Prague is a beautiful and very walkable city. History is well represented in buildings, monuments, and public places. I like that, history is about what we are today. Going around the city, I noticed the elegant stores’ doors, at least in the center of the town all stores have pleasant, inviting entrances and in some cases they are monumental.
This is a jewelry store called The Golden Crown. A lot of gold details are visible on the doors of Prague’s stores, I wondered if it has to do with the city castle where the Crown Jewels are kept, as are the relics of Bohemian kings, precious Christian relics, art treasures and historical documents.
Jewelry store
Castle Private Area
Tourists are not allowed in the private area of the castle. Too bad, I am sure there are a lot of interesting things in there I wanted to see.
Prague is a magical town, its austere look makes it a bit alchemic on the dark side, in fact, a few “noir” European films were produced here, but when the sun shines, the city’s red roofs and spires designing the sky, give the impression of being in a fable book.
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
Leonardo Da Vinci bought many birds kept in cages only to take them home and set them free. I thought of the same thing when I painted one of my interior doors with birds.
Master bathroom door painted by Valentina Cirasola
The flowers I painted don’t exist in nature, they exist in my fantasy and have big seeds. The birds I painted are also fantasy birds, they resemble parrots and in my imagination, they talk. I made them a couple, in my world, living creatures do reproduce.
Master bathroom door painted by Valentina Cirasola
I know one thing, I painted a cage and set my birds free, because in my home everyone is free even those characters living in my fantasy.
Master bathroom door painted by Valentina Cirasola
Are you curious to see behind this door? This is a bathroom and this is the immediate corner.
Designed by Valentina Cirasola
I have the tendency of painting every white surface and also like to design only one interior door in a different color or paint a mural on it, just to create an element of interest. I don’t know where this habit came from, but I started this trend a long time ago, then my clients followed it. Now, almost every client I have served has one different color door in their home.
Doors do close and divide spaces for privacy and functionality. The way I conceive them is about one world set into another world. I like to learn how and what people see in their doors through this Thursday Doors Challenge hosted by Dan Antion. Ciao, Valentina Amazon Author’s Page
Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion consultant, author of 6 published books, a storyteller, and a blogger of many years. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking and travel. Get a copy of her books here: Amazon and Barnes&Noble
Flâneur is a French term meaning ‘stroller’ ‘observer’ or ‘loafer’ used by nineteenth-century French poet Charles Baudelaire to identify an observer of modern urban life. With high observational skills, a flâneur, usually a man, is able to see things that others fail to see. He wanders but remains detached from the world he encounters and generally, the world he sees conceals a story.
On the Adriatic Sea, a small quaint town of Polignano a Mare in Italy, showcases its own flâneur who writes poems and poetries on doors, walls, and stairs. Nobody erases his thoughts, he writes about love and life, he quotes classical authors, philosophers, and great thinkers.
On this door, the flâneur writes a W.Shakespeare’s phrase: “Love runs to meet love with the same joy pupils run from their books; love that separates from its love has the same sad face the pupils have when they return to school”.
On this door, he quotes R.Tagore: “The butterfly doesn’t count the year, it counts the seconds, that’s the reason its brief life is sufficient”.
Here the flâneur quotes Torquato Tasso, an Italian poet of the 16th Century: “Lost is all the time that is not spent in loving”.
Here he wrote one piece of poetry from satirist Giuseppe Parini: “May the morning raises in the company of dawn, in front of the sun that large appears on the far horizon to make happy animals, plants, the fields, and the waves”.
Many of the flâneur’s writing can be seen on the doors of this quaint town, and many are his own expressions on life. I hope you get a chance to visit. Doors are the anticipation of what they conceal. This Thursday Doors Challenge hosted by Dan Antion is a fun opportunity to understand how people live, their dreams, their business, and their social status. Ciao, Valentina Amazon Author’s Page
Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion consultant, author of 6 published books, a storyteller, and a blogger of many years. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking and travel. Get a copy of her books here: Amazon and Barnes&Noble
Venice, the only Italian Venice I know, never stops to surprise me. Recently, I visited Giacomo Casanova’s exhibition at the museum in San Francisco. One of the rooms was set up as the “Putta House” (the prostitution house), the only one allowed by law in the Carampane district, often frequented by Casanova. The background wall in the exhibition showed how the lady of the night incited the trade by flashing their breasts from the brothel’s windows that overlooked the “Ponte delle Tette” (the bridge of tits).
The trade of selling sex was a common work in the Republic of Venice in the 16th Century, a city frequented by rich merchants, kings, gamblers, Italian and foreign nobles, art dealers, and a lot of the upper crust of society. The government made this kind of work legal and collected taxes from the women, but they weren’t free to live as they pleased. The government, with a decree, decided on the life of the brothel, limiting the area, time and days of operations, even dictated what the women had to wear such as a yellow scarf to distinguish themselves from respectable women. Although they were allowed to sell themselves legally, they were often scrutinized by the Inquisition for their licentious customs.
Inside a “Putta” House – Casanova Exhibition
The society divided them in two categories: * the low-rank courtesans “cortigiane di lume” (courtesans of the light), poor and inexpensive; * the high-rank courtesans “cortigiane oneste” (honest courtesans), very stylish and educated that could pass for respectable women regardless of their sins.
The high-ranking women were social climbers, depending on “la creme de la creme” of the Venetian society, and on influential lovers to accumulate wealth. Among these honest courtesans, Veronica Franco, became well known on the international scene. She was beautiful, educated, classy and was the subject of Tintoretto’s paintings. In the poetries she wrote, she encouraged women to stand up for themselves.
Inside of “Putta” House – Casanova Exhibition
Does this last view look real? Yes, it does but it’s not. It’s a tridimensional painting I brought from Venice.
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
“When there is no color, there is no energy and if there is no energy there is no life” ~ Caravaggio.
I just finished painting one side of my studio. The colors and style are not for everyone, I am sure. In my home, I am not looking for relaxing colors, I will have enough relaxation when I will be dead, now, in this life, I want colors that will vibrate my existence. I sit at the computer with this closet door behind me, it used to be white. I was tired of covering the white closet door with a curtain printed in a Paris scene, the Eiffel Tower, and Montmartre stairs, a view of Paris that offered a vicarious traveling pleasure to the audience viewing the videos I produce on various subjects.
I decided to paint colorful fantasy butterflies on this door. I had no previous drawings, photographs or ideas, I just grabbed some colors and brushes, and freehand I composed as if it was music.
Butterflies on the door
I liked what I saw as I progressed in the painting, so much to determine the colors of the wall next to it. Before it was light yellow and it became glittered red with metallic gold stripes.
I continued with the glittered red paint over the door, I thought it needed to be in unison with the wall.
I am showing the door first closed and then opened to the corridor to reveal another mural I painted a few years ago.
Door Opened
The goal of painting my home in a fantasy way was to see another view instead of a simple white wall when the doors are opened. I carried this concept in every room and it feels cheerful. I have a couple of other areas to paint, the fun continues, hoping I will stop before the roof… This is my entry for Thursday Door Challenge, hosted by Dan Antion. Ciao, Valentina Amazon Author’s Page
Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion consultant, author of 6 published books, a storyteller, and a blogger of many years. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking and travel. Get a copy of her books here: Amazon and Barnes&Noble
I had the opportunity to meet the renowned Italian artist Gino Donvito whose art doesn’t reflect anybody’s fashion. The artist lives in the Puglia region, a southern part of Italy. Emperor Frederic II and the Medieval life of the Emperor’s time are the focus of his art. A common friend to the artist introduced me to Gino Donvito. He drove me to his home and a new world of art opened up to me. A sign outside the artist’s home grabbed my attention. It said “An artist lives here” almost like a warning. Gino Donvito, the man wearing glasses in the sign, is looking straight into the eyes of Emperor Frederic II, in a confrontational attitude. I felt the sign was a challenge, at least to me.
Sign outside the artist’s home
I couldn’t help, while I was admiring his art, to notice the décor of this very peculiar home. An antique Indonesian door was readapted into a coffee table, with a glass top protecting the beautiful design and the metal decorations.
Artifact Door at Artist Gino Donvito’s home
The mixed eclectic décor made this home masculine, but very interesting. Eastern furniture met Western furniture; modern lighting and old gas oil lamps beautifully illuminated each room; Egyptian fabrics and Persian rugs contributed to the elegance of the home. Nothing matched in this décor, brass and bronze statues, ceramic and carved wood objects, old books and a lot of music records decorated the home. One main area looked into a courtyard full of olive trees, stones and tall succulent plants. The exposed wood ceiling beams and a very tall fireplace made a warm inviting home. The artist’s paintings, brushes, the many boxes of colors, and his wines were scattered everywhere.
Usually, we are accustomed to seeing the same style of interior doors. This home didn’t have a lot of interior doors, but those few were designed with different crowns and everyone hosted books.
Entrance to Gino Donvito’s home
Outside his home, nature was rough, uncultivated, and virgin, therefore the architecture of the home communicated in that context. The wood entry door was very simple, a couple of signs portraying the artist and the Emperor created the excitement of what was inside. His family’s vineyard produces excellent wines and I got to taste them as well. Getting to know Gino Donvito felt very comfortable, I had the impression to have known this artist for a long time.
If you like to know about some of his art, he paints on wood Medieval faces and Medieval life views. I wouldn’t mind having one of his faces painted on one of my doors.
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
In Barcelona, every street and every building speak art and design. At the Picasso Museum, I expected to find a modern building, maybe a surreal building, as I see many of the modern museums around the world hosting surrealist art, instead I found a typical Catalan gothic style, almost the same as the Spanish Colonial architecture seen in Central America. I was not disappointed, the building was very nice, and I had a lot of architecture to study and admire. I think the modern glass door needed to be a heavy carved wood door to keep in style with the decorative stone pediment above.
Picasso Museum – Barcelona, Spain
The museum is located on 15 Carrer de Montcada, in the Baró Gotico, basically, the historic heart of Barcelona and it spreads through five ancient stone palaces built in the 13th and 14th centuries. Through an exterior staircase in the courtyard filled with palm trees, the visitors can reach the exhibition areas upstairs.
Up there, the primary focus is on Picasso the apprentice and his early artistic life. With the teacher, his father, he mastered the human anatomy, the psychological insight of portraits, learned to paint real feelings as death and life. Growing up in France he tried to emulate many of his colleagues’ techniques: impressionist landscapes, posters and still lives.
Picasso Museum – Barcelona, Spain
It was a great pleasure to learn about his early work of the period he lived in Barcelona, a collection hardly seen anywhere. One can see over 4,000 works between paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, and ceramics.
Picasso declared he was taught to paint as an adult when he was a teenager and painted as a child when he was in his eighty. The Museum sells more than one million tickets each year, if you plan of going over there, get prepared.
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
Bari, my native town is dotted with classic and neoclassic style doors. The coffered red door in my photo was, at one point in history, the entrance to a patrician home. A coffer in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit, or vault, usually found in historical buildings of powerful families, nobles, and royals. Doors were also designed in the coffer style to mark the importance of the family living there. Today, this building with a coffered red door is home to regular working people, the patina of time on the stones around the door tells the story… it is a great expense to clean those stones, modern people without servants usually don’t pay much attention, busy as they are making a living.
Bari Vecchia (Old Bari), Italy
This type of door has a central panel that opens to let in only one person at a time. It closes with a latch and a huge iron key just like a castle key. An iron door knocker announces that someone is at the door asking to come in, otherwise, the usual screaming in the street, calling someone’s name would do the trick and a person would come out at the balcony to respond. Usually, this large door opens into an atrium without a roof, where people socially congregated. In the atrium, a set of stairs will take the people to their flats.
Bari’s old town has been revamped to accommodate fancy businesses and tourists more than residents. About twenty years ago, the city gave incentives to people living in the old Bari to leave the area and find newer homes in the modern part of Bari. As a consequence, many designers, movie producers, music makers, architects, lawyers, and many professionals took over the top floors of the historical area. Down below at the street level, restaurants, bars, pubs, various eating places, and shops for tourists occupied what was once warehouses, deposits, and market stalls. Today, old Bari is very safe and retains the charm of an ancient town. It is called the living room of the city. I remember when I needed a man to accompany me as a protection, just to attempt to walk around along the perimeter of the old town, it was never advisable for a woman by herself to get lost in the deep part where it would have been difficult to get out.
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 andBarnes&Noble
I visited la Salle or Salon Dore’ at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco when it was just reopened after a newly refitted for a seismic area. The room is a re-creation of an elegant French neoclassical interior architecture. At the time I was remodeling an upscale home in the very same French style. The hinges of the doors in this room reminded me of the same ancient door hinges I had seen in my grandmother’s home and in many ancient homes of regular blokes I visited when I was a child.
The hinges allowed the doors to open away from the frame and lay flat on the walls, giving more space to the ladies wearing a panier dress to pass through without going sideways. That’s what women wore in the 1700s. One can see the full door opened in the rectangular photo (click on the photo to see it larger). This hinge also allowed the owner of the mansion to see how many guests were in the salon without really being seen. My lovely vane grandmother did the same thing, she wanted to be fully prepared to receive her guests and peeped through the half-open door hinge. She came out when the room was full of people.
A very special door hinge at La Salle Dore’
A Bit of History During the reign of Louis XVI, the rooms’ style in patrician mansions reflected the grandeur of ancient Rome. Evoking the great exploits of Imperial Rome with giant gilded Corinthian pilasters, tall arched mirrors, trophies of war and love was the way to convey a higher social status of the owner.
Salle or Salon Dore’ Photo: Legion Of Honor
The Salle Dore’ is a historical room that passed hands many times since 1795. Its boiserie (wood paneling) beautified the rooms of many world noble elite, notable business people and bankers, from the Hôtel de la Trémoille in Paris to Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild’s mansion in England, to Mr. Rheem in Burlingame, California until finally arrived in San Francisco at the Legion of Honor Museum and re-created in its full original beauty.
My client ended up decorating one of the rooms in her home sort of like this Salon with bergères, and a canapé upholstered in blue and white silk, armchairs and console tables against the walls. The hinges….? I had to wrack my brain to find a blacksmith who could reproduce the very same style, nothing less, or my head would have come down. This is my entry for Thursday Doors challenge, hosted by Dan Antion. Ciao, Valentina Amazon Author’s Page
Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion consultant, author of 6 published books, a storyteller, and a blogger of many years. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking and travel. Get a copy of her books here: Amazon and Barnes&Noble
In response to the Thursday Doors challenge, hosted by Dan Antion, it seems appropriate to talk about a Venetian door at this Carnevale time, the largest event in Venice that happens every year forty days before Easter. This is the door of the historical Gritti hotel, one of the few most exquisite hotels in Venice.
Hotel Gritti Palace – Venice, Italy
The entry door is designed in a typical classic style, with an arched top, surrounded by stone pilasters on both sides decorated with acanthus leaves and dentilles details.
The noble palace dates back to 1475, and although today it is a commercial hotel for the “elites”, it retains the feel of a private patrician home, where exceptional art and elegance are kept.
Hotel Gritti Palace – Venice, Italy
The Pisani family owned the palace in 1475 and transformed it into a Gothic shape. In 1525 the building became the private residence of the Doge of Venice, Andrea Gritti, and in the centuries that followed, the palace changed hands many times. It was home to other noble families and illustrious visitors until the early 19th century when it became a luxury hotel.
From the outside, it looks like an ordinary entry door of a patrician palace like many others in Venice. Inside the Gritti shows an unbridled luxury to leave astonished any visitors entering an unreal world beyond all limits. Ciao. Valentina Amazon Author’s Page
Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion consultant, author of 6 published books, a storyteller, and a blogger of many years. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking and travel. Get a copy of her books here: Amazon and Barnes&Noble
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