In response to the Thursday Doors challenge, hosted by Dan Antion, it seems appropriate to talk about a Venetian door at this Carnevale time, the largest event in Venice that happens every year forty days before Easter. This is the door of the historical Gritti hotel, one of the few most exquisite hotels in Venice.
Hotel Gritti Palace – Venice, Italy
The entry door is designed in a typical classic style, with an arched top, surrounded by stone pilasters on both sides decorated with acanthus leaves and dentilles details.
The noble palace dates back to 1475, and although today it is a commercial hotel for the “elites”, it retains the feel of a private patrician home, where exceptional art and elegance are kept.
Hotel Gritti Palace – Venice, Italy
The Pisani family owned the palace in 1475 and transformed it into a Gothic shape. In 1525 the building became the private residence of the Doge of Venice, Andrea Gritti, and in the centuries that followed, the palace changed hands many times. It was home to other noble families and illustrious visitors until the early 19th century when it became a luxury hotel.
From the outside, it looks like an ordinary entry door of a patrician palace like many others in Venice. Inside the Gritti shows an unbridled luxury to leave astonished any visitors entering an unreal world beyond all limits. Ciao. Valentina Amazon Author’s Page
Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion consultant, author of 6 published books, a storyteller, and a blogger of many years. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking and travel. Get a copy of her books here: Amazon and Barnes&Noble
Are you tired of government restrictions and mandates? Do you wonder if we will return to the life we had before 2020? Some of my friends, established married couples of many years are now divorced, some have moved to different areas, and some have disappeared on their own.
Certainly, life has not been very exciting, my refuge has been art for the last two years. Pretty pictures, lots of colors, and inspirational images have saved me. In the history of the world, the greatest masterpieces sprung out of the epidemic crisis. Art has been a refuge for the soul during hard times for a lot of people. Artists see the reality that scientists ignore, said Gustavo Rol, an Italian parapsychologist, philosopher, and painter.
I think art comes from that invisible world that dominates us, of which each of us is the millionth part and together creates the great puzzle of human art.
Some people may think can’t even draw a straight line. That’s not true, they just have never developed the artistic side of the brain. Everybody who can see is an artist without even knowing it, everybody can contribute to keeping this world beautiful. Beauty and art will save the world.
I don’t think I make art masterpieces, but it has been uplifting to take refuge in the colors of nature.
I painted the guest bathroom from top to bottom, furniture included and refurbished the décor. The yellow illuminates like the sunlight, there is no chance to get depressed in here.
While I am waiting for life to come back, I will continue doing what makes me feel good, soak myself in the arts. Ciao, Valentina Amazon Author’s Page
Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion consultant, author of 6 published books, a storyteller, and a blogger of many years. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking and travel. Get a copy of her books here: Amazon and Barnes&Noble
The air of this May evening is fizzy and clean. Breathing without the city smog feels liberating. The yellowish streetlamps of this area add a sense of antiquity bathing everything in a golden glow, just as I remember these streets were in my childhood. Here, yellowish lights are still preferred, they keep the circadian cycle in check. Mornings are somewhat busy under a hot sun, evenings are supposed to be slower, people want to see the stars in the sky not being blasted with bright streetlights when they stroll for pleasure. Life is much slower here, it rolls differently than everywhere else and every moment has its own meaning. There is the smell of wood burned in home’s fireplaces, and meat being grilled in fire brick ovens at butcher shops where passersby stop to get a cone full of delightful small bites of roasted meats.
Spring Horse and Carriage Show
A stylish landau carriage with a colorful harnessed horse is parked by the marble steps waiting for an elegant woman to board it. Her hat made of feathers by a skilled hatter reveals a certain social wealth. I notice her fine shoes, silk and embroidered in soft pastel colors, just like her gloves. I would love to wear those shoes. Enchanted, I admire her for a short while, her gestures are feminine and well-structured as if she went to a finishing school. Her affected behavior reflects the manners of the time when beauty perfected even in the smallest details served to enhance the harmony of a woman. A man in a top hat gives her a hand to climb on the landau… soon they disappear in the distance.
Spring Horse and Carriage Show
I woke up from a dream and returned to where I really was, in Alberobello, Puglia, in an evening in May colored with yellow glowing streetlights, women in jeans and high heels, modern cars, colorful scooters, fashionable shops and the smell of wood-burning in fireplaces, the only thing that indicates I was in a slow life in the country and not in the city. I was there to see the Spring horse and carriage show. The horses wearing shoes were elegantly dressed for trotting the streets, and so were men and women on display riding the carriages.
Spring Horse and Carriage Show
I often travel in different eras, I guess it is my way to escape this reality that stinks a little more every day. Ciao, Valentina Amazon Author’s Page
Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion consultant, author of 6 published books, a storyteller, and a blogger of many years. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking and travel. Get a copy of her books here: Amazon and Barnes&Noble
The epidemic restrictions have kept the world apart. Surely, I am not the only one feeling the solitude. Today, I called a longtime friend in Italy, a school friend, and asked her how her store was doing. She designs her own shoe lines and sells them in her store located in the fashionable center of my native city. She said the last week was a week to forget, nobody walked in the store.
The newly Italian puppet government established during the 2020’s pandemic (?), the kind of government nobody voted but “the class of politicians” appointed to the throne of power is doing a very poor job maintaining the economy of the country above water. They are bankrupting every business in any field, tourists are staying away due to the many restrictions applied to visitors and they are keeping the population in fear with unreal laws. The country is basically under a new socialist dictatorship.
Alley in Polignano a Mare Polignano a Mare Terrace
Let’s start from the beginning. Some “notable” or so reputed foreign newspaper said that Italy was taken as an experiment for Covid 19. It turns out that some devilish world power wants to see how fast a strong and century-established culture like the Italian culture could be irreversibly broken and eliminated from the face of the earth. Italians have strong tight families, where a woman and a man still make babies, people believe in God, respect the elderly, the teachers and the flag. Italian people are surrounded by beauty every day they go out the doors; the country has a concentration of the richest arts never seen in any other country, has superb food and wines. Italy produces the fastest cars, beautiful fashion and flirtatious attractive women are everywhere. Love is always in the air and music is romantic.
Alberobello Main Street
Italy covers only 0,1% of the world surface. The Italian language is not spoken everywhere else in the world, but a lot of foreigners study to be fluent in Italian. If the Italians had not been there when they did, the world today would have been something else. The Italian peninsula is very small and full of disasters: earthquakes, erupting volcanoes, river floods, landslides, and much more. To live there under all these nature’s phenomena would have been a good bet for some other population, yet Italians have succeeded to create a beautiful country on dangerous territory.
Think of Venice built on water, it is a difficult city to live in, but precious mosaics, the marble designs, the embroidery in architecture, the fine glass art have made it a mysterious beauty the entire world wants to visit and experience emotions no other city offers.
Venice – Ponte Rotto
Think of Naples, Pompei and surroundings built on volcanoes, on boiling sulphury Geiser and on yellowish tufa stone, with an ancient under city still a marvel to visit. It thrives with creativity and the art of living.
Amalfi
Pompei
Think of Rome and how the ancient Romans built an empire in such intelligent and modern way with the ancient resources they had. Their buildings, aqueducts, arches and cupolas withstood the taste of time and all the natural disasters. Today, we are still admiring their arts and skills.
The Italians invented the landscape mixed with a harmonious architecture that did not exist before and since the Renaissance has attracted the world over. They have invented a way to be happy in the enjoyment of the landscape, as every small area is a concentration of ecstasy.
These are exactly the reasons those devilish world powers I was referring in the beginning want to destroy to break Italy. Italy is too uncomfortable for regimes that want to keep people crushed under their thumbs. Creative people don’t follow rules, creative people find alternative ways to make a living, creative people don’t break easily, creative people cannot be controlled. The world power’s experiment is failing. Italians might be suffering now, but they will rise and shine again. Italians have learned to live with nature’s disasters, this rough moment will slide off their shoulders. Italian heritage is strong and cannot be annihilated. Days will be blue again, Italians are still creating beauty that will eliminate the satanic people who want to see Italy falling in the Mediterranean Sea. It’s not going to happen, because when the people rebel against evil powers God leads the way.
The “new world disorder” will have to wait, therefore SCREW all the people who sold their souls to satanic forces. Ciao, Valentina Amazon Author’s Page
Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion designer, author of 6 published books, a storyteller, and a blogger of many years. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking and travel. Get a copy of her books here: Amazon and Barnes&Noble
Last year 2021, I started a series of short videos “Create Beauty Every Day”. It was a year under the influence of Mercury and Mars, two very strong entities that brought agitated energy into the world, in fact we have seen the results. I decided to create weekly short messages to get through the epidemic, uplift the spirits, to help others overcoming difficult moments by using beautiful things, learn to get surrounded with the nicest things, using colors in new ways and opening the way to new habits. Life might be rough in this exceptional time, but it doesn’t have to be dark, dull and full of fear.
Thinking of adding beauty in our daily life is like we plant seeds in a world hard as concrete, sordid and arid; when we manage to make a crack in that hard concrete a few seeds will come out, then many more will follow and that arid concrete will no longer have strength. Beauty is contagious and reproduces quickly.
Whether is art, music, nature, colors, fun clothes, love, a relaxing bath, a flower that fills the air with joy, or whatever beauty means to people, thinking of beauty daily it positions the soul in a new spirituality that helps understand the beauty of life. I repeat it: beauty is contagious and multiplies quickly.
Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion designer, author of 6 published books, a storyteller, and a blogger of many years. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking and travel. Get a copy of her books here: Amazon and Barnes&Noble
We are just about at the end of this year and tomorrow will be Thanksgiving Day. At this point, I would have to use a French expression “Les jeux sont fait, rien ne va plus” meaning “the games are done, nothing else will go”. No, I say no to this, the games are not over yet. Maybe some people have not produced or achieved what they had in mind for this year, and if that’s the case, I would have to say it was not important for this year.
The games are not over yet refers to the challenging games that will start next year. It will be the year of Venus. The planet Venus will dominate the Universe, it will fight the influence of Mars until it gets defeated. Venus, being a female planet, will fight all negative influences by bringing beauty and love. Next year women will do exceptional things, the truth about what is happening in the world will be revealed and we will start living in harmony. It’s not going to be an easy year, beauty and love will be our ammunition.
Calling all Women….! Starting this Thanksgiving, prepare a beautiful Thanksgiving table if you celebrate this holiday, if not, prepare a nice dining table every time you eat from now on. Get dressed as beautifully as you can every day, leave the exercise clothes at the gym and wear clothes that will highlight your beauty, personality or quirkiness. Raise your emotional vibration, raise your feminine conscious, let the world know the wind of femininity is coming.
Women are mothers, they represent the earth, they are grounded. A woman giving birth under a bombshell, knows she is still living a beautiful moment in a brutal reality and knows people will help her in that act of giving her baby to the light. Woman are the beginning and the completion of everything.
With our Venus power, next year we will get rid of the dark and ugly only with beauty. As I have said many times, beauty will multiply when you show what is it to those who live in the dark.
Many people did not make it this year, I am thankful I am still alive and kicking, I am thankful I have the power to think, read, write and create beauty. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Ciao, Valentina Website
Valentina Cirasola is an art lover, author, and a lifetime designer. Often people describe her as “the colorist” as she loves to color her clients’ world and loves to create the unusual. Currently, she consults on colors that will enhance clients’ personalities and are in tune with their lifestyles. To add harmony and peace to the homes, Valentina creates atmospheres using proper lighting and creating fantasy rooms instead of typical rooms looking like furniture showrooms. She is the author of six published books, two of which are on design subjects and colors. Amazon and Barnes&Noble
Autumn is full of warm colors and flavors, it is one of my favorite seasons, I was born in October and naturally aligned with this season. The land abounds of earthy food. I remember walking in my grandfather’s land through rows of tall grains swaying in the warm winds ready to be harvested. His vineyards were my favorite places, full of beautiful fat grapes hanging off old branches with foliage rich of jewel colors. I knew at a young age, one day I was going to like wines and it didn’t take very long. My parents gave me a taste of wine diluted with water every time I asked for it. In Italy, it is common for kids to taste life in small bites at a time, it makes them feel grown ups.
My appetizers with Beaujolais Nouveau
For the last seventy years, the third Thursday of November has been declared the day of the Beaujolais Nouveau. It’s a celebration of the new wine, made in the South of France as a way to be thankful to nature for a good harvest and people’s dedication to hard work. I remember the day of the harvest of our local Puglia wines, the workers getting together with my grandfather and my family to celebrate in the vineyards singing, eating, and drinking. The celebration of new wines is the same everywhere there are passionate people about wines. It was a happy time for everybody, and I didn’t even understand what was all about, I just knew I wanted to be there in the middle of the fun.
Beaujolais Nouveau grows in a region right under the Burgundy area, made of Gamay grape, very fruity, with a purple-pink coloration, it is always served slightly chilled. It’s a “fresh wine” with low tannin, easy to drink especially in the company of friends. Look at how Japanese people enjoy this day of celebration. One woman in this video says Beaujolais Nouveau is good for the skin and relaxes her.
Well, all the wines do that. Wines are works of art for a relaxed lifestyle, they express emotions, the flavors of the terroir, and express personal experiences, in fact, not every one tastes the same thing.
So very little is going on these dark days, let’s take what we can, let’s celebrate peace, life and love. Let’s be in the light and in nature with all that brings us excitement. Ciao. Valentina Design Website
Valentina Cirasola is a designer who cooks. She has a deep interest in food that led her as an autodidact in the studies of food in history, natural remedies, nutrition, well-being and learning food of the world. She wrote two books on Italian regional cuisine and a few others on color theory and travel. Valentina says colors and food, style and beauty are indivisible. She lives by this belief. Robert Taitano, a friend and business associate says:“ Valentina – an International Professional Interior Designer is now giving you an opportunity to redesign your palate”. Get your copy of Valentina’s books onAmazon and Barnes&Noble
How easy it is to get uplifted and pick up some good vibrations from the universe with just a bucket of paint? It’s very easy and this is what is happening to me. This year, I have decided to restyle my home just with paint and colors. From room to room, slowly my home is changing face. This is my corridor.
My entire home is full of fantasy, it follows nobody’s trend or style. I live in colors, a lot of colors, they make me feel happy and energized. This corridor was a bit dark and always a tight space. After a paint job and a lot of gold bubbles, the space looks visually larger and illuminated.
Corridors usually divide rooms on the left and on the right, usually are built narrow and without windows to save space, but they are the places people go through often during the day. I never understood why people want to turn an already dark corridor even darker using the darkest colors, but that’s their prerogative. I want a corridor to lead me into light and fun. Here I see a lot of rhythms the exposed beams create with the stripes under the passageway to the corridor, the golden bubbles and the reflection in the mirror.
The home is an older house, I bought it for its character, I left all the details native to the house to keep the originality. I will never exchange it for a modern shoebox built today.
I painted this mural a few years ago and I still like it. I wanted to reproduce a fantasy Italianate-style building façade with some sign of life in a room and a couple kissing in the window. Italians are very expressive and are not stingy in love.
Life must not be serious, a bit of quirk in our days doesn’t hurt. In my home we drink bubbles every day as a celebration of life, thus I thought of transferring that bubbly feeling onto the walls. Call it weird, strange, unusual or whimsical, when I go through this corridor I feel happy vibrations. Ciao, Valentina Valentina Designs
Valentina Cirasola is Italian-born, trained Interior and Fashion Designer. She loves to remodel homes and loves to create the unusual, as much as she likes to restyle people’s images. She is a storyteller and finds inspiration everywhere to write her stories. She needs your story to design your dream home or your dream look. She is the author of 6 books. Check out her books on Amazon and Barnes&Noble
What a fabulous couple of months I had interviewing many authors, some were very familiar to me, and others very new that I wanted to get to know. I was inspired to see how they didn’t let the rough times we are traversing stop them from producing new books and putting many more in the working mode. I chose this season to shine a small group of authors to be the jewel tones of precious stones and colors of the Autumn. Each author’s name is highlighted and linked to the interview in case you missed it. Enjoy reading them and their uniqueness.
The first author to open the series was beautiful Sally Cronin from Ireland. In her books, she often ponders on life’s events and situations. She says: “There is a rhythm to life and everything in this world from weather to the smallest creature. There are highs and lows within that rhythm, and whilst we may like to think we are in control, it is only partly true. (…) My writing is a way of coping with this environment of fear that has been created about the future and offers me comfort and I hope those who read the poems or stories. (…) I hope your new “Life Is Like A Mosaic” is doing well and wish you much success. Amazon Author Page
Author Marjorie Mallon from Cambridge, UK writes imaginative mystery books for young adults, sometimes with a paranormal twist. She says that the Corpus Christi Chronophage invented by extraordinary British inventor Dr. John C Taylor OBE, who she met in person in 2017, inspired her latest book. The extraordinary timepiece is situated on King’s Parade Cambridge opposite King’s College. She says: “Often, unsuspecting bypassers become my characters! Otherwise, (as is the case in Bloodstone,) a burst of frenetic energy creates the character and my writing flows forward from that.” (…) She is developing some poetry/photography books, one of which is fairly developed and is called Do What You Love. I wish you well with “Bloodstone, The Curse Of Time” and the new publications. Visit Marje here.
Mysterious Teagan Riordáin Geneviene from New Mexico, USA, always surprises me with her attractive book covers. Teagan most often writes in the fantasy genre, but she also writes cozy mysteries. Whether it’s a 1920s mystery, a steampunk adventure, or urban fantasy, her stories have a strong element of whimsy. This year she is developing “Dead of Winter” a high fantasy book, published monthly in novelette-sized installments. She says: “It takes place in a world that resembles some lands in the past of our own world. The heroine, Emlyn, is a 12-year-old girl who sees and hears spirits.” Her message is “to thine own self be true. Most of my heroines have to be true to themselves, regardless of the lack of acceptance that might come with it. (…) we can’t underestimate the value of our uniqueness. I cheer for that and wish you great success with your “Dead Of Winter” novelettes. Amazon Author’s Page
Author Robbie Cheadle from South Africa is a writer and poet specializing in historical, paranormal, horror novels, and short stories. She says about her latest book: “My intention with Behind Closed Doors was to create a record of my thoughts and experiences about a few subjects that disturb and distress me. (…) I have been reading dark fiction and true crime fiction since I was ten. (…) As an adult, I gravitate towards books about war and the paranormal, so this is my literary diet.” Robbie also writes with her son Michael and bakes the characters in her Sir Chocolate series. Wishing you good luck with the new Sir Chocolate book called “Chocolate Fudge Saves the Sugar Dog.” Visit Robbie here
If you want to know everything about Venice in Italy, you must read Kathleen Gonzalez from San Jose, CA. She says: “Within minutes of seeing the Grand Canal and the palaces, I was smitten and felt compelled to return that summer. That began a love affair with the city, and I return nearly every year. When I can’t be in Venice, I read about it, which led me to write about its people and history.” Kathleen Gonzalez was quoted in Smithsonian magazine and by the BBC for her Casanova research and published articles on Casanova in l’Intermediaire des Casanovistes and Casanoviana. Her research on Casanova has also been used in a French TV documentary, a 2017 biography, the art exhibit “Casanova: The Seduction of Europe,” all about Casanova’s life, and in a local performance about women glassmakers in Venice. I hope your latest publication “A Beautiful Woman in Venice” and the spirit of Casanova bring you much success. Visit Kathleen here.
Author Didi Oviatt wrote her latest book “Weathering Old Soul” with author James Cudney IV and together they became a powerful force. I asked her ifher compositional method was much in relation to their respective backgrounds and critical aims, or if she had to adapt to James’s style and vice versa. She said: “a mutual respect for views and likeness in opinions and culture is a must. Working with Jay has been so much fun! (…) We wanted our sweet little bookish child, Weathering Old Souls, to be seamless from cover to cover – without giving away to our readers who wrote what. His style is, how do you say it, more intelligent? Lol… All the while my writing style is a bit simpler and tends to lean on the emotional side.” She writes mystery/thrillers, short stories and she published her first romance novella “Skinny Dippin”. Didi seems to generate her best ideas in the shower. I can relate to that I get my design ideas often in the showers. I wish you great success with your new publications. Visit Didi here.
Author Rebecca Rosenberg from California brings us bubbles with her new book “Champagne Widows”. She says: “It is the story of Veuve Clicquot, who was tragically made a widow at 27. She did not want to give up the business she had started with her husband. She had no experience or education to make champagne, but read everything she could, and trained under other winemakers. She used her innate intelligence, talent, and perseverance to succeed.” Rebecca is a novelist, champagne historian, tour guide, and champagne cocktail expert. I wish you well with your new book “Champagne Widows”, Visit Rebecca here.
Author Eleyne-Mari Sharp from Rhode Island, USA, writes about colors. She is a certified color therapist, spiritual aromatherapist, jewelry designer, and crystal worker. She says: “If you don’t like how you’re feeling, change your colors. And I believe that color is a gift. Treating yourself to a color treatment is a smart idea, especially during these chaotic times. It may include all your chakras, which are the spinning wheels of energy within our bodies that we all have, although they are not visible to everyone. Whether you balance your chakras with crystals, irradiation, color breathing, or sound, I can’t emphasize enough how beneficial color is to balance your whole body, mind, and spirit. Color is a gift. It raises our vibrations and helps us feel better.” Thank you Eleyne-Mari, I couldn’t agree more. Good luck, wish you great success with new publications to come. Visit Eleyne-Mari here
Author James Cudney IVfrom New York, doesn’t need an introduction, his books speak for him. Among many publications, he wrote the series “Braxton Campus Mysteries” and “Weathering Old Soul” in symbiosis with Author Didi Oviatt. His publications have been translated in many languages, produced in various format paperback, kindle and audio books. I asked him if time has come to make a film. He says: “I would relish that! Early on, there were some talks about Watching Glass Shatter being turned into a film or series. (…) I would love to see the Glass family on the big screen even more than the citizens of Braxton.” James writes in the family drama, suspense, and mystery genres. I wish you well with all your publications. Visit James here.
Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion designer, author of 6 published books, a storyteller, and a blogger of many years. She has conceived a few new books on various subjects on which she is working simultaneously. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking and travel. She never gives up trying new things and doesn’t fear failure. Some years ago, Valentina became a TV producer/host producing shows under her label: Valentina Design Universe. The goal of her shows is to entertain, inspire and inform, while she is living her passion. Find her books on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
“If you follow the bee, you will find a new home” I heard it this week and I like it. Lately, I have been following the blue color in all tints and tones. Perhaps, I am associating blue with a transformation that for me has been taking shape during the course of 3-4 years and it could last 300 years, I don’t know. What I know is the energy and the fastest vibrations I feel from the blue colors help me overcome these hard times we are living. I want my soul to be awake when something larger than life will hit us. The blue colors make me feel there is no separation between me as a human and nature. The high frequency of blue makes me see things clearly and doesn’t feed the dark entities. I want to stay connected with my soul, the galaxy of the universe above, and I want blue skies to be my roof.
“Follow the bee” might be a figure of speech, it might just mean I want to live in the high frequency of love, be focused on what I want and what makes me feel good: have fun, be happy in my colorful environment, eat real food, listen to elegant music, converse intelligently with a few good friends, paint art and avoid at all costs to let my fire go out. Love and beauty multiply and will change my perspectives of the future. Dark forces are dense energy and feed on violence, fear, envy, jealousy, hatred, resentment, and even junk foods.
“Follow the bee” might just mean to be part of the female colony who want to stay stylishly feminine, and want to take over the world lighthearted with love, art, dreams, and the perennial female energy that makes this world go around. Ciao. Valentina Fashion Services
Valentina Cirasola is a trained Fashion-Interior Designer and author, born in Italy in a family of artists. Style surrounded her since the beginning of her life. Her many years of experience led her to offer consultations in both specializations and now she can remodel homes as well as personal images. She is passionate about colors and encourages her clients to express their individual styles in their homes and with the clothes they wear.Get a copy of her books here: Amazon and Barnes&Noble
