Valentina

A Dinner Table Is Not For Royals Only | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

13 Dec 2012 24 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ArtOfDining, #ChristmasTableDecoration, #DecoratingTips, #DiningTableSetUp, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #TableEtiquette, Tablescape

During the holiday season everybody wants to celebrate something important, whether are the achievements of the years, religious events, or just the advent of a new year that will bring novelties, hopes and new perspectives.
As in all the celebrations, food is the center of the attraction and if we don’t indulge at least once a year, what’s the point?

“Do not worry if you have a few pounds on, you will have the eternity to have only bones” ~ my joke. You can take care of those few pounds after the holidays.

At the moment, I just want to give you some suggestions on how to set a formal, or a casual dinner table. The drawings are pretty much explanatory, but a few rules apply when sitting at a dining table properly staged.

From Disappearing act in this casual world

Casual Lunch Setting

Cutlery – The way the cutlery is set, will indicate which food will be served first. If there is a spoon on the right, you know that a soup is coming. The cutlery on the outside of the plate will be used first, work your way from outside in towards the plate. The silverware, fork and spoon, or just one of them, at the top of the plate is only for desserts and not for stirring drinks, or coffee.

Hands – Both hands must be visible on the table, but not the elbows. The body must occupy only the space that it takes. Elbows must stay closer to the body when cutting the food and not hitting the next person sitting near you.

Napkins – will be folded in half and placed on the lap with the fold toward the waist. Gently dab the mouth with the napkin when needed, but never rub the mouth with it.

Plates – I like to place a charger plate in both casual and formal dinner setting, I think it decorates the table well. On top of the charger, place all the plates according to the sequence of food and how they will be served.

Drinks – are always placed at the right, butter plate on the left.

Bread and Butter – In different cultures you might see the breadbasket in the center of the table, which will be passed around if guests ask for, or you might not see a butter plate at all. If you are the host setting the dinner table, make sure you know the preferred customs of your guests.

How to serve – In a formal dinner, never serve the entire dinner in one plate, it is a good practice to change plate for each course. If you are the host and serving the food as well, please know that the rule is to serve from the left and pick up empty dishes from the right of each guest.

Dessert and Coffee – Dessert is usually served at the table with coffee. Invite the guests to the sitting room, or living room for a taste of spirits, such as digestive, cognac, port or sherry.

I hope this simple guideline will make a great dinner experience for you and your guests. May your table be blessed with healthy, tasty food and pleasant company.

A big thank to Rebecca of http://misbehavedwoman.wordpress.com for awarded me with the fifth star of The Blog Of The Year 2012 Award. I love her strong character. It is refreshing to read her blog on social issues. My stats as of now, show I have received 4,149 visitors to my blog site today. I am ecstatic, cannot be happier than this. This is a load of fun! I take my hat off to everyone who is passing through, leaving a comment, or awarding me. Thank you.

Need to know more about this award? Check out the FAQ page:
http://thethoughtpalette.co.uk/our-awards/blog-of-the-year-2012-award/faqs-blog-of-the-year-2012-award

And the award goes to:

Tom – http://thepalladiantraveler.com – he fell in love with my Italy and writes about the pursuit of happiness from within the borders of Italy and, occasionally, beyond.

Cristian – http://cristianmihai.net – A writer and author from Romania. Don’t ask him to sing.

Tina – http://astronomybythecosmos.com – She writes about astronomy, very interesting subject.

Leanne – http://leannecolephotography.com – Very nice and attractive photography.

Let’s start celebrating. Ciao,
Valentina

http://www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola has been a lifetime designer in fashion and interiors. Her extensive knowledge of colors and materials led her in both directions successfully. Vogue Italy featured her as the guru of staging a home in the theatrical way. Among designing and remodeling homes, designing custom-made furniture and writing books, Valentina is now teaching etiquette, table manners, table setting and life style. Check out her latest books ©Red-A Voyage Into Colors on the subject of colors, available on

Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0

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

Changing Seasons | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

10 Dec 2012 10 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ChristmasColorScheme, #ChristmasDecorating, #ChristmasLights, #ChristmasThemes, #StoresDecoratedForChristmas

December, the month of running around, the month of getting rid of things we have accumulated during the year, including bad habits and feelings.

Personal Changes – Yesterday, I watched a video of one of my business coaches, who suggested something clever. Take a piece of paper, draw a line in the middle, write down all your achievements of this year 2012 and the lesson you have learned from them. Then write all the negative things, goals that didn’t happen, or anything that didn’t go right, including relationships and what you have learned from these experiences. Read both sides out loud, then burn the piece of paper. This way you have acknowledged your actions and thoughts and you know what you will not do again, but also you will be ready to part with the baggage of this year that is leaving us.

Changes In The Wardrobe – This month, I am organizing a “Second Time Around” party with girlfriends. We exchange clothes we don’t like, or we don’t fit in anymore. Funny how another person will wear that used piece in a novel way and make it attractive again! The party is fun, we have a few glasses of bubbles, food, laughter and we become our recycling firm for a few hours.

Shops Changing Views – In December, I like to take a few hours for myself to photographs store windows when they are closed and nobody is around. I like to admire their interpretation of a changing season.

Gaylord Texan Resort

I received the 4th star for The Blog Of The Year 2012 Award from Natalia of http://nataliasarkissian.wordpress.com – she writes stories, one postcards at a time. Thank you Natalia, I humbly accept your star.

* * *The ‘rules’ for this award are simple:

1. Select the blog(s) you think deserve the ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award

2. Write a blog post and tell us about the blog(s) you have chosen – there’s no minimum or maximum number of blogs required – and ‘present’ them with their award.

3. Please include a link back to this page ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award

4. Let the blog(s) you have chosen know that you have given them this award and share the ‘rules’ with them

5. You can now also join our Facebook group – click ‘like’ on this page ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award Facebook group and then you can share your blog with an even wider audience

6. As a winner of the award – please add a link back to the blog that presented you with the award – and then proudly display the award on your blog and sidebar … and start collecting stars…

Need to know more about this award? Check out the FAQ page

http://thethoughtpalette.co.uk/our-awards/blog-of-the-year-2012-award/faqs-blog-of-the-year-2012-award

Congratulations! on being chosen for the ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award:

Jamie – http://grandmothermusings.com – Words of wisdom, tips, How to do stuff. Jamie has received all 6 stars for this award, well deserved.
Laura – http://astimegoesbuy.me – Fashion and personal style.
Judy – http://petit4chocolatier.wordpress.com – Chocolates and sweets to die for.
http://misbehavedwoman.wordpress.com – Well behaved women seldom make history.
Karen – http://roamandhome.com – She loves eating scrumptious food and taking photos of everything she eats.
Cynthia – http://lesplaisirssimplesdelavie.wordpress.com – Photography and more.

Enjoy the award and this colorful season. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Interior Designer since 1990 and a former Fashion Designer. In any or her design work, she blends fashion and interior well. Vogue Italy featured her as the guru of staging homes in a theatrical way. She loves to remodel and turn unattractive spaces into castles. Fashion design was her first career choice that made her happy for fifteen years before settling into the interior design business. She is also a published author of three books available on

Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0

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

Blog Of The Year 2012 Award | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

08 Dec 2012 16 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #BlogOfTheYear2012Award, #DickensChristmasFair, #DickensVillage, #FrenchChristmasMusic, #OxfordUniversityChristmasMusic

It is still December and all is well.
My best girlfriend just found a young man 18 years younger than her. While she was exploring the world across the pond, she discovered him and studied the new architecture of a man. He will be part of her luggage upon her return, she is taking him back home with her to California and spend Christmas with a man who can chop English really well. Love has no barriers.
I avoid stores during this time like a bubonic plague.
On Sunday, I will go visit the Dickens’ Christmas Fair, a divertissement I give myself every year, perhaps I will dress in costume of the era.
The Christmas village display in my home is ready. As a tradition, the lights in the living room go off at night and the village lights are on. I am living in the late 1800s at this time, French Christmas music and music from Oxford University fill the air. I need to escape in the past for a couple of weeks.
I am still watching the film “Midnight In Paris” religiously once a week. It has been a year now. I am wondering if not getting tired of it is a sign I will move to Paris.

This week I am very honored, thankful and grateful to Stefan of http://hillsofherchastity.wordpress.com who nominated me for the second time for the Blog Of The Year 2012 Award.
As you can see, I have collected three stars, there is total of six stars to collect until December 31, 2012. This is fun, let’s play it together.

Stefan made me discover poems and poetry again. As a hard-core business woman, I had lost the pleasure of stopping every so often and read something sweet, romantic and often out of my reality.
Stefan gave me the opportunity to get reunite with a fantasy world. His blog notification reaches me during my working time and punctually I open it, it gets me curious to see what nice words he has put in the ether.
Sure enough, I feel transported in another dreamy dimension for while. So Stefan, I will award you back with the same award just because you have taught me how to leave behind some of my reality.

* * *The ‘rules’ for this award are simple:

1. Select the blog(s) you think deserve the ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award

2. Write a blog post and tell us about the blog(s) you have chosen – there’s no minimum or maximum number of blogs required – and ‘present’ them with their award.

3. Please include a link back to this page ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award

4. Let the blog(s) you have chosen know that you have given them this award and share the ‘rules’ with them

5. You can now also join our Facebook group – click ‘like’ on this page ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award Facebook group and then you can share your blog with an even wider audience

6. As a winner of the award – please add a link back to the blog that presented you with the award – and then proudly display the award on your blog and sidebar … and start collecting stars…

Unlike other awards, which you can only add to your blog once, this award is different!
When you begin you will receive the ‘1 star’ award – and every time you are given the award by another blog – you can add another star!
There are a total of 6 stars to collect. Which means that you can check out your favorite blogs – and even if someone else has already given them the award – you can still bestow it on them again and help them to reach the maximum 6 stars!

This award goes to the following bloggers:

Jake of http://jakesprinters.wordpress.com from Manila – He is a Graphic Artist / Photographer who believes in Progress not Destruction.

Natalia of http://nataliasarkissian.wordpress.com – She writes Postcard From Italy, stories one postcard at a time.

http://thismansjourney.net – A nice man who writes about family experiences.

http://kaitlinring.wordpress.com – She is a student from North Dakota and got my attention with her last post about why the world will not end in 19 days.

Enjoy the award all of you, let’s collect more stars that will bring lights and positive energy into our lives. Thank you all for being my supporters. Ciao,
Valentina

http://www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an interior designer and a former fashion designer in business since 1990. She helps people realizing their dream spaces in homes, offices, interiors, exteriors, restaurants and more. She needs your story to design your dream.

Check out her books on:

Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0

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

Golden Secret Of Exotic Pineapple | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

04 Dec 2012 Leave a comment

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #GrilledPineapple, #HolidayDecorating, #HolidayFood, #PineappleCheese, #PineappleLantern, #PineapplePorperties, #SinsOfAQueen

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/canned-pineapple-slices_245799055.html

Grocery stores fill up on pineapples, this sweet fruit, mostly in December, as it is very much associated with Christmas holiday’s food, but knowing the good properties of pineapple we should be eating it all year around.
Pineapple is a good aid for digestion. Bromelain is a particular substance or an enzyme that breaks down proteins reducing them to amino acids and thus promoting their elimination. Bromelain is also used as a meat tenderizer.
Where in the pineapple is bromelain, this good property, located? Right in the center of fruit, just that part we always discard.

Numerous are the beneficial influences of a pineapple. The fruit purifies and detoxifies, thus functions as a diuretic. It prevents cellulite and for those who need to release a few pounds, would not hurt to eat pineapples only a couple of days a week, skipping other food. This practice prevents the accumulation of fat, deflates the stomach and allows losing pounds quickly without damaging the health. Do not overdo, one or twice a week is more than sufficient.

The Guarani Indio, ethnic indigenous of the Americas from Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay and the south-central part of Brazil, called pineapple “Ananas” in their language. In my Italian language and most European languages it is called the same. I am sure when Christopher Columbus came to the new world, found the Ananas an irresistible fruit to leave behind, thus filled up his ships and took it back to Renaissance Europe, devoid of any kind of sweets, including fruit.

As a symbol of prosperity, success in work/business and as the family social status it is often found in kitchen decorations, plates and carvings; as a symbol of hospitality is often found as a carving on entry doors and bedrooms’ bedposts or headboard. In Europe, at the end of a dinner, fresh pineapple is served as a dessert, but what else can we do with this exotic fruit?

In my book: Sins Of A Queen, http://tinyurl.com/9agl5v9 , I have included one recipe of grilled chicken and grilled pineapple triangles served together in half pineapple shell, where the one half shell per person is the plate. Fun and delicious!

On my Pinterest board I find inspirations from other pinners.
Walnuts arranged to look like pineapple covering a creamy spreadable cheese looks really good.
I served mine with a small variation:
on a large marble tile, I placed a mountain of cream cheese (any of your liking) covered with toasted almonds, surrounded with steamed and marinated broccoli in a simple oil and lemon citronette, accompanied with warm crostini.
MontagnaFormaggio-2

I found another solution: a fun way to decorate the center table with a pineapple turned into a lantern. Dry the interior of the shell completed before adding a candle, just for your own safety.

Fruit is really good grilled, poached, fresh, baked, or drunken in any type of alcohol. Get into the habit of serving it as dessert or appetizer. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer with a passion for kitchens, cooking and extensive knowledge of food. She loves to remodel homes and loves to turn unattractive spaces into castles, but especially loves to design kitchens and wine grottos, outdoor kitchens and outdoor rooms, great rooms and entertainment rooms.
Check out her three books on

Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0

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

December – Grace and Thankfulness |Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

03 Dec 2012 22 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #AwardOfTheYear2012, #BlogAward, #ChristmasCelebration, #GratitudeDay, #SelfImprovement

Ah, December is here with the rain to clean up the air, the spiders off the plants and the nuisance illnesses of the winter. Outside is grey and cold, inside my house is warm, the fireplace has been on since the start of the morning making my house nice and cozy all day. I am so thankful to have found an older home with charm and a fireplace.

This morning I was thinking of the special food to cook today. After all it is Sunday, a special day for resting and enjoying food with those who like to eat. My friends forget to leave when invited to my home. At times I wonder if they come for me or for my food. I am thankful for my friends and for having food to offer.

I am a bit behind reading blogs of my followers; while food was cooking I read many to ketch up. Everyone is so talented and write attractive stories or subjects, which makes it really hard to choose. “Everyone is a star and needs to shine”. ~ Marilyn Monroe. I am so thankful for my friend bloggers following me.

December is the month to celebrate a new light coming to the world, a new winter solstice, religious events and it is the month for giving. Cities looks so beautiful with the building tops crowned with lights, colorful displays make designed stores very inviting and front yards of every home are decorated to perfection. I am grateful and thankful to have eyes to see the colors that illuminate my world.

I am very honored, thankful and grateful to two people who nominated me with the Blog Of The Year 2012 Award:

Stefan of http://hillsofherchastity.wordpress.com who writes beautiful poems and
Jamie of http://grandmothermusings.com who writes slices of life with humor and knowledge.

* * *The ‘rules’ for this award are simple:

1. Select the blog(s) you think deserve the ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award

2. Write a blog post and tell us about the blog(s) you have chosen – there’s no minimum or maximum number of blogs required – and ‘present’ them with their award.

3. Please include a link back to this page ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award

4. Let the blog(s) you have chosen know that you have given them this award and share the ‘rules’ with them

5. You can now also join our Facebook group – click ‘like’ on this page ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award Facebook group and then you can share your blog with an even wider audience

6. As a winner of the award – please add a link back to the blog that presented you with the award – and then proudly display the award on your blog and sidebar … and start collecting stars…

Sindy – spiritual growth and healing – http://bluebutterfliesandme.wordpress.com

TBM – 50 years project of reading and traveling – http://50yearproject.wordpress.com

Mary – a renaissance woman – http://leblogdemarie.com

Marianne – a British woman living in Andalusia – http://eastofmalaga.net

Judy – with some sweets of her own – http://petit4chocolatier.wordpress.com

Marianne – inspires people to live happier – http://marianne365days.wordpress.com

Create a great week and thank you all. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an interior designer and a former fashion designer in business since 1990. She helps people realizing their dream spaces in homes, offices, interiors, exteriors, restaurants and more. She needs your story to design your dream.

Check out her books on:
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

The Red On The Cheeks Comes From The Mouth | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

29 Nov 2012 Leave a comment

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ComeMiaNonnaReturnToSimplicity, #CookingInItaly, #CulinaryTrips, #ItalianCulture, #ItalianFood, #ItalianTableCustom

One of my friends has just returned from a month of vacation in Italy. She spent two weeks of her vacation in a kitchen of an agritourism to get some hands-on training on typical Italian cuisine. She is a personal chef and owns a catering company. Our catching up conversation was mostly centered on Italian food and table customs. She could not help but noticing the difference and making a comparison between her American eating customs and the Italian eating style. She noticed how properly people conducted themselves while sitting at the table and how she never spotted an Italian local person eating in the street while walking, an activity only foreigners and tourists engaged in.

At the restaurants and in the place where she was cooking for a few days, she went along with the flow of dinner and how her hosting friends conceived it. They ordered many dishes from antipasto to pasta, meats, and vegetables to fruit, cheeses and dessert. The dishes arrived at the table not in serving platters for sharing, as often is done in the States, but in single plates, each person got his/her portion of everything ordered.

One time they ordered grilled fish and she did not expect to see the deboning process at the table, right before her eyes. That is a common practice in any respectable Italian restaurant.

Photo waiter deboning fish at the table from TripAdvisor

There was a considerable time space between each specialty, she told me. At first she was puzzled to why it took so long to finish the entire dinner and even longer to get the check, people lingered at the table, talking with espresso coffee and digestive drinks, but by observing how Italians carried on conversation and relaxed with wines and company, she understood right away that she was in the land of “Dolce Vita” where eating is an art and nothing else is important while sitting at a dining table.

At some tables where business people gathered for lunch, talking about business, my friend observed, did not take place until after all the ordering of food and wines was completed and after people took interest in each other’s life, news of their families and the general happenings. Then during the second half of the dinner, business talk started.

She was all so surprised to see the freshness of food and its vibrant colors in both raw and cooked state. Fish was colorful and smelled like the sea, she said. Of course, she knows that in America supermarkets do not sell the entire fish stock in one day, thus the next day the store will re-propose old fish to the customers marinated in herbs or in some kind of dry rub. In Italy, nobody would buy the re-adaptation of fish. If I want fish, I go directly to the fishmongers. I am fortunate to live in a coastal place, where it is possible to go directly to the source.

My friend asked me why in Italy people don’t suffer gluten problems as people in the States do. You would think that with the large amount of pasta, rice, pizza and bread consumed in Italy, everyone would have gluten intolerance. Well, the answer is simple and crude: Italian food manufacturers do not stuff food with hormones, vitamins, sugar, sodium, MSG and other absurd chemicals. Read the labels of any American food and you will see that the majority of ingredients are unpronounceable chemicals and of real food, there is only a faint percentage. In Italy egg yolks are orange, chickens are yellow and don’t eat corn; pigs are not fed with hormones but acorns, which makes our famous prosciutto (ham) so perfectly balanced; gelato is made with real milk and fruit; bread only contains flour, water, yeast, and olive oil; vegetables are not sprayed with chemicals and fruit arrive at the supermarket with the dirt they grew in, not polished with wax. To this add the Italian lifestyle. Italian people walk to stores, to work, to schools and most of the places they must reach every day. In fact, my friend the chef, after all the commercial cooking she did for her own experience and the eating she did for her own enjoyment with daily wine tasting, lost 14 lb in one month and she could not explain how it happened.

As I say during my books’ presentations: “The red on the cheeks comes from the mouth”. Eating real food daily will help release extra pounds and stabilize the weight. Most importantly, real food will introduce positive energy in the stomach, which in turn will exude from your skin pores and that is good enough to keep away for your system any food intolerance ever invented by the human mind. Ciao,
Valentina

http://www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer with a passion for kitchens and cooking. She especially loves to design all those rooms with a “make me feel good” tag attached, such as kitchens and wine grottos, outdoor kitchens and outdoor rooms, great rooms, and entertainment rooms. She is a public speaker and a mentor. She is also the author of two Italian regional cuisine books and a book on colors, all available here in this site on the Books page and on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Christmas In Colors | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

29 Nov 2012 18 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ChristmasColorScheme, #ChristmasDecorations, #ChristmasTableSetting, #DecoratingWithChristmasColors, #RedVoyageIntoColors

I am into colors and lot of it. I live colorful experiences because I live a colorful life. I can’t imagine my home, my wardrobe, or my garden without colors. In my new book ©RED – A Voyage Into Colors I wrote:

“I am thankful for God who gave me eyes to see glorious colors!”
Have you thought of your Christmas colors this year? The classic timeless red, green and gold will always be available for those who want to stay in the tradition. Personally, I like to change Christmas colors every year and when the holidays are over, I organize a selling party to get rid of all the decorations and to have an excuse for the first party in early January before the real heavy work starts.

This year I have compiled six color schemes to show how easy it is to elaborate a color in many different directions and solutions. Think about how many more will be possible. You can spread one color with all its complements, opposite and undertone hues from the Christmas tree to the table setting and all the surrounding areas. The important thing is to stay within the boundary of one color and not exceeding or spilling into cheap combinations. Cheap is cheap, but simple is elegant.

Found on Etsy

Love to see your combinations. Let’s share. Ciao,
Valentina

http://www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola has been a lifetime designer in fashion and interiors. Her extensive knowledge of colors and materials led her in both directions successfully. “Vogue Italy” magazine featured Valentina as the guru of staging a home in the theatrical way. Among designing and remodeling homes, designing custom-made furniture and writing books, Valentina is now teaching etiquette, table manners, table setting and life style.

Check out her latest books ©Red-A Voyage Into Colors on the subject of colors, available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Come To Puglia | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

19 Nov 2012 6 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #CulinaryTrip, #ItalianLifeStyle, #ItalianRegionOfPuglia, #PugliaTravel, #PugliaTrips, #SinsOfAQueen, #SouthernItalianFood, ItalyTravel

Through the years, many of you have expressed to desire to visit Puglia with me, a local who was born and raised in those parts. After putting my energy into the writing and publishing of three books, the time has finally come.

I have listened to your wishes and self-proclaimed a cultural promoter of the region of Puglia. Bari is the airport you will land in Puglia.
Puglia is a region on the East side of Italy on the Adriatic Sea, made of warm people, tasty food and free thinkers. You will see palm trees and a flat land with white terrace roofs. You might have the impression to have taken the wrong plane to Africa, but not at all, you will be in Puglia where homes are built on the foamy coastline of the blue-green Adriatic Sea and where the waves make embroideries with the sky, the air is salty, the summer heat is sultry and humid, women exude sexuality from every pores and well…the rest of the people are as laid back as in a tropical island.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

In Bari airport, the largest city in the South, my team and myself will greet you with smiles. Each trip has been built around the title of each book I have written. My second book – “Sins Of A Queen” – just to talk about one of the trips’ theme, gave me the inspiration to take my guests into a lavish living while they are in Italy and experience incredible treatments with the most natural products from this land of olives, fruits and grains.
I will call this trip: “Let’s Travel Into The Sinful Luxury Of A Queen”.

Rudolph Valentino is on our route to the stalagmites and stalactites caves, thus we will stop in Castellaneta to visit the museum dedicated to the actor. Did you know Valentino was born in Hollywood as an actor, but his native town was Castellaneta, in Puglia? His town was an agricultural and unknown town even to the rest of Italy. He died August 23, 1926 and only a few years ago, his town counsels finally dedicated him a statue and a museum.
The Castle in Gioia del Colle will disclose us the intricate romance between Bianca Lancia and Emperor Frederick II, which as most passionate stories, ended up in a tragedy.
In between visits to the most exquisite Baroque architecture, Valentino’s museum and other cultural events, I have planned some fun shopping in local markets for the latest fashion clothes/accessories, where my guests can buy affordable priced items. We will also pay visits to local artists’ shops, where they produce one-of-a-kind high-class handbags, gold jewelry, custom jewelry, or stunning glass lighting, furniture and home accessories. My function as a designer is also to show all the beauty Italian artists are still creating for the world.

(Photo above: Gorgo di Fuoco Restaurant)

Food and wine will also play a large role. Going to Puglia and not enjoying the earthy food, as locals do, would be a crime. It will not be a common restaurant eating, I have used my fantasy. We will have one dinner inside of dismissed wood barrels of wine, where you can still smell the must of wine impregnated in the wood. On another day, an opera singer will delight our dinner. We might have a rustic picnic in the country with a donkey ride, or we might cook with a local chef in the kitchen of our farmhouse where we will stay. How about a massage with the green-gold of the land: olive oil?

My trips’ aim is to inform and entertain and certainly allow the guests to relax while in Italy with unforgettable experiences. My trip will not be a trip in a bus loaded with tourists, packing and unpacking every day and make stops to bathrooms. My goal along with my Italian team’s goal is to take care of our guests, giving them personal attention, while we are still together in a group setting. My intention is to show Italy with the eyes of a designer born in those parts and not the commercial Italy of the mass tourism. I want to show you the heart of Italian life, the immediacy of every day living with a lot of fantasy.

You will get to know Puglia through art, architecture, food, shopping and special adventures organized for people who want to live it up!
This is not a tour de force!
My goal is to allow our guests to experience a wheel of emotions they don’t even know exist. My team in Puglia and I want them to never forget the warmth and hospitality of Puglia people and create a relationship with our travelers for the long haul.

Trip date: April 15-24, 2013 – 10 days, 9 nights.
Registration closing date: March 15, 2013.

This price will include:
a. Two meals a day with water, juices and a couple of wine glass a person. Extra food or drinks, or extra drinks for the road, are not on the house.
b. Lodge, private transportation, transfer from and to Bari airport.
c. Private bus for our excursions.
d. Visits to museums or exhibitions.
e. Gratuities
f. Cooking classes and chef fees (if applicable).
g. Vintage cars, or Opera singer.

Please contact me directly for prices: designsvalentina@yahoo.com

Plane tickets and insurance are not included.
Again, this is a trip to realize how short life is and to learn how to enjoy it. This experience will change you. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinaexpressions.com/trips-to-puglia-2/

As a writer and cultural promoter of Puglia, my native land, it is my intention to let readers feel and experience a new ”wheel of emotions”. I want to encourage them to visit areas of Italy not beaten by massive tourism. Through stories of art, architecture, fashion, food-wines, shopping, I want them to create their special adventures and live it up in Puglia!
Check out my books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

A Trip Not To Forget | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

16 Nov 2012 8 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ItalianRegionOfPuglia, #ItalianSouthernCooking, #PugliaExperience, #PugliaTravel, #PugliaTrips, #VisitPuglia, ItalyTravel

Here they come, they are landing in a country of warm people, tasty food and free thinkers. The palm trees are showing their majestic leave tops to the people in the plane and the flat land with white terrace roofs might give the impression that my travelers have taken the wrong plane to Africa, but not at all.

The participants to my trips are approaching the foamy coastline of the blue-green Adriatic Sea, where the waves make embroideries with the sky, the air is salty, where the summer heat is sultry and humid, women exude sexuality from every pores and well…the rest of the people are as laid back as in a tropical island.

They have landed in Puglia, a southern region in the East Coast of Italy and this is the view and the perception the participants to my trips will receive when they will land in Bari airport, the largest city in the South. My team and myself will greet them with smiles. You see, each trip will have a theme and will be based on each book I have written.

My second book: “Sins Of A Queen” – just to talk about one of the trip’s themes, gave me the inspiration to take my guests into a lavish living while they are in Italy and experience incredible treatments with the most natural products from this land of olives, fruits and grains.
This trip will be called: Let’s Travel Into The Sinful Luxury Of A Queen. Watch the video of the area we will visit.

The Lungomare of Bari, a romantic promenade on the Adriatic Sea will be waiting for us to drive along in vintage cars, dressed in vintage clothes, while soaking the fresh sea salt air, enjoying the view and a “gelato affogato” (literally ice cream drowned in a secret spirit). The promenade stretches to Monopoli and Polignano, two quaint towns perched on the cliffs of the Adriatic Sea. We might reach them in vintage cars, or we might take a boat ride coast-to-coast ending for dinner in a fabulous restaurant built-in the cave on the cliff. It will be magical! Rudolph Valentino is on our route to the stalagmites and stalactites caves, thus we will stop in Castellaneta to visit the museum dedicated to the actor. Did you know Valentino was born in Hollywood as an actor, but his native town was Castellaneta, in Puglia? It was an agricultural and unknown town even to the rest of Italy. He died August 23, 1926 and only a few years ago, his town councils finally dedicated him a statue and a museum.

The Castle in Gioia del Colle will disclose us the intricate romance between Bianca Lancia and Emperor Frederick II, which as most passionate stories, ended up in a tragedy.

In between visits to the most exquisite Baroque architecture, Valentino’s museum and other cultural events, I have planned some fun shopping in local markets for the latest fashion clothes/accessories, where my guests can buy affordably priced items. We will also pay visits to local artists’ shops, where they produce one-of-a-kind high-class handbags, gold jewelry, custom jewelry, or stunning glass lighting, furniture and home accessories. My function as a designer is also to show all the beauty Italian artists are still creating for the world.

Food and wine will also play a large role. Going to Puglia and not enjoying the earthy food, as locals do, would be a crime. It will not be a common restaurant eating, I have used my fantasy. We will have one dinner inside of dismissed wood barrels of wine, where you can still smell the must of wine impregnated in the wood; on another day, an opera singer will delight our dinner in a different place; we might have a rustic picnic in the country with a donkey ride, or we might cook with a local chef in the kitchen of our farmhouse where we will stay.

How about a massage with the green-gold of the land: olive oil?

My three trips’ aim is to inform and entertain and certainly allow the guests to relax while in Italy with unforgettable experiences. My trips will not be trips in a bus loaded with tourists, packing and unpacking every day and make stops to bathrooms. My goal along with my Italian team’s goal is to take care of our guests, giving them personal attention, while we are still together in a group setting. I want to show a side of Italy not known to tourists, show the heart of Italian life, the immediacy of every day living with a lot of fantasy. The itinerary is outlined, the rooms, of course, will be reserved in advance, but the schedule will be free-flowing, not a severe schedule to respect with a timetable. This is not a tour de force. Our goal is to allow our guests to experience a wheel of emotions they don’t even know exist. We want them to never forget the warmth and hospitality of Puglia people and create a relationship with our travelers for the long haul.

Let’s Travel Into The Sinful Luxury Of A Queen – April 15-25, 2013 duration 10 days, 9 nights and everything included. Plane tickets and insurance are not included.
For further information, please contact me by email: valentinadesigns@comcast.net
I will keep sending various information from now to March 2013 until closing date. Stay tuned.

Just remember, this is not a tour de force, but a trip to realize how short life is and to learn how to enjoy it. This experience will change you! Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinaexpressions.com/trips-to-puglia-2/

Sunday Hidden Treasures | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

11 Nov 2012 18 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #AquariumDesign, #EcoFriendlyDesigns, #GreenDesigns, #GreenRoof, #SanFranciscoMuseumOfScience, Microclimate

Last week, one of my follower blogger challenged his audience to find some hidden photographs in our computers.
This is my contribution to photographer Jeff Sinon Sunday’s Hidden Treasure:
http://jeffsinonphotography.wordpress.com/2012/11/04/sundays-hidden-treasure/

I found some pleasant memories in my computer photo archive of my visit to the Science Museum in San Francisco when it was just opened a couple of years ago. Renzo Piano, a modern genius Italian architect designed the building and of course I am very fond of his work.

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(All photos were taken inside the Museum of Science in San Francisco, CA by ©Valentina Cirasola and are her property)

The building is rooted in a mixture of Classical Greek and Modernism architecture.
A glass lobby allows the visitors to look steadily with curiosity or wander through the building and even see the park on the other side in the distance.

The building with the columns framing a central entry presents a classical symmetry echoing the Greek Parthenon, but the modern construction material used such as the green roof, glass walls and windows that let air escape and create a gentle breeze, are very much inline with the modernism movement of Mies van der Rohe of the early 20^th century.

I saw the entire building as a sort of giant specimen case, fauna and flora sharing large exhibition spaces with their own microclimates. Particularly interesting was the vertical garden, which gave me many ideas for my future work designing landscaping for my client.

In the African Hall, I leaned how penguins get fed, a very amusing spectacle and I photographed these beautiful zebras. Too bad they ended up this way, but if they had not been there, I would have never known what a zebra looks like in life.

In one area of the Museum a giant overhead aquarium shaped in an archway surprised the visitors. All kind of fish swim together, I wonder if they know they are on display with no way out. The cat-fish I photographed looks very much made of metal to me. The peaceful lizard, frog and butterfly were kept in a tropical temperature area and boy it was hot!!!

Green roofs serve several purposes for a building, such as absorbing rainwater, providing insulation, creating a habitat for wildlife, helping to lower urban air temperatures and mitigate the heat as in an island effect. That was the last stop of my visit of the Science Museum, it was very windy up there, but then San Francisco would not be San Francisco if it didn’t have the wind and the fog.

Among a few examples of Renzo Piano’s major work, please admire:
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France (1971–77)
Menil Collection, Houston, Texas, United States (1982–87)
Stadio San Nicola, Bari, Italy (1988–89)
International Terminal, Kansai International Airport, Osaka, Japan (1991–94)
NEMO science museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (1997)
Beyeler Foundation Museum, Basel, Switzerland (1991–97)
Ferrari wind tunnel, Maranello, Italy (1996–98)
Maison Hermès, Tokyo, Japan (2001)
Parco della Musica, Rome, Italy (2002)
Padre Pio Pilgrimage Church, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy (2004)
High Museum of Art Expansion, Atlanta, United States (2005)

Ciao,
Valentina

http://www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is a trained interior designer  in business since 1990. She is the owner and principal designer of her company: Valentina Interiors & Designs. Being Italian born and raised, Valentina’s design work has been influenced by Classicism and timeless style. She will create your everyday living with a certain luxury without taking away a comfortable living. Check out her books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w