CASA ITALIANA BOOK

Many images spring to mind when imagining a house in Italy. The Tuscan farmhouse on a Siena hilltop; the aristocrat's villa with its harmonious proportions, tiled roof, and classical gardens; the Mediterranean house, with whitewashed walls and scented jasmine on the terrace. A lovely Italy, enchanted, which now is to be found sadly more in our imagination than in everyday reality.

In particular, the objective I set myself was to seek out an original and contemporary Italian style and look for authentic houses, autographed by the personality of those who live there. I sought enthusiasts of the art of living, those intrigued by their surroundings, content to adhere to a personal and sometimes eccentric model. Perhaps this is the common thread that links the twenty-five stories gathered in this volume. Both famous and unheard of personalities, who used their own homes to affirm themselves, are featured. As I said, no style dominated. In fact, the goal was to find as much diversity as possible, from contemporary to classical, from eccentric to baroque.

The owners of these houses do share one thing:

the need to leave one's mark on one's own nest.

A number of affinities can be seen. For some, a house is a manifesto of their personal aesthetic.

It may be an act of faith in modern and rationalist architecture, as in the case of the Roman architects Piero Sartogo and Nathalie Grenon, who are involved in twentieth-century culture and thus collect historic items, lamps, objects, textiles, and works of art, combining them with great harmony within the container they have designed.