Wunderkammer is a retail store, so packed full of treasures that it feels like a natural history museum. Wonderful for browsing, Wunderkammer stocks medical and scientific instruments, crystals, rocks and other specimens.

Live music in Australia can be pretty expensive as bands have to travel a long way to get here. NSC has a lot of great up coming bands and they are more affordable then most other venues.

The Everleigh is a sumptuous bar hidden above a busy shopping street. A perfect place to share a leather booth with friends, while drinking gin cocktails from old-fashioned crystal glasses.

Believe it or not, if you drive far enough from the city, the Yarra River is a beautiful place to spend a Summer's day swimming. Warrandyte is a haven of shady gumtrees, flowing rapids, and rocks to perch yourself on while the water rushes past. Bring beers, but esky optional - the water is cool enough to keep them chilled all day.

Fresh is best. The best place in Melbourne for fresh cheese. The Buffalo Mozzarella and the creamy Ricotta are to die for. I used to have to wait years and fly half way across the globe to my home in Italy just to bite into one of these creamy morsels of goodness. Now my life can be defined by the ‘pre La Latteria period’ and the ‘post La Latteria period’.