Valentina

Texture | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

10 Aug 2014 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #BarcelonaBoqueriaMarket, #BarcelonaTravel, #GaliziaSpain, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #SpanishFood, http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/texture, Percebes

This week challenge is Texture. http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/texture

After learning about La Boqueria Market at a few T.V. cooking shows, I couldn’t wait to visit this open market when I was in Barcelona and there I went straight down La Ramblas to find it. I got hit with a profusion of colors, aromas and flavors that was hard to resist. I spent a few hours getting lost in food heaven, looking, learning and taking photos. I wanted to taste everything, or just about until I saw the Percebes.

Percebes

What in the world are these things? I was stunned, curious and disgusted all at the same time, but I was not leaving before my curiosity was satisfied. I waited to talk to the vendor until she was free from customers to bombard her with my questions.

Percebes are one of the most sought after delicacies in Spain. They are goose barnacles, taste briny and are very expensive. They are painstakingly harvested off the rocky shores of Galicia, in the North-West of Spain. It is very dangerous to harvest them due to the waves battering the rocks. Look at the price on the sign, Euro 55 per Kilo if you take them home and cook, or else if eaten at restaurants the price is much higher. Percebes are simply sautéed in olive oil with rock salt, or steamed, some people will make a simple wine and cream sauce.

I was not convinced enough and I did not get to taste Percebes while I was in Barcelona, my loss. Perhaps next time I return to Barcelona I will. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

I am writing a travel diary of my last trip to Puglia and Europe with an American group and sharing with all of you my notes of feelings, observations, food-wine tasting and experiences that have changed the life of people traveling with me. The trips I organize are made for people who want to live it up! Check out my books on

Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Fall In Cozy Abandon | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

08 Aug 2014 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #2014FallColors, #2014PantoneColors, #Missoni2014FallFashion, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #StellaJean2014FallFashion, #Versace2014FallFashion

I know, we are still in the summer mode, at least above the equator and we are already thinking of the next autumn, in fact, the fashion industry thinks of each season a year in advance to prepare the markets and to assure orders-deliveries to stores happen on time.

2014 Fall colors are warm, toned down and very wearable, I like the colors choices. Only Radiant Orchid from past spring will continue to stay in fall 2014.

(Photo above: Pantone Banner)

The new red called Aurora Red has a rich jewel tone and the Sangria has all the flavors of the wine. There is always a desire for red in every collection and certainly not because the world is grey. Red fits just about any skin tone and bring energy to our look. Everyone should have at least one red piece in the wardrobe.

There is still a lot of flowery prints dancing around and Bohemian style is lingering, but the military style of Donatella Versace is coming in strongly along with ethnic prints of Stella Jeans.

Ever since I can remember, the world has had an outburst of wars here and there. Often they affect the fashion industries, which changes horrible moments in our history in playful uniforms to wear every day.

As far as ethnic prints, we can combine patterns with patterns with contrasting colors and designs without feeling we have missed the mirror, in other words, in the past we would have carefully matched solid colors with patterns. Now, we have permission to wear colorful patterns against more colorful patterns. Do you feel comfortable with that and do you know how to do it?

Missoni created his collection with colors block. Love the Misted Yellow he used over ribbed light sweaters or ribbed leggings.

Furs, I hope they are eco-furs, are showing up as overlays on jackets and coats, or as light jackets and coats. I love the colors as well.

This Fall we will feel cozy with abandon, preppy and Bohemian, feminine and masculine, vintage inspiration with new current affairs can dress us creatively. Fashion contradictions or freedom to get dressed the way we want? Ciao,

Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Fashion and Interior Designer, working in the USA and Europe. 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. To better help people in the world, she offers consultations online and in-person. She is the author of three books. Get your copy of Valentina’s book on colors: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

ZigZag | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

04 Aug 2014 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #AntoniGaudi, #BarcelonaArchitecture, #BarcelonaSpain, #BarcelonaStyle, #BarcelonaTravel, #RedVoyageIntoColors, http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/zigzag

This week WP Photo challenge is Zigzag – http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/zigzag

Last May, I spent some time in Barcelona, one of my favorite cities in Europe. I shot photos of anything I fancied and as any tourist, most of the time, I walked with my nose up in the sky to catch the best details of architecture. However, in Barcelona in some are areas even the street pavement is decorated to perfection. Never know what you are going to find on the floor. This is after all Gaudi’s city, where the most undulated and creative architecture was planned.

On the way to la Pedrera, I saw this beautiful building on the Passeig de Gràcia. The balconies are perfectly aligned in the classic order, but the angle I chose to take it’s very deceiving, it shows the balconies in a zigzag line. Visually I like it better this way and if I was living in that zigzag illusion, I would be able to see inside the balconies below mine. Curious Valentina!

Passeig de Gràcia is a busy street, very fashionable shops and fancy buildings line this long street, where people stroll for fun to lose a few hours. That is a fun European past time. Get out for fresh air, window-shopping, licking an ice cream, sit at a café, converse with a walking companion and lose a few hours. It’s so refreshing!

I would like to live in that building, would you? Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina will host one or two trips a year to Italy and Europe. In Italy especially, she will take her small groups to the non-commercial Italy, areas not beaten down by massive tourism. Valentina will guide the tours through art, architecture, food, shopping and special adventures organized for people who want to live it up! Check out her books on

Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Fall Is In The Hair | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

02 Aug 2014 2 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #2014Hairstyle, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #ShatushOmbre, #VidalSasson, #WedgeBobHairstyle, Shatush

Today’s Friday Fashion is Hair, the frame of our face. This year flower prints dominated the scene. We have seen flowers in clothing, flowers in upholstery, flowers on wallpapers and flowers between our hair. I bought many flower clips in all shapes and colors and I stuck them anywhere they looked good.

Braiding flowers, branches, and other items in the hair goes back as far as the Greeks and Roman civilizations. As matter of fact, this year fashion turned its eyes to ethnic groups, ancient cultures, religious icons of the Byzantines, Greeks, and Romans. Decorating hair with ancient medals, coins, rhinestone and flowers or butterflies have been part of the ethnic dressing up to emulate nature and history.

Fayum-11
Wikimedia Commons – Royal Museum of Scotland – Depiction of a woman with a ringlet hairstyle

For 2014 fall I have seen free-flowing hair, short layered bob, and heavy layered long hair. The Italian hairstyle this fall is capricious, layered at the right point and softly wavy to give a sense of mischievousness.

2014 Fall colors are fun too. The model with long black hair seems to have a streak of green light across the bang, love it! Just enough green to add an interesting touch. The model with fiery hair is showing “Ombre” a revised “Shatush”, a way of coloring hair in two tones ending in a lighter color at the bottom. It is a stunning color if done professionally well, it is like painting a picture. However, if shatush colors don’t blend well, the dye job will look like an overdue hair coloring.

I must say that even though the hair coloring and the cut styles are fun, there hasn’t been anything striking for quite sometimes. We all remember how Vidal Sassoon revolutionized the world of hairstyling. He was a British hairdresser who created a simple geometric, “Bauhaus-inspired” hair style, also called the wedge bob that women adopted for two decades and a lot of his products are still sold today, over forty years later.

“He wanted to change things ~ Vidal said ~ he wanted to eliminate the superfluous and get down to the basic angles of cut and shape”. They were all modern and low-maintenance cuts. The hairstyles created by Sassoon relied on straight, and shiny hair cut into geometric yet organic shapes that were entirely lacquer-free. ♢ (Excerpt from Wikipedia).
The world lost him in May 2012.

Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Fashion and Interior Designer. 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. To better help people in the world she offers consultations online. She is the author of three books.
Get your copy of Valentina’s book on colors: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Swimming Pool or Lagoon? | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

22 Jul 2014 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #BackyardDesign, #GardenLighting, #LagoonDesign, #SwinmmingPoolDesign, #ValentinaCirasolaOnPinterest, #ValentinaInteriorsDesigns, http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/containers

At this time of the year, with the summer heat in full bloom, the only container I can think of is a pool in the garden containing a large body of cool, blue-green water where I can refresh my brain with a simple dip.

A “Swimming Pool” is a structure, basin, or tank which is intended for swimming, diving, or recreational bathing which contains water more than 24 inches deep at any point. This is roughly the description given in the book of building codes. Before December 14, 2006 building a swimming pool was fun and free of constrictions, until one-day things changed to complicate our lives.

Now every swimming pool installed, built or substantially modified after that date, must be equipped with one or more approved pool alarm which are capable of detecting a person entering the water at any point on the surface of the pool. The alarm must be audible at the poolside and other locations on the premises where the swimming pool is located, unless the swimming pool is equipped with an automatic power safety cover, then the alarm is not required.

A barrier of at least 4 feet high completely surrounding the swimming pool and obstructing access to the swimming pool is the next most important rule to know when building a swimming pool. Rules don’t stop here, we have been gifted with many more, but these are the two most important rules that will protect the homeowner if a group of strangers decides to jump the fence, take a dip in the pool while the homeowner is gone, act stupid and one of then drowns. Raising fences around the pool gives a sense of double seclusion more than the first fence built around the perimeter of the house and if you ask me is an unattractive feature. However, since the only thing we can do is to respect the rules, matter as well create something attractive and easy on the eye.

Just remember, if you are adding a swimming pool to increase value of your property, stop right there. The next buyers might not share your same interest in the pool and perhaps are looking to get a huge backyard for growing food instead. You never know. If you are building for your own pleasure, do it.

New Swimming Pool Concept

View of Pool Gate From Kitchen

Exterior Façade Concept Drawings

Nick Rickert – unsplash

A few years ago I created a set of drawings for remodeling the exterior of my client’s home. The remodeling was mostly aimed to have an attractive swimming pool for entertainment right outside the kitchen. In my concept drawings there was just about everything the client wanted. My list might help someone reading me in this moment in building their own pool space.

1. Next-door neighbors was curious about the affairs of others and looked in my clients’ back yard to find his own amusement. Tall trees would block the curious neighbors and at night the in-ground lights would not make the trees a dark presence.
2. During the day a livable stoned terrace area would provide a secluded area for sunbathing, reading, relaxing. At night, warm LED light would highlight the terrace area creating a cozy ambient where friends would sit comfortably on cushions, converse and sip a cool drink while the illuminated pool would be the centerpiece.
3. I planned for solar panel to warm up the pool water when needed.
4. Marine sails over the lounge area offer a good amount of shade.
5. The space was large enough for plenty lounge chairs aligned all around the pool.
6. Planning an illuminated swimming pool complements the house and adds safety. I even planned an island of flowers protruding on the water and stairs to help kids get in the pool.
7. Of course I planned an attractive tall fence all the way around the pool.

This is what the client wanted and received. This project in the Tuscan style was developed on-line and I never got to see the finished project. I am always happy to follow the client’s desire and dreams, that is what a designer should do, but if I ought to make a swimming pool for myself I would opt for a lagoon, with large rocks, water fall, tall trees and illuminated lush vegetation, much like the photo of a lagoon I posted here, without being open to the sea. Ah, let’s not forget the music! Good food, cool drinks and fun friends will follow. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola has been in business as a designer since 1990. She has helped a variegated group of fun people realizing their dreams with homes, offices, interiors and exteriors. She is a designer well-known to bring originality to people’s homes. As an Italian designer and true to her origins, she provides only the best workmanship and design solutions. Author of three books all-available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Hold On To The Light | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

11 Jul 2014 6 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #DoorDesign, #illuminatedDoorKnobs, #LEDDoorKnobs, #ValentinaCirasolaOnPinterest, #ValentinaInteriorsDesigns, #WaveCrystalDoorKnobSet, HomeAccessories

Creativity is a beautiful thing especially when the result is spectacular!
Krystal Touch of New York introduces the Wave Crystal Door Knob Set. A superior quality crystal makes this fantastic doorknob set, which illuminates with the touch, stays illuminated for one minute and then goes off, until touched again. If in your home there is a dark corridor, or a dark closet, this doorknob will keep you in the light. LED light illuminates one side or both sides of the knob and fits standard doors thickness of 1-3/8″ to 1-3/4″. Guarantee for a life, the price is very affordable, these knobs make great solutions for a home with character.

Wave

Basket Ball

Golf Ball – Brand Name: JHK

Glow in the dark-Found on: thegreenhead.com

Emtek Levers

Find some more fun door knob here https://www.trendhunter.com/slideshow/innovative-doorknobs

Emtek combines functionality, design, and fun all in one with its collection of Brighthandle, made of acrylic levers and stainless steel. Perfect for public restrooms and hotels, when the room is occupied the levers illuminates with LED lighting powered by a single AA battery. No need to put the Do Not Disturb sign against the door anymore. These levers are more expansive than the illuminated doorknobs, about $250 per door set. It is fairly a new product and like all the new products, the price will come down with a larger market demand.

One small suggestion: if you have arthritis, problems with joints or difficulties in doing turning motion, it is best to use the wrist blade door handles and faucets levers. Ciao, Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola transforms and creates spaces realizing people’s dreams in homes, offices, interiors and exteriors. She infuses your everyday living with a certain luxury without taking away a comfortable living.  She offers design consultations on-line through Skype and the traditional in-house consultations, helping people with their design challenge any where in the world. She is the author of three books, all-available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Something Up The Sleeve | Valentina Cirasola |Designer

28 Jun 2014 2 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #GianfrancoNicastriPuglia, #GianfrancoNicatriFashion, #InteractiveFashionArt, #ItalianFashion, #PugliaTravel, #ValentinaInteriorsDesigns

Today has been a day dedicated to the beaux-arts and creative arts. We are approaching the studio of an inventor of Interactive Fashion Art. I was told it will astound us when we get to see what it is. The designer in person greets us at the door. His studio seems very industrial, but he doesn’t, he is fashionable and well polished. The door is sticking and the wind blows it open a few times. This going back a forth to close the door is giving me a little more time to observe his gestures. He is a smoker and very coquettish in his movements. After a brief introduction, I got him to talk about his invention, as matter of fact, he is wearing it. He is Gianfranco Nicastri.

His invention consists in a removable card 2” x 1″ of painted art taken from a canvas insert inside the wrist cuff of a shirt. Basically, a canvas has a few slits here and there where a 2” card is inserted. Both the card and underneath the card area are painted twice with the same details. When one card is removed the canvas area underneath is fully painted and doesn’t look bare naked. The painted card is then inserted into the opening of the shirt’s cuff fabricated with an open frame made just for this purpose. Only one wrist cuff of the shirt hosts a painted card. Women and men’s shirts carry this detail.

Painting on Canvas with Interactive Art

Shirt Cuff with Interactive Art

Woman’s Purse with Interactive Art

Upholstered Chair with Interactive Art

Gianfranco Nicastri – Inventor

At first I thought the system is a bit fussy, taking the card out of the painting and putting in the shirt, then one must remember to take the card out of the shirt again before taking it to the dry cleaner. Will people remember to do all that in this busy life we live? Then I remember we are in the south of Italy, people here know how not to get stressed out. Like all the new things it takes time to digest it. However more I looked at it, more I liked it. It is different, snazzy and why not wearing a piece of real painted art?! The shirts with the insertable cards sell on Gianfranco Nicastri’s site – www.nartist.it

Women purses with this technology apparently are being snapped up, he can’t produce them enough and jeans are still being perfected. Gianfranco has adopted the system of Interactive Fashion Art on upholstered chairs with arms and it looks so artsy. The insertable card is larger, almost as if the entire painting is done directly on the piece of furniture. Hopefully, we will see these inventions all over the world, as it seems they are already going. Traveling is the only thing you buy that makes you rich and we are learning so much on this trip. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services

I am writing a travel diary of my last trip to Puglia with an American group and sharing with all of you my notes of feelings, observations, food-wine tasting and experiences that have changed the life of people traveling with me. The trips I organize are made for people who want to live it up in Puglia! Check out my books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Room | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

11 Jun 2014 4 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #DecoratingTips, #ValentinaInteriorsDesigns, #WordPressPhotChallengeRoom, https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/room, Room

This week the photo challenge is about the word ROOM – https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/room

Rooms used to be grand and heavily decorated. Often we had to traverse many rooms before we could get to the right room, the destination for a specific activity, sleeping, eating, bathing, reading or gathering. In today’s world, rooms are built as small as possible to save on ground space, to fit more homes or apartments in one same borough.

Often people consider rooms as containers of stuff, without giving much thought to decorating. Once a room is filled with their possessions, it will serve their lives and that will be it.

Client's kitchen looking into dining ©Valentina Interiors & Designs

Client’s dining looking into living

Mural outside my studio

Living-Dining rooms

My ideal room must have plenty natural light from windows and skylights, if possible, must be spacious with a beautiful floor, must have some wall details such as niches and when I lay on the floor, I want to look up and see exposed beams, a mansard ceiling, or a stylish ceiling that will help me fantasize. After these architectural features important to me, the next thing I like is to have a balanced décor.

I like to open a door of a room and find a view on the opposite wall of the next room, a pleasant something to look at instead of staring a blank wall; a pleasant something that will accompany me when going from one room to the other; a pleasant something that will turn every wall in a gallery show. A room that overlooks another view is no longer a four-wall room. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Bread In Style | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

27 May 2014 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ItalianBreadShop, #ItalianFashion, #ItalianFood, #KitchenApron, #PatriziaPerroneBreadShop, #ValentinaCirasolaAuthor

You would think that if you go to a bread shop is to buy bread and a few other treats available in the shop, but in Italy people want to find style and colors with bread. The shop must be packed with flavors, aromas, inviting atmosphere and fashion. “L’occhio vuole la sua parte” as we say in Italian, basically we eat with the eyes first and if the owner of the shop is well dressed with harmonious clothes and appearance is well put together, the bread products sell even better. This is the case of Patrizia Perrone, owner of Panificio Perrone – Forno di Gennaro, in Matera, Italy. Her newly remodeled shop designed by Italian architect Antonio Di Benedetto at KA Lab is modern and very stylish with a back room for casual eating looking to an open view in the production, because there is nothing to hide when products are made with naturals ingredients.

Patrizia Perrone in her bread shop Oven of Gennaro

Patrizia Perrone with her bread stamp

Patrizia Perrone apron front side

Patrizia Perrone apron back side

Night production of sweets

La Pannarella

All her products sit on shelves with a suffuse lighting and the bread behind the counter is displayed in an appetizing way. The apron Patrizia wore intrigued me and pushed me to interview her. She started by saying that her company logo is a bread shaped as a woman representing the women running her company. In ancient time only women made breads, but since home stove had not been invented yet, the women took their bread dough to a public oven to have it cooked. A wood stamp with the initial of the head of each family distinguished one bread from another. Artisans carved those wood stamps for breads and in Matera there are still a few artisans continuing the tradition. In Patrizia’s case her breads are stamped with the letter “P” after her first and last name: Patrizia Perrone. The production in the back of the store is highly organized with modern machines programmed to produce breads, focaccia, biscotti and other sweets with ancient formulas everyone is still demanding.

Her apron is not a common kitchen apron, it is asymmetrical cut at the bottom right; in the back three stripes, one on the right shoulder, one in diagonal on the left shoulder and one in the waist hold the apron together. The white scarf on her head is an old tradition, a form of respect for food, she told me. Before women attempted to work on the dough for bread, cookies or pasta, they closed the hair in a scarf to keep food making hygienically clean. Her natural, earth tones make up is in tune with her natural products and emphasizes her open, glowing beautiful face, framed with a pair of earrings I am sure heritage of her grandmother, a sign that everything here is a tradition and well tied to the territory.

In an Italian bread shop, a visitor notices many things: bread is stylishly shaped, because we eat it everyday, thus must look good on our table; the bread shop must be stylish, otherwise people don’t feel invited to walk in, food sold in the store must be stylishly packaged and fashion…..well in Italy is a must even when selling bread. Italian style is about feeling good, look good and give pleasure to others. Patrizia by keeping alive the traditions of our land gave me a great pleasure when I saw the Pannarella my grandmother made sold in her store. The description next to the product says Pannarella is like a canvas to color. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinaexpressions.com/trips-to-puglia-2

I am writing a travel diary of my last trip to Puglia with an American group and sharing with all of you my notes of feelings, observations, food-wine tasting and experiences that have changed the life of people traveling with me. The trips I organize are made for people who want to live it up in Puglia! Find Valentina’s books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Courtyard Of Courtship | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

30 Apr 2014 4 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #EnclosedGardens, #ItalianCourtyard, #ItalianLifeStyle, #RedVoyageIntoColors, Courtyard, Peristilio

Walking along the small alleyways of Polignano a Mare in my beloved Puglia, a good aroma of home cooked food filled my nose. The salty air of the Mediterranean mixed with the food aroma coming from people’s houses permeated the air and created an aura of antiquity, that midday feeling when works stops to give way to daily meal with family and nothing else matters.

I was visiting my country at that time and I was walking the streets of Polignano with all my childhood friends who are ready to pick up our friendship where we left off, as if no years have passed by and no oceans divide us.
I pushed open the large green metal patina door of the house where the food aroma was coming out and a beautiful courtyard revealed in front of my eyes. Tall and short plants concealed colorful seating areas, cherubs in the fountains looked happy to play with the water, flowers everywhere, distressed walls, consumed floor and clean laundry were in all in one space open to the sky.

On the second floor, the mama was leaning on the balcony, visibly curious to see what a group of strangers were doing in her courtyard. To relieve her inconvenience of having strangers in her court, I soon asked her what she was cooking and why it smelled so good. She replied that the aroma I thought was so fantastic was nothing more than simple pasta and beans with pork bones. She invited all 10 of us to eat with her family and after a few minutes of reluctance, we were delighted to accept the invitation. The lunch lasted a good 3 hours, during which time she took out her best home-made wines and the best food preserved for the winter. It was a feast with people with had not known before that moment and became our best friend.

California courtyard – Photo taken with permission

California courtyard

A courtyard is not a backyard, nor a front porch, it is a private open spaces surrounded by walls used in residential architecture for as long as people have lived in constructed dwellings. In Roman villas the Peristilio was a courtyard used to give more light and aeration to the dwelling, often enclosing a swimming pool, or fountains to give out a pleasant atmosphere with games of water. In the Middle Eastern countries and as far as 3000 B.C., courtyards have been used for many purposes including cooking, sleeping, working, playing, gardening, and even places to keep animals.

In the Renaissance Italy the courts with portico and colonnades returned in all the classic elements, even monasteries and public buildings adopted the style. In Italy there are beautiful examples of public buildings with a court: Brunelleschi’s Palazzo Busini-Bardi (1430), Palazzo Strozzi and Palazzo Pitti (late 1500) in Florence, Palazzo Venezia (1470) and Palazzo Farnese in Rome and Palazzo Ducale (1470) in Urbino.

Courtship often took place in the courtyard of private homes under the watchful eye of the family, but mostly courtyards filled the universal desires of human beings to have air, light, privacy, security and tranquility.
If I will ever build my house, I will have a spectacle of courtyard and reproduce that moment in Polignano with all the friends who will want to court my food. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

This is my 24th years in design business and I am not showing signs of wanting to quit. I will be evolving in different directions, while still helping people realizing their dream spaces in homes, offices, interiors, exteriors and improving restaurants or cafes. Check out my books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w