Monthly Archives: June 2012

Luca’s Windows

25 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by in Design, General, Structure

≈ 6 Comments

Just in case you need more photos, here are the windows Luca was talking about in his comment on yesterday’s Windows and Shutters post. They’re from his own place, which he and Friederike painstakingly restored from a gaping void into a beautiful home.

The windows have a nice, soft finish – not too WHITE – and the wood sill brings extra warmth to the look.

It’s important to think about how they look when open, since the outer finish then ‘enters’ the room.

Head-on effect. It’s hard to tell from these shots, but the walls are a much deeper, natural colour than the white windows. So it’s not just a sea of whiteness.

Their house has stucco over the stone, but you can see how they appear on the outside. The window openings are actually a lot like Godzillavilla; very simple.

So there you go. This is Luca’s vote. Any other comments the rest of you would like to add, feel free to confuse me further!

Windows and Shutters

24 Sunday Jun 2012

Posted by in Design, General

≈ 11 Comments

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Not that we actually need to make this decision yet, but it’s never too early to fantasize. This week’s fantasy is finished windows to go in those lovely holes that are waiting for them. The question is window colour and – even further down the road – shutter colour.

We have some restrictions on our house due to its age and the area we’re in, but that’s fine by me. The choices for the windows are essentially white or wood. The shutters can be green, wood, or brown.

Here are a few pics to help you help me:

This is Debra’s chestnut window (from http://bagnidilucca.wordpress.com/). I love this look from an inside perspective.

White windows can look nice and fresh against a mass of stone – although I think the brown shutters distract from that effect. I’m not a big fan of brown shutters.

Classic wood window with green shutters. The green does seem to balance all that natural tone quite nicely.

But then – even with a house that’s shut up – wood shutters are so subtle against stone. This is why I flip-flop about it so much.

This is a terrible shot, but you get to see wood versus green shutters together.

And I throw this in only to show the practicality of having shutters of classic Ligurian construction; they open in multiple partial configurations, like transformers, so you always get just the right mix of breeze and light. Ingenious.

The Secret Room

19 Tuesday Jun 2012

Posted by in General, History, Structure

≈ 10 Comments

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I’m super excited by a discovery I made when I was on tippy-toes trying to get a photo of the essiccatoio‘s lovely vaulted ceiling. The essiccatoio is the old, original tower, the part that doesn’t connect with the rest of the house. Its ceiling can only be seen by peering through the back window, because inside the view is obscured by a slatted floor midway up (for drying chestnuts). And what does the photo show me on the upper wall?

Evidence of a past door!

I feel like I’ve discovered a fabulous secret.

The vaulted ceiling. On the right side, there was clearly an opening that has since been sealed. Hopefully without bodies inside.

You can see from the plans, shown below, that this old tower is not currently accessible to the rest of the place. I always thought that was a shame, seeing as the ceiling is so lovely, but no-one wanted to risk smashing through a metre-thick supporting wall. Even the crazed Sledgettes know better than that!

However, it appears that over the newly discovered, sealed door there is a supporting arch and everything. I definitely want to explore the possibilities now. A book-lined den is taking shape in my head. Or a very cool dining room? or…?

The space in question.

The point of discovery! That window is just high enough that it’s not easy to see inside. At least not for those of average height.

From the front of the villa. Hope this all makes sense to you.

The old tower (the part to the left) actually has its own civic number, as though it’s a separate building. I’m sure this has implications for permits to reconnect the two but I’ll leave that battle to our erstwhile geometra Nadia. My part’s the dreaming!

So tell me – what would you use this room for?

Window Details

13 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by in Structure

≈ 12 Comments

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Up until we started working on our beloved ruin, I hadn’t given that much thought to the small details that make a big difference to the overall look of a finished home. I’d noticed them – a little obsessively in fact – but hadn’t appreciated the complex choices behind the things I’d admired. This is presumably why architects study for years and then have to apprentice for more before they can claim to know what they’re doing.

Unfortunately I am not an architect but I’m still making decisions about the villa. Some of them have turned out great. Then there are the others, to which we will turn a blind eye forevermore. I put the exterior window framing (sills and lintels) into a B+ category. They were a decision we made before taking a really close look at all the options and what made them work. Some examples:

Primitive Sill: Window openings at their most basic. A beautiful example of a simple but charming stone arch and rough sill.

He-man Sill: This no-nonsense approach has great presence on a larger building, but has a bit of a penitentiary whiff about it (not helped by the bars of course).

He-man in a Skirt: Same grey, thick stone, but that bit of curve softens the look completely, even without the flowers.

Refined Sill: A city-slicker. This sill would know to wear a dress to the opera even when it’s held outdoors on plastic chairs.

Our Sill: Gives off a farm-house vibe, which I think is appropriate. Thick stone with a hand-chiseled face, but the sides of the opening are simply plastered. When I look at them beside the other photos, I worry that the opening as a whole is too weakly defined.

But when I look at them in the context of the whole house, I’m pretty pleased with their simplicity. With shutters and actual windows in them – those are two other, complicated decisions to make – I think they’ll actually suit our un-fancy house just fine.

Fortunately for me, I now have all of YOU to help me make these decisions. Thanks for sharing the glory and the blame! In the next couple of weeks we’re going to look at shutters, the windows themselves, doors and door frames. And we haven’t even gotten to the indoors…

Unpasteurized Milk Bliss

07 Thursday Jun 2012

Posted by in Culture, Food

≈ 16 Comments

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Some simple things that other countries do seem so obviously intelligent, you have to wonder why your own country can’t manage it. The distribution of milk – delicious, same-day, unpasteurized, farm-fresh milk – in many parts of Italy is one such example. The very fact that citizens are allowed (gasp!) to drink unpasteurized milk is itself a triumph of intelligence. In Canada, despite the fact that today’s bovine hygienic standards take the risk out of the stuff, pure milk is still seen as kryptonite to our species.

So imagine my delight on seeing two machines that give me what I want, at any hour of the day or night. Milk bliss.

A little rain-proof kiosk with bottles to the right and the Marvelous Machine. The pink warning says you’re not supposed to drink it until after you’ve boiled it – a health precaution that also (according to comments on this blog) keeps the milk for longer.

Marvelous Machine in action. We saw this on a Sapore e Sapere tour.

The first, in Tuscany, allows you to bring your own bottle, or purchase one at the vending station, and purchase however much fresh milk you want from a spigot. Good Lord. Not only is it pure, but if you only want enough for your coffee that morning, that’s OK. The farmers fill it up each morning and evening. If it runs out, there’s a number to call – it’s the farmer, who will drive down and refill it if he has any left.

In Varese, you can buy the unpasteurized local milk at the grocery store. I don’t drink any other kind when I’m there and I’m still not suffering from kryptonite poisoning, imagine that! On my last visit I discovered the milk vending machine, in front of the organic meat butcher in Varese Ligure. It’s not quite as exciting as the Tuscan spigot because you have to buy a whole 1/2 litre bottle, but it’s still pretty cool. Store closed? No problem. Pop in your coins and out pops a bottle of fresh, pure milk, just like a can of Coke, except so much more worth drinking.

Varese Ligure’s midnight milk vendor. You can buy the pasteurized version here too (as well as the ‘crudo’), but why would you? We were like little kids with a bubble gum machine using this thing. Ridiculously delighted.

Heavens, how did this pic get into the milk post? Another form of bliss: the locally brewed grappa, nicely packaged for export. That’s another thing we’d never be able to do in Canada.