Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Renovated Villages / Abandoned Places

Villa de Vecchi – Interior images

September 4, 2012
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Recently I wrote of Villa de Vecchi, a beautiful abandoned building I came across  through an image shared on facebook. I not only fell in love with the building but also wanted to discover the story of the original owners.  Since writing this post I have traveled further in my quest to find the “truth” [...]

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Villa de Vecchi – the dream

August 23, 2012
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“Art is never finished, only abandoned.” ~Leonardo Da Vinci~ Felix De Vecchi, a Count who had traveled many parts of the world and been a soldier came home to Italy. He bought with him a passion for the East which is reflected in the home he was about to create. Only in his thirties, it [...]

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Balestrino – Inkheart and Coffee Tables

June 11, 2012
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  “Take nothing but pictures…leave nothing but footprints” Once upon a Time….” Meggie and her father share an extraordinary gift for bringing characters from books to life when they read aloud. But there is a danger: when a character is brought to life from a book, a real person disappears into its pages.” So began [...]

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Our dream Italian Village – renovation project stage one

March 23, 2012
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Standing on the balcony at Borga Nari, the long abandoned village across the valley enticed us to explore. Fascinated by the way it seemed to vertically caress the mountain, we set off a number of times to find it but something always happened to stop us. One day Carina and Sam headed off for a [...]

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Dream Italian Villages – our first encounter

March 10, 2012
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Continuing on with our stories of renovated villages I’d like to share with you the beautiful San Bernardo… I particularly love this hamlet in the mountains of Piemonte as it was the first time we came across an entire renovated community. Our new house in Veravo is a ten minute walk from the stunning Colletta [...]

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Could you live without electricity – an Untouched village in the Alps

September 6, 2011
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We crossed the Alps many times from Italy into France and I was always intrigued by the mountain villages with their tiny tiny narrow “roads” and the life the people lived here. This village although not in Italy is only a short way over the border into Switzerland and is the closest I’ve found on [...]

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