This post will mark the completion of Villa del Vigneto, which I started building on Oct. 13, 2015, and completed on May 23, 2018. This is a very long post, for which I apologize in advance. I will use as few words as possible and let the photographs speak for themselves as I take you on a tour of the completed villa. (You know I love tours!) Those of you who may have followed my blogposts from the beginning will already have seen all the rooms that are included in the tour; I hope that you won't mind the repetition.
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF VILLA DEL VIGNETO
The villa was originally a farmhouse, built in 1750, with living quarters above a barn. There was also a storeroom in the barn and a dovecote on the roof. The farm was sold in 1850 to Leonardo Gabriele, a Venetian banker who remodeled the house and barn, turning them into a country house, or villa-fattoria, for his family. Leonardo dreamed of growing a vineyard and perhaps converting one end of the barn into a winery. He christened the retreat "Villa del Vigneto," - the villa of the vineyard. He incorporated a grapevine motif into various areas of the villa and planted a grape arbor outside the kitchen door. For various reasons, the vineyard was a dismal failure, but the villa's name, the grapevine motif, and the grape arbor remain.
Now, in 1910, Leonardo's grandson, Leopoldo Gabriele, has inherited Villa del Vigneto and visits there as often as possible from his home in Venice. Leopoldo has undertaken more remodeling, and the villa now boasts electricity and indoor plumbing. Leopoldo's wife and daughter, along with his older spinster sister, spend every summer at the villa, and Leopoldo takes frequent breaks from his work to join them.
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AN INTERIOR TOUR
Our tour begins in the kitchen, because this was the first room that I completed in the villa.
Magda, the cook, has been preparing a board of sausage and cheese to take out to the terrazza beneath the grape arbor, where it will be enjoyed by Liliana and Leopoldo Gabriele, the owners of the villa. Magda has made herself a cup of coffee to drink as she begins dinner preparations but is letting it cool while she slips around to gather herbs from the garden at the back of the villa.
The beautiful toweling fabric with red and green striped trim was a gift from Elizabeth, along with the perfect red tomatoes, the carrots, sausage, and - way back on the counter - a jar of pasta. Thank you again, Elizabeth. That box of treasures goes on and on!
Our tour takes us through this door that leads from the kitchen into the dining room.
The beautiful plates are from A Lavender Dilly.
This arched opening is between the dining room and the entrance hall; we'll go through it later.
If we go through the door on the right, we'll find ourselves on the terrazza, where Liliana and Leopoldo are still enjoying wine and waiting for dinner. But for now, let's cross the dining room, go through the arched doorway and into the entrance hall.
We're greeted here by Guido, the handsome Bloodhound created by Karl Blindheim.
After crossing the entrance hall and bypassing the stairs, we'll walk through a second arched doorway into the living room, where we'll make a counter-clockwise circuit of the room.
As we pass by the doorway, we have a glimpse back through the entrance hall into the dining room. Guido has left his post for more interesting pursuits.
And we're back at the chair that the oboist has left for a moment. (Or maybe for more than a moment - Leopoldo plays the oboe, and he's ensconced on the terrazza with Liliana and a glass of wine.) We'll take this opportunity to go back through the arched door and up the stairs that you see through the opening.
Guido has returned to his post and will see us safely up the stairs.
The bathroom, which is located at the back west corner of the villa, was the first upstairs room to be finished. The door opens to a short hallway that leads back to the stair landing on the left or to the master bedroom straight ahead.
This bedroom belongs to Liliana and Leopoldo. Through the doorway, you can see the short hallway leading to the bathroom. The bedroom is at the front of the villa.
The door also offers a glimpse through to the stair landing.
The stair landing.
A view from the landing, through the arched opening to the hallway and into the bathroom.
There is an identical arched door on the opposite side of the landing that leads to two more hallways and two bedrooms on the east side of the villa.
You can barely see the doorway that leads from the landing. The short hallway here opens into the tranquil bedroom of Sophia Gabriele, Leopoldo's older sister. Zia Sophia has gone for an early evening walk with her niece, Gianna.
The short hallway makes a right turn into a long, long, hallway that leads to Gianna's small east bedroom or, farther along, to a door that opens to a small balcony on the east side of the villa.
We will enter Giana's bedroom here. Gianna is the fifteen-year-old daughter of the villa. This was the last room completed in Villa del Vigneto.
This concludes our tour of the interior rooms of the villa, and soon we'll continue the tour around the exterior premises. But first, I'll take this opportunity to interject some photos and information about the flowers, vines, and other landscaping elements that I've used in completing the villa.
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CREATING GERANIUMS
I've never made a miniature flower before; I've only contrived flowers or arrangements from real-size fake flowers and leaves, which turn out to be of some vague generic variety. But I needed geraniums for the villa, and geraniums have such a distinctive look that I couldn't contrive a substitute. I bit the bullet and looked up a tutorial by Kris Compas - an excellent tutorial that was actually fun to do. Lacking Kris' expertise, I muddled my way through and was happy with the resulting geraniums, although there is much room for improvement if I make them again.
The tutorial said that the little spherical bases for the petals should not have folds. That was beyond my ability. Count the folds.
Stems have been added to the bases.
These are among the hundreds of geranium petals that I made. Each geranium consists of 15 petals glued onto the spherical base.
Punching out geranium leaves from painted paper.
Leaves have been glued to flower stems, and I've made extra stems of leaves.
I didn't have orange paper for the geraniums, so I used red paper and painted the red flowers orange.
I did have to contrive some geraniums buds from a plastic stem of small pods.
The finished orange geraniums - Thank you, Kris!
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CONTRIVING POTTED FLOWERS
I filled many pots with contrived "generic" flowers. I also added the pink geraniums that I made to the pots of mixed flowers.
I was having a hard time getting the flowers to stay in place in the pots. After I tried several methods unsuccessfully, Robert suggested that I try a mixture of used coffee grounds and glue, stirred together to a doughy consistency. I tried that, and it worked like magic, gripping and holding each flower stem as I inserted it into the arrangement - and the mixture dried to a stable, hard consistency that looks like soil.
Additional planters and other landscaping elements. I forgot to take a photo of the original benches and the cherub. This photo shows them with a coat of joint compound brushed on.
This aged bench and cherub will be used in the villa's entrance courtyard. The second bench will live on the terrazza.
These are some of the flower makings for the two wall planters and the urn in this photo.
Just when I thought I was all finished potting flowers, I decided that I really needed more. I started all over again with more bits and pieces from real-size flowers.
The wild-looking vines in the two long planters will grow through the balcony railings, and I'll add flowers to the restrained vines.
Now that the pots of flowers and other landscaping elements are in place, we're ready to continue our tour of the villa's exterior.
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THE BALCONIES
The west balcony off the master bedroom.
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The balcony off Zia Sophia's bedroom.
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The balcony at the end of the long hallway at the back corner of the villa.
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THE TERRAZZA
We've worked our way from west to east on the upper level, so now we'll come down to the terrazza just outside the kitchen. The near door that you see in this photo opens into the dining room. Liliana and Leopoldo have left their chairs for a short time while they stroll down the drive to meet Gianna and Zia Sophia as they return from their leisurely walk. You may just glimpse Momi the Mouser inside the kitchen door near the chair.
Tosca, another of the villa cats, is watching and waiting - but for what or for whom only she knows.
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THE ENTRANCE COURTYARD
Luca, the Brittany Spaniel, is also watching and waiting and may decide to run to meet Gianna, his favorite family member.
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OVERALL EXTERIOR VIEWS
Here is the back of Villa del Vigneto, partially covered with creeping vines.
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And so the end of Villa del Vigneto's construction brings us also to the end of this post. I've grown very attached to the villa and its occupants during more than 2 1/2 years of working on it (and playing in it.) I'm sure that you can relate to the mixed emotions of elation and sadness that I feel upon completing this project. I'm happy, though, that the villa will continue to live in my home so that I can visit often. The doors are always open, the occupants are always welcoming, and the wine is always ready to pour - so please join me at Villa del Vigneto at any time!
I'll be returning soon with a post that will introduce my next project (how fickle is that?!) which will be much smaller than the villa but will be challenging, nevertheless. Meanwhile, June is "bustin' out all over," and it's time to go out and enjoy the summer sun!
