#ItalianCustoms | Valentina Expressions

Gate Doors of Italy

11 Nov 2022 8 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ItalianCustoms, #ItalianDoors, #ItalianDoorsGates, #ItalianLife, #StairsOfItaly

If you have ever visited Italy, you must have noticed a lot of gates in front of any entry, any doors and also windows.
Some are very pretty, elegant and go with the style of the building, but many times gates are functional and low key. The reason for the gates is a custom that in Italy started about thirty some years ago. Too many tourists wonder aimlessly everywhere even in private spaces and boats loaded with immigrants drop their human cargo every day on the coasts of Italy in search of a new life or fortune. I could get very political about this, but I will leave it for another forum.

Looking at this stair, I remember the stone steep stair leading to nowhere filled with plants at my grandmother’s exterior of the home. They were built, I guess to add some kind of interest to the outside with no other function, unless someone put the set of stairs there to give us kids an opportunity to bust our heads as often happened when we played and fell of of them. I was one of the kids who ended up in the hospital after a plunge in the empty space.

Doors in this part of the world are very simple, linear and often made of a common sturdy wood, but stairs are made of stones, steep, slippery and very treacherous.

One can feel the sense of antiquity in places like this and Italy has plenty of them. Walking on those stones when it rains it’s very tricky and funny, especially for women wearing skirts. It is not so uncommon to find uneven pavement that collects rain water underneath, stepping on one of them means to get cold dirty water squirted up the crotch. That’s when Italian women get creative vocally, a must see spectacle!

Well, if we must have security gates, let them be an oasis of flowers, succulent plants and evergreen bushes.

Even public buildings might have protection gates, but they are open during working hours and closed at night. Who do they protect?

Dan Antion offers an opportunity to learn about doors in the world with his Thursday Door Challenge. This is my participation for today’s challenge. Ciao,
Valentina
My books on Amazon

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

Stuck In The Groove | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

12 Jan 2013 17 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ItalianCulture, #ItalianCustoms, #NewYearCelebrations, #NewYearWishes, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #ShineOnAward, Appreciation

Hoops, I didn’t even notice to have been gone since Christmas and my page seems stuck in the groove! Pardon.
Well, last year my Thursdays disappeared often out of my weeks, catapulting me straight into the Saturdays and weekends didn’t even appear on the horizon of my calendar. To me it meant one thing: time for regrouping, regenerating and detoxing from the Internet. Literally, I abandoned my studio and this time I was the one who disappeared. Now, I am wondering, why the year is new, I am one year older, but my office has the same organized mess, the same décor looking at me and the same dust onto which I can write the story of my life, especially after my short absence.

No, I am not stuck in the groove, the year has started well and I am very much alive and kicking.
This week, I made a third anniversary flying with WordPress. It has been a great experience reading all of you bloggers and making new friends.

I have received also the “Shine On” Award from A MisBeahaved Woman http://misbehavedwoman.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/shine-on – THANK YOU, I am honored and I accept. Please read her interesting blog on social issues, she is really good.

With the Awards come the rules. Here are the ones for the Shine On Award.

1.) Show appreciation of the blogger who nominated you and link back to them in your post.

2.) Add the award logo to your blog.

3.) Share 7 things about yourself.

4.) Pass the award on to 5-10 other bloggers you admire.

and here the winners:

http://suellewellyn2011.wordpress.com – Photography and stories.

http://ohtheplaceswesee.com – they are husband and wife who decided to live somewhere else a month at a time.

http://algarveblog.net – a British expatriate to Portugal.

http://wheresmybackpack.com – She says: “anyone who tries to tell you it’s a small world hasn’t tried to see it all”.

http://taylorjorjorian.wordpress.com – Photographic Surreal Impressionism

http://grandmothermusings.com – Jamie is a sweet teacher.

Please go visit them, enjoy their reading and make new friends. The world is full of people we have not met yet. Happy 2013 to all, hoping this year will treat us very nicely.

To find 7 things to say about me it’s a hard task to do, but I will do my best.

I have always liked to eat and manage to keep a good figure to suit my bone structure. I have eaten a Mediterranean diet since I was born and don’t even get closer to junk food. People who know me call me “A Good Fork”. My father used to say that was better to clothe me than feed me.
Growing up in my Italian family, food choices did not exist and neither did democracy in the family nucleus. The heads of the family made up their own laws and we kids had to obey. Today, I go into people’s homes and find that kids can choose what they want to eat, as if they are at a private restaurant, tell the parent what to do and even get paid to do chores!
I am not a mechanical person like most of my women friends are. If something breaks it will stay broken unless someone fixes it.
I love Opera. When I am sitting in those red velvet chairs, I transport myself to a different world and era and get totally oblivious to anything around me, but often asked myself how I would react if a fire happened while I am totally hypnotized by the opera notes.
I am an acute observer. I see things people miss easily. I can sit at a café’ for hours just to observe and hear people’s conversations.
I don’t get bored easily, stupid people get bored, but time wasters get on my nerves easily.
I don’t shop at corporations, I shop at small stores and I am very faithful to them if they know how to treat me right.

I am participating in the A to Z challenge on any subject, mine will be on HOME from A to Z.
I will give myself one year to write funny and not so funny stories, tips and stuff related to the home projects and behind the scene happenings.

Let’s have a fantastic year and let’s not get stuck in the groove of time! Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an interior designer, in business since 1990 and a former fashion designer.
She helps people realizing their dream spaces in homes, offices, interiors, exteriors, restaurants and more. She is also the author of three books all available on

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

An Italian Sunday | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

27 May 2012 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #CatholicCeremony, #CatholicHolidays, #ItalianCustoms, #ItalianFirstCommunion, #ItalianFood, #ItalianLifeStyle

In Italy not all Sundays are created equally. People dedicate Sundays to family lunches and the rest of the day is for leisure and social activities.
Meals are women’s best show on Sundays, they get up early in the morning, before everybody else to cook for the family and make sure everyone is treated properly from appetizers to desserts, from the smallest kid to the oldest person.

This past Sunday was a different celebration.
I am in Italy now, participating to my niece’s First Communion event. This is truly a treat, a day to remember and the first important mile stone in a Catholic person’s life. It happens every year in May. Boys and girls in elementary school will go through a couple of years of religious school to learn how to become good Christians and get prepared for the big event of the First Communion. Some churches go as far as organizing spiritual retreats for the kids.
A wide range of businesses related to the First Communion affair are busy for the entire month of May preparing every details from cakes and sweets, to party favors. Restaurants, photographers, hair dressers, tailors and seamstresses work together to assure the event is successful, parents and guests are happy and have something to remember. Jewelry stores are also very happy in the month of May, as the gold gifts for the First Communion are a must.

My niece was prepared as a bride for the altar. The day before, all the women of the house including the First Communion girl got electrified with trying on dresses, shoes and jewelry, hairdresser appointments and making sure all the party favors were ready to go. At night, nobody wanted to go to sleep, we didn’t really know where to put our heads made up so beautifully to keep them preserved until the next day. And the next day was really special for the kids and the adults! Confetti and photographs greeted the little girl coming down from the stairs of her home, my niece, a 10 years old was dressed in white from head to toes. Her father was the only person allowed to accompany her to the church as her escort, the rest of us followed later. The church isle was also made up with white flowers to celebrate all the 10 years old kids entering the Catholic World as faithful Christians while cheerful music filled the air.

What really intrigued me was the elegance of the Italian people dressed to honor their kids first mile stone of life. I am Italian and I should be used to see well-dressed people, but somehow I still manage to get surprised when I see Italians young and old attending some functions. There was nothing out-of-place in their dressing up, not even a hair. Colors and proportions are always well-balanced. Of course, everything was “all’ultimo grido” of the latest fashion.

The manners of Italian people at some formal affair are so affected and polite, but not disgustingly stuffed. I love to observe some youngsters giving up their seats to older people and helping them in getting up and down to follow the religious function. Certain things in my culture are still well-planted and are excellent foundations for generation to come.

The church of Maria Maddalena built in 1969 is an extravagant architecture considered very avant-guard for that era. A cement pagoda style, almost resembling a Japanese house was not well-accepted by the followers and much criticized by the public and the press. That church so many years later has seen a few funerals, weddings, births and joyous events in my family and in my friends’ families. To see Don Filippo again, the priest manager of that church, grey and older and remembering him young, with dark hair and just out of college, made me realize how much time has passed by and how deep my roots are in this land of Italy.

Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an author and a designer, writing about and observing Italian culture and style. Check out her books available on this site in the Books section and on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Easter Breads | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

06 Apr 2012 2 Comments

by Valentina in Books Blog Tags: #EasterBread, #EasterCake, #EasterFood, #ItalianCustoms, #ItalianFood, #ItalianLifeStyle, #Scarcella, #SinsOfAQueen, #SouthOfItalyTraditions, #ValentinaCirasolaAuthor

Two more days to Easter Sunday and in Puglia, my land in Southern Italy everyone will eat “Scarcella”, typical Easter bread. Scarcella is a slightly sweet bread type, just enough to give a sweet taste but not enough to make anybody fat. Usually in Puglia, we make it in a round shape, as we all know the round shape is the most harmonious of all the shapes and in most cultures is regarded as the shape of fortune. Many shapes and designs also characterize the Scarcella to please the eyes of the receiver. If it is made for kids, the shape might be a small doll, a purse, a car, or an animal shape, just to be playful.

Scarcella goes back to a very remote past, in fact, it originated in the Roman Empire, enclosing in itself all the pagan and Christian symbols of Easter.

The raw eggs on top of the bread dough symbolize rebirth and the return to life. The eggs might fill the dough up to 21. Odd numbers are considered propitiatory, thus it’s important to place the eggs in an odd number. Bake the bread full of colorful confetti on top and lemon zest mixed in with the dough to aromatize it. Powdered sugar will cover the Scarcella after the baking to give it a veil of sweetness.

The tradition says that any daughter-in-law will give one Scarcella as a gift to the mother-in-law. The more eggs the Scarcella has on it, the more are the things the daughter-in-law is asking to be forgiven for. Well, that was in the old days, I am not even sure the new generations of Italians even know what Scarcella is, or if they care to ask for forgiveness through food symbolism. If anybody out there wants to try it here is the recipe, and it is also in my second published book:
©Sins Of A Queen – Italian Appetizers and Desserts

Scarcella
Mix with 10.5 oz. 00 flour (super-soft flour used for pizza dough) 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 3.5 oz. of sugar, a little milk (use a little at a time to make the dough pliable).
Add a pinch of salt and grated lemon peel while working on the dough.
Spread the dough thus prepared to ½ inch in height.
Cut out the shapes you want, keeping the scraps of dough.
On one end of the Scarcella place 1 egg raw with the shell on, or you can spread an odd number of eggs around on the dough.
Cut the scraps of dough into strips and place them in a cross fashion over each egg to help them staying on the dough during baking.
Sprinkle the colored confetti and bake on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake it until golden brown.
If you like, add powder sugar after the bread has cooled down.

This Easter specialty is in my book Sins Of A Queen, on Amazon: http://goo.gl/JA4WMO
Another fun Easter bread and typical in the South of Italy made for this occasion is the “Casatiello”. The procedure of making this bread is the same as any other bread, the only difference is the stuffing.
Mixed in the raw dough there are chopped hard-boiled eggs, various chopped cold cuts meats and cheeses of many types. The quantities for the stuffing are up to your taste.
The taste will improve accordingly, I make mine very happy.

A Pink Moon will characterize this Easter. I just learned about it this morning when I read this article.

http://news.yahoo.com/moon-affects-date-easter-131202555.html

I am here to help you with your kitchen design and all the challenges that come with it, but I am here also to design your palate.
Remember that designing a table with colorful food is necessary for the soul and for the eyes just as much as a beautifully designed kitchen.
My next book on the subject of colors: RED-A Voyage Into Colors is in the printing and will be out on the market very soon. Stay tuned for the launch.

If you celebrate it, have fun and rejuvenating Easter. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer with a passion for kitchens and cooking.
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 books on this site on the BOOKS page and on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Flavors and Colors Of An Italian Summer | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

17 Aug 2011 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ItalianCustoms, #ItalianFood, #ItalianLifeStyle, #ItalianSummer, #MediterraneanDiet, #PugliaFood, #SanJoseItalianFesta, ItalyTravel, Truffles

The annual summer Italian Family Festa in San Jose, CA is almost ready, we are at the last few details of preparation and the celebrations will begin soon.
For two days Aug.27th-28th all the Italian descendants, Italian born and Italian lovers will celebrate our culture with music, food, craft, art, books and entertainment. (Click on each photo to view it larger).

The Italian Family Festa in San Jose, CA started 31 years ago by Italian emigrants with the goal of keeping our roots and traditions alive. The character of this festa is more like a country fair called “sagra” in Italian, reminding me of the autumn celebration of the earth’s bounties I have seen in Italy when I was growing up.

Sagra (sagre plural) happen in every Italian small towns and Medieval villages through August and September. The larger sagra has music bands and some sort of competition, along with food ready to purchase on the street.

The smaller sagre are mainly organized to present local food grown and cooked by passionate people, a way to share a communal table and to spend a happy day in the country. Both vendors and visitors are innamorate of their culture and history, love to show off the food they produce and often give away ancient secrets on how to cook this and that food specialties. Of course we are Italians, we love to tell people how to eat good!

Sagre in Italy used were an escape from rural life during the harvest time that preceded the long winters and for a couple of days country people and farmers had an opportunity to be social with the rest of the world. Today, sagre are a way to preserve our gastronomic traditions of the past and to bring tourists to small country towns.

(Photo truffle found on: https://www.yahoo.com/news/worlds-largest-truffle-worth-thousands-024053846.html)

In many sagre Italians celebrate food fit for a royal, like the truffle sagra in Ferrara. Truffle is a rare underground mushroom forever considered a mysterious delicacy in the culinary world and super expensive (over $1,000 per gr.). People can delight themselves with the pleasure of tasting many food prepared with truffle: Cheeses Entrée with honey and truffle, truffle antipasti fantasy, meat rolls with prosciutto and truffle, fowl meat with truffle, lasagna with truffle and so much more. I say: Eat truffle in small amounts, but eat it often!

The sagra’s themes vary from town to town.

We celebrate the harvest of watermelon, chestnuts, San Marzano tomatoes and many products from the earth. Sagra for the prepared food as grilled meat, prosciutto, salami and sausages, rice arancini and potato croquettes, pizza rustica, polenta and birds, mushrooms and much more, not only emanate mouth watery aromas miles away, but they give an opportunity to get familiar with very traditional home cooking not otherwise prepared in restaurants.

Modern Italy goes on vacation during August and September, but farmers are at work to bring us the pleasure of food from the earth that is going to sustain us during the winter. Therefore we celebrate their harvest, their hard work and the abundance of Italy.
Italian Family Festa in San Jose, CA in the way will turn into a sagra due to so much food available, but mainly is about being Italian in a foreign country and to remind ourselves of the contributions we have made in the world with our culture, art, history, architecture, philanthropy, inventions and of course food appreciated by the entire world. Being Italian is an art not taught in any school!

I have been invited to speak at our Italian Family Festa about my Puglia native land and my books on Puglia cuisine. I will be on the stage Sat. Aug. 27th at 2:30 pm.

Please come to the Italian Family Festa at Guadalupe River Park downtown San Jose between Julian and Santa Clara Street. Guadalupe River Park is conveniently located two blocks from San Jose Diridon Station. Hope to see you there. Ciao,
Valentina
www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer with a passion for kitchens and cooking. She operates in the USA and Europe. She loves to remodel homes and loves to turn ugly spaces into castles, but especially loves to design kitchens and wine grottos, outdoor kitchens and outdoor rooms, great rooms and entertainment rooms.
She is a published author of two Italian regional cuisine books, available here in the Books page and in various locations, including Amazon:
http://outskirtspress.com/ComeMiaNonna
http://outskirtspress.com/SinsOfAQueen

Are You Getting Your Palm Twisted? | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

01 Apr 2011 Leave a comment

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #EasterPalmDesigns, #ItalianCustoms, #ItalianEaster, #italianEasterCustoms, #ItalianHolidays, #ItalianLifeStyle, #PalmLeavesDesigns, #SouthernItalianFood

I love the religious holidays in Italy. It is time to renew our traditions, to bring family together and to teach the youngster what really matters.
(Photo palm weaving found on: http://www.italymagazine.com/news/art-palm-weaving)

About a month before Easter the “palmari” , farmers who are true palm artists start to prepare the leaves of palm trees by choosing the female leaves only, which are the longest and thinnest leaves (how do they recognize them is still a mystery to me). For a few weeks the leaves are left to dry covered with a canvas tarp, then they start twisting them in all shapes possible and they become master pieces of art. They are sold in all shoppes in Italy the week of Palm Sunday to give as a gift and a symbol of peace to friends and family members.

In history palm leaves were considered a symbol of triumph, victory and acclamation of royalties. Today they are the symbol of peace and love.
In some regions of Italy, the faithful take a branch of olive tree with the twisted palm to church to benedict them with holy water, then they place both on the Easter table well overflowing with good food.

Jesus Christ was welcomed to Jerusalem with olive branches, today they are equally used especially in areas where palm trees don’t grow. In northern Europe where even the olive trees don’t grow, this Easter tradition of giving a branch as symbol of peace continues with local leaves and flowers twisted together.

Each year Easter is defined a “low holiday” when it arrives around March and coincides with the pruning of the olive trees, or is defined as a “high holiday” when arrives around April with a warm Spring and when the olive trees might already have new green shoots.

In beautiful Sorrento, South of Italy, on Palm Sunday there is a beautiful show going on in the streets of this quaint town. Women carry in their hands colored confetti made into the shape of branches or small trees and men carry on their shoulders large branches of olive trees with small cheeses called caciocavallo attached to the branch with colored ribbons. The story goes that around 1551 many Saracens ships (Arabs) were coming to invade Sorrento, but the sea started to get agitated and shipwrecked all of them. From then on, Sorrento celebrates its peace and victory with the benediction of confetti and caciocavallo, instead of twisted palm leaves and olive branches as in the rest of Italy.

Decorating the house through the Easter month with palm leaves will bring a sense of peace and a very unusual form of art everybody will admire. The palm leaves made up this way will last for a good three months.
I love to bring original art pieces in my Clients’ homes. I can help you finding them, just leave your name in the box. Ciao,

Valentina
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 designs architectural landscape as a complement to the residential design concept as a unity. She has been described as the “colorist”.

Valentina is the author of two regional and cultural Italian cook books, available in this site on the Books page and also on these sites:
Come Mia Nonna – A Return To Simplicity – http://outskirtspress.com/ComeMiaNonna
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnq8baaAq0M
Sins Of A Queen – Italian Appetizers and Desserts – http://outskirtspress.com/SinsOfAQueen

Unwind, Ferragosto Is Coming | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

11 Jul 2010 4 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #DecoratingForSummer, #ItalianCustoms, #ItalianFerragosto, #ItalianLifeStyle, #SummerHome, #VacationTime

The word Ferragosto comes from the Latin word Feriae Augusti, the pagan feast in the year 18 A.D. made in honor of the Roman Emperor Octavian Augustus.
On the 1st of August the Romans celebrated the harvest of grain, cereals and the fertility of the earth. This festivity would last until the end of August.

Feriae Augusti, or Ferragosto as it is pronounced in today modern Italian language was intended as “the relaxation of August” from the working year. This festivity would develop with public rituals and banquets, excess of drinking and sex practices to which everyone was permitted to participate, including slaves, maids and the lower class, along with the nobles and emperors. Horse racing, bull fighting and sports events were organized to add to the public entetainment. Even the working animals, such as cows and donkeys were left to relax for the whole month of August and were dressed in the festivity attires with lot of flowers to decorate them. The workers would give good wishes to their employers and would receive a good tip from them.

The festivities would reach its peak on the 15th of August as it still happens today. Through the centuries the Feriae Augusti, or Ferragosto became so eradicated in people’s lives that the Roman Church decided to turn it into a legal festivity and made a holiday rather than suppress it.

Today in Italy and all over the Christian Europe, Ferragosto is celebrated as a religious holiday and as the mid-Summer holiday.
Modern Italians and Europeans treat this holiday as the longest vacation time of the year. Fun, amusement, eating, resting, dancing, socializing and absolutely no work activity is conceived. Therefore, if you are in any import business, when dealing with Italy remember not to place any order of merchandise in July and August. Factories are closed, people are enjoying their vacation and no one is in town.

A few suggestions to beat the heat

In August, being the hottest month of the year, people tend to wear light fabrics, such as linen and cotton. They are the breathable fabrics of all, luscious and delicate textiles that treat our skin in a delicate and gentle way.
People eat very light food to beat the heat, fresh fruit and vegetables to supplement the loss of water through copious perspiration.

Outdoor dining is very common in Italy. People tend to eat late in the evening to catch some cool breeze.
Restaurants and chalets/balere (open air discotheques) are packed until very late at night and promenades pullulate with people.
Nighttime is magic for an intimate dinner, or to pull the small hours of the night talking and joking with friends.

In villas and Summer homes’ backyard vacationers organize their night life. Plain pergolas are easy to build and to dress up with hanging panels of sheer fabrics or inexpensive burlap. The breathable fabric provides privacy and it is sheer enough to let in the soft glow of the moon. A gazebo is an easy item to create. The portable types come in a variety of colors or fabrics and they can be installed in minutes. Like a woman going out for dinner, any patio can be dressed up too for the occasion.

Unwind and decompress, once a year at least, it is important to see life in a different perspective.

I have worked on remodeling single spaces or entire homes while my clients were gone on vacation. They gave me the keys of the house and said goodbye to the messy remodeling. I am so very grateful of the trust people repose in me as a service provider and as a person. My workers and I treasure their properties as they were ours.

Please forward this article to anyone you think might be interested in reading it. Comments are welcomed. Thank you. Ciao,
Valentina

http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior and fashion designer, working in the USA and Europe. She combines well fashion and interior in any of her design work. She loves to remodel homes and loves to create the unusual. In her career she has helped a variegated group of fun people realizing their dreams with homes, offices, interiors and exteriors.
Check out her books on

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

Appear At The Balcony, My Love! | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

06 Jun 2010 3 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ItalianArchitecture, #ItalianBalcony, #ItalianCustoms, #ItalianLifeOnBalcony, #ItalianLifeStyle, Balcony, Italian-Life

Letters to Juliet, the latest film with Vanessa Redgrave and Italian actor Fabio Testi that every girlfriend of mine is talking about.
(Verona Balcony photo
http://www.freefoto.com/images/14/14/14_14_82—Romeo-and-Juliet-Balcony–Verona-Italy_web.jpg )

The film is based on “What if you had a second chance to find true love?” and of course there is no better place to talk about love than from Juliet and Romeo’s famous balcony in Verona. Hollywood’s ability to prompt women to dream still amazes me. The Italian sceneries in the film are so beautiful, the golden aura of the Mediterranean projected on ancient walls and stones contributes to the romanticism and fantasy. Juliet and Romeo’s balcony is the focus of the last scene that makes the story ending into “they lived happy forever after”. To a realist like me, it was just a nice few hours at the cinema.
But what prompted me to write this small piece is the balcony, a piece of architecture that pushed me back in time, when I was a young woman, constantly in love with anybody who walked.

Yes, it all happened on the balcony of my mom’s house and when my mom was a young woman, most “seen and being seen” happened on the her mother’s balcony too.

In Italy a balcony is a lived space, an added space to the house, or apartment. We Italians sit on the balcony to admire the view whether we have one or not and if we don’t have a view, we scrutinize our neighbors. We get to know them and all their family problems, somehow the balcony doors are always open. We cultivate small orchards on pots and every possible cooking spice, along with flowers. Colors, colors, colors burst from Italian balconies. Among the few produce planted on balconies, tomatoes take first attention, they are a must in the Italian cuisine.

Balconies in Italy are also used to hang clean laundry to dry in the open air, clothes dryers are not popular at all. Naples is one of the most renowned and characteristic city of Italy for its clothes hanging over the streets, leaving to the imagination of the passers-by observations and comments of who could wear those clothes. With a pulley, clothes span from one balcony to another, serving two different families on both sides of the same street.
Hanging clothes to dry from balconies is a practice most popular in the the South of Italy where climate is warmer and people colorful.

On balconies Italians “mettono tavola” meaning they set an outdoor table and dine al fresco, mostly at night, when they can be refreshed in the cool night air, after a long day of Summer heat. It is an excuse to participating also to the night life of people strolling down below in the street. While all of that goes on in the street, up in the balconies, people carry on with their lives until the small hours of the night, as if nobody sees them. In fact, when the weather is really hot it is not uncommon to get a mattress and sleep on the balcony.

To cut down on their routine tasks, housewives lean on balconies and drop a basket down below to the local family owned grocery shop, or drug store to get the small items needed for today’s cooking. The grocer puts in the basket all she needs and the basket returns upstairs, payment for that merchandise comes later. The basket is always attached with a rope to the rail of the balcony ready to be dropped down at any request. On the other hand, women at home, regardless of the busyness of their lives, always have time to spend a few minutes on the balcony to pass along a recipe, or a gossip with the next balcony neighbors, or at best a taste of their cup of coffee.

On Italian balconies young women, who are learning the art of coquetry, show themselves off to potential boyfriends, almost like showing off what they have to offer. The young girl coming out of their shells and new at this game, do everything in their power to attract the young man’s attention they are interested in. They appear at the balcony at the same exact time the young man is passing by, because they have studied him and learned every move he makes…..Suddenly, something falls down from the girl’s balcony, just when he is passing through……oh Heaven!….he is looking up….

In America we don’t socialize through our balconies. Actually only upscale homes have balconies, but nobody uses them, they are only there for beauty and to pay more taxes as exterior spaces. Some are even fake, no exit to it, only a rail attached to the walls as a suggestion of balcony. Our privacy is precious and guarded with sentinels, but when we go to Italy, funny, we like how everything evolves over there, even when people enter our lives through balconies without permission. My life in America is so different now, without that closeness to the neighbors and their lives. I truly miss my Italian balcony, a fabulous piece of architecture, that has been the protagonist of love stories through centuries.

So, let’s ask ourselves that “What if?”.

Valentina
www.valentinadesigns.com

This article was also published on:
L’Italo-Americano Weekly Newspaper and Italian American Heritage Foundation paper.

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Valentina Cirasola is an interior and fashion designer, in business since 1990 helping people with design challenges in both Europe and USA. She helps people realizing their dream spaces in homes, offices, interiors, exteriors, restaurants and more. Check out her books on
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