It's early fall in northern Italy, and designer Paolo Castellarin and his husband, Didier Bonnin, an executive at a French luxury brand, have just set the table for lunch. We're sitting under the terra-cottatiled roof of what several hundred years ago would have been an outdoor kitchen, one of numerous stone-walled buildings in the complex making up their weekend home in the hills near Piacenza. It's that sweet spot in the season when a daytime breeze still warms the skin.
As Castellarin doles out stuffed pasta cooked in butter and sage onto illustrated Richard Ginori plates, he explains that long ago this house was a thriving agricultural center. He learned that it was constructed in 1182 as a casaforte a fortified mansion on the ruins of a Roman fort. In the intervening centuries, it had turns as a convent and a partisan stronghold during the Second World War. A previous owner, some decades ago, had even unearthed neolithic pots and a millennia-old graveyard, the mummified remnants of which now reside in a nearby archaeological museum. More recently, it was the hidden love nest of a prominent local businessman, who would escape here for weekends with his mistress and also hold illicit parties undetected by his family.
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Denne historien er fra Winter 2024-utgaven av Elle Decor US.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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And How! - Decorator Nick Olsen transforms a Sag Harbor home into a Hamptons retreat with an irreverent humor.
If you must go to the Hamptons, however-because it is devilishly good fun, after all-you may notice an apparently modest, low-slung cottage on Sag Harbor's Main Street and think, with a comfortable sort of feeling, Now that is how a house should look. Nestled amid the Botox bars, helipads, and club-staurants, it could almost set the sordid world aright both a rebuke and a solution to the chaos that surrounds it. A real home.
You Stay Here
At a Martha's Vineyard compound, Steven Gambrel and Tom Kligerman have made a guest retreat so good, visitors may never want to leave.
WHAT'S IN THE MIX?
Rayman Boozer brings his mastery of color and pattern to the renovation of a Harlem duplex for a young family.
THE EMPIRE
A 19th-century gem in Cambridge, Massachusetts, gets a tour-de-force restoration thanks to Frances Merrill of Reath Design.
Now You See It
A modernist beach house's discreet profile hides killer views and knockout interiors by Rafael de Cárdenas.
CIRCLE D'AMOUR
For an object lesson on how to design a Paris love nest, look to Pierre Yovanovitch.
PARK AND RECREATIONS
With the rise of electric vehicles and a fresh focus on design, the once overlooked garage is becoming a future-forward source of joy and energy at home.
Just Like That, But Cheaper
One writer tried to replicate a classic ELLE DECOR interior in his apartment. Could he do it for $500?
But This is My Home - One writer discovers that living in an architectural icon can be a blessing and a curse.
One writer discovers that living in an architectural icon can be a blessing and a curse. My husband and I moved into the Kallis House in Los Angeles six years ago. It was designed in 1946 by the modernist architect Rudolph Schindler, and it's believed by many, including Frank Gehry, to be among Schindler's best. The house is eccentric, perched on the lip of a hill, with a butterfly roof and a shaggy exterior made of grape stakes. The interior is an unfolding series of surprising angles, with a wonderful wide view of the San Fernando Valley.
A SISTER STORY
Jewelry designer Brent Neale Winston and her decorator sibling, Ramsey Lyons, recast a historic Long Island home.