#FashionSchool | Valentina Expressions

The Enchantment of Marble Stairs

My fascination with stairs goes back a long way, they are kind of a fetish for me. Stairs can tell a story, hide a surprise that opens up at the end of a spiral staircase, for instance, or have an aura of mystery. Who was there before me, who kissed on those stairs, what feud happened, or where did they lead?

In Italy, during my young life, I lived in a circular building. The centre was the atrium opened to the sky, where kids played if it didn’t rain. Around the atrium were time-worn stairs leading to each apartment.
On each floor were long balconies overlooking the atrium, so that the children’s parents or relatives could watch them playing while indulging in conversation and a cup of coffee.
As a child, I liked to sit on the floor, on the top stairs without underwear and go down all the stairs one by one, just to feel the cold of the marble and hear the flat sound of my bottom touching the marble. Inevitably, at the bottom of the stairs, I always found an adult who scolded me to make me go to my house and put on my underwear.
I never lived in such a singular building after that time. It was a creative convivial living, an original architecture that allowed socialization, almost like the courtyard scene in the old film by Hitchcock “Rear Window” where everyone could see the happenings in each other apartment, listen to conversations, hear someone’s music, see someone practising dance and know everyone’s business.

Another episode involving stairs that I like to remember pleasantly is my fashion school in Italy. It was a 400-year-old building, first used as the Italian state police headquarters, then became a nunnery for Catholic nuns and ultimately became a Fashion School where I spent four years learning the trade of fashion.

The stairs were bowed just like those in the picture, actually, my depiction is exactly how I remember those stairs. The teachers instructed us to walk on each side of the stairs, not in the centre, being brittle, they could have collapsed easily. Sometimes, we had our arms full of large design rolls, fabric samples, mannequins, cameras and whatnot, it was challenging going up and down four flights of stairs, stepping only on a few inches of space, but we had a certain respect for history and willingness to preserve it.

Over the years there is always someone who comes along with grandiose ideas, a boatload of money, and zero qualms about history who wants to tear down the old thing and build shoeboxes for people who just need to go to sleep. It happened again, the 400-year-old building was demolished and a new office building was built in place.

Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion consultant, color therapist, author of 6 published books, a storyteller, and a longtime blogger. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking and travel.
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