Different Views

Today, for a change, I don't want to 'torture' anybody with too beautiful pictures from colourful magazines or websites. So I post two other pictures that show a bit more the real situation. I hope you still can dream of visiting Italy.


This is the basement or so called 'semi-interrato'. I call it Garden Floor, because of it's tiny green space. Nobody has lived here before. It was a storage for olive oil and handmade soap (probably not at the same time).
I like this floor best. But it also needs the most of the work to make it liveable.

And the next picture show you, why I had second thoughts...


The house hangs on the edge of a cliff, about 54 meter over the sea level...
The rock itself has been renovated and reinforced with European Community money. So I hope they did the right job. Maybe you can see from the photo that they insert a concrete plate under the house... The vulcano Stromboli and Vesuvio (Naples) are sourrounding us. It is an earthquake region, yes. Okay, the house is up there since more than 200 years. So, hopefully another 100 years would be fine for us (and our son's family).

Now, you can see what I mean by considering us crazy getting involved in this.
And this is one of the better pictures. I did not want to scare you off completely. Maybe you pass by one day and want to spend a night or two...

Mood Board for our Project

Thanks to Holly Becker's 'Mood Board' contest on Decor8 I finally pushed myself to create a board for our palazzo project. It should help to define the right style for the house.

Here is what inspires me:



Here some more details from the board:


Shells in shells. That's how I could place our shell collection somewhere.


Sea view from the garden floor with iron gate.


Fresko over a door, painted by reputated painter 'Carioti', who has last lived in the house until he died in 1997.


Bouganvilla and cactus plants at the Restaurant Go, near Pizzo Calabro. That is how I picture my tiny garden on the rock.

Actually, the renovation has not started yet. Architects were supposed to make proposal, but nothing has happened in the last six month. Of course the main problem is that at the moment we are based on the other side of the world. However, my father-in-law will be on site in the next days and kick-off the thing. He will be there until we arrive in mid-July for a three weeks summer holiday.