor in Chief Liz Morris, along with the fabulous Nina Campbell. Both Nina and I had a great time with each other and with Liz, talking about our experiences and sharing our woes and our pleasures. It was the first time I’d seen Nina’s work up close and I was quite amused by the fact that she is a traditional designer that does it with a modern slant and I’m a modern designer who adds a traditional slant. So we were literally at opposite ends of the scale, but still with a lot of things in common.

The next day Nina and I flew to Cape Town and were put up in The Cellars-Hohenhort hotel. Another fantastic hotel, it is on nine acres of extraordinary grounds, beautiful gardens with blooming roses everywhere and a wonderful room. I felt like a king.

Nina and I went shopping and I found my favorite, called Africa Nova (go visit their website!)  - where I bought some baby toys for friends who just had babies. I also found these great ottomans made out of washed felt that look like pebbles for my apartment and really great earrings for another friend. I am happy to say that Nina beats me at shopping! We visited some other shops in the colorful Bo-Kaap area and then had a luncheon at the publisher of House & Garden’s house, Elizabeth Rhees-Jones. Again, perfectly manicured gardens and a charming home. The luncheon was great with such interesting people ranging from bankers to landscapers to designers and it was an invigorating experience. Not only because I was drinking pink champagne, but the conversation dealt with politics, travel, global affairs – truly rich on every level. Liz served a combination of different meats and chicken, great little appetizers like glazed red onions on a pastry shell (I think I ate at least 7 of them!) and then we had another breakfast discussion the next day for the Capetonian designers. Again, now that Nina and I knew each other even better, it turned out be a really fun time with lots of laughter and jokes.

From there it was straight to the airport for a grueling flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg, then a 2 hour layover, then a flight from Johannesburg to Paris followed by a 90 min wait and then on to New York, totaling 19 hours of traveling. However, I arrived wide-eyed and bushy tailed after sleeping approximately 14 hours!

My trip to South Africa with Rooms on View was an incredible one and the warmth and creativity of the people I came in contact with has left me with lasting memories. If you’ve been lucky enough to have been there, what are your favorite memories?