How to Have a Dua Lipa Summer
plus, notes on my 24h in Rome, sent from Mallorca!
Hi, friends!
For my American readers, I hope today’s letter finds you feeling well-rested coming off the 4th of July long weekend. For our international readers (I’m still so in awe of the stats Substack is able to provide about The Sunday Series readership across 55 countries!), I hope the first Sunday in the back half of the year feels filled with promise—let this be your reminder that there are still six months left to make 2025 a memorable year, whatever that may mean to you. For me, these next six months are really about being present. Saying yes. To continue saying what I mean, but maybe a bit softer than comes natural to me. Being more intentional with how I show up for my people. To lean into pleasure in all its forms. And maybe even take a few more risks along the way.
Speaking of pleasure (!!!!!!), I’m writing to you from my beloved island of Mallorca, where I arrived on Friday following a truly harried travel day that involved a six-hour missed connection in the Barcelona Airport. In case we’re not connected on Instagram, the short of it is that I tacked a day onto the front end this trip for a dinner with Gary Janetti and Brad Goreski in Rome. They’re currently on the tail end of a planned itinerary through Italy that I helped put together, so when the idea of having our trips converge for one night came up, it was just silly enough that I thought, “Why the hell not?” Like I said above, I’m in the mindset to ‘say yes’ to whatever I can these days, and I have the time and resources to be flexible, so I pivoted my flights, booked one night at The Hassler, and voilà, that was that!
It’d been too long since I’d set foot in vibrant Roma, and despite it being 96° while I was there, she was as elegant as ever. Riding into the city early Thursday morning only to be met with her awash in golden light (in my experience, there’s something magical about how warm light refracts from the buildings in Rome) I couldn’t help but reflect on the first time I visited this city when I was seventeen years old. The summer before my freshman year of college, my mom generously took me on a trip through France and Italy to celebrate my high school graduation—the middle portion of which brought us to Rome. I think back so fondly on how much that exposure to a world so far beyond the rural town I grew up in north of Buffalo, New York impacted my ultimate trajectory which ultimately found me pursuing a degree in International Studies, spending three semesters abroad, and working in the travel industry for the past decade.
While I don’t think I’ve been back to the Colosseum (inside, that is!) or the Vatican since that trip almost fifteen years ago, there’s a real beauty in going back to a city where you don’t feel the pressure to do anything overly touristic. These days, visits back to Rome involve tracking down the best bowl of carbonara, chasing down shops I’ve bookmarked, and most certainly having a rooftop aperitivo. I’m going to recap more of what I got up to for all of my 24h on Roman ground for my paid subscribers, but first, I thought we could talk about what it means to have a Dua Lipa summer…
How to have a Dua Lipa Summer!!!!
The Vault (Paid Subscriber Exclusive): dispatches from my 24h in Rome including where I ate and shopped!
The Vault (Paid Subscriber Exclusive): my other favorite spots in Rome
The Vault (Paid Subscriber Exclusive): how I packed for 12 days away in a carry-on…and why I think you should give it a try, too
The Vault (Paid Subscriber Exclusive): where I got my Fujifilm X100V within a week, skipping the year-long waitlist
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If your Instagram scroll looks anything like mine lately, there’s a whole lot of Dua Lipa on holiday. Who What Wear, Nylon, Coveteur…you name the publication, and seemingly everyone is covering how absolutely radiant she is post-engagement bliss, selling out stadiums and toting her objectively gorgeous fiancé around Europe like a designer handbag. I mean, even Vogue can’t seem to resist sharing paparazzi shots of Dua Lipa making out with Callum Turner on the Amalfi Coast!
This week, I was en route to Mallorca when I saw Dua posting from Deià, one of my favorite little artist towns on the island. For my fellow hotel snobs, we had it on good authority that she was staying at La Residencia, then she literally posted geotagging it (rare for a celebrity to do), so it was fun to have that scoop verified. From there, naturally, I fell deeper into the rabbit hole of what the cultural zeitgeist has officially dubbed: a Dua Lipa Summer.
Here’s the thing—amid all the bikini pics and tour-glam sliders, there’s one recurring detail that stands out: she’s always reading. Her Service95 Book Club flew under my radar until recently, but I’m newly intrigued. In a sea of celebrity book clubs, Dua’s feels refreshingly offbeat. She spotlights international voices, hosts intimate Q&As with authors, and curates recommendations that lean more literary and less algorithmic. Maybe it’s her Albanian roots, or maybe it’s just that she actually reads? Either way, she’s making space for books in a world that usually rewards spectacle over substance.
My friend —one of the geniuses behind —shared the below note the other day that really got me thinking about this cross-section between pop culture, dressing however TF you want (Dua is most often in a bikini, it seems, which I absolutly love for her), and sharing your love for literature.
Why shouldn’t a woman be half-naked on a yacht and still be taken seriously when she talks about her favorite novel? Why can’t glitter, grit, and Goodreads coexist?
And how does that translate to you having a ‘Dua Lipa Summer’? Basically, it’s Hot Girl Summer’s more editorial, passport-stamped cousin—equal parts sexy and self-assured, with a heavy dose of Future Nostalgia. Here are some general guidelines to keep in mind when constructing your own version.
Girls’ trips > boy drama (really, it’s allllll about the girls)
A suitcase full of sheer dresses, metallic minis, high-cut bikinis, and rhinestone everything
Books in your beach bag that say “yes, I have thoughts”—preferably translated fiction or feminist theory with a sexy cover
Glowy skin. Salty hair. No bra. No notes.
Late nights, early flights, and always in sunnies
A vague European itinerary and a very specific heel height
Having a fling with someone who you only loosely share a language with
A perfectly curated photo slider that mixes thirst traps with thoughtful captions
Romanticizing your life in every destination, from Ibiza to Istanbul
As ever, so much about how a trip is structured begins with getting there as comfortably as possible. I flew United Polaris from Newark, and everything went off without a hitch. This time, I opted for the earlier 5:15 p.m. departure, which, in truth, I probably wouldn’t do again. It’s such an awkward time, as you aren’t tired until midway through the flight! If you’ve perused my rules for an overnight flight, you know that I don’t f*ck with dinner service, no matter where I’m sitting (as in, I’m not swayed by business class food in the slightest—all airplane food is disgusting IMO unless you’re literally flying on an Asian carrier in the front of the plane, sorry!).
Typically, my rule is to eat a proper dinner prior to boarding, have no more than one—okay fine, maybe two—glass of wine, pop a sleeping aid as boarding is complete, pull on an eye mask [this one is my go-to for total blackout effect] and earplugs from the minute we takeoff. I was in a weird mood on my departure and tweaked with my formula…it didn’t yield good results. But I did get to have a sundae in the sky, which was fun. Getting four hours of sleep, less so. You live and you learn!
And now, for what I’ve been teasing! As mentioned above, I’ve had the good fortune of going to Rome many times, so there wasn’t too much on my list. I had been craving the shrimp carpaccio at Due Ladroni in the worst way (it was literally TOO HOT for pasta during the daytime), but ended up going with a much more low-key lunch with a friend who's a local! Additionally, I had a guide of top spots to peruse thanks to my friend Tommaso, the owner of N2S Italia. While I won’t be sharing his list of reccos since our entire business in travel is predicated on first-hand knowledge, I will share where I wound up!
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