inheritable stairs

carlo scarpa
debunking code
castelvecchio, italy

Palazzo Margherita

In a small hilltop town in southern Italy, Francis Ford Coppola has opened a boutique hotel.  The exterior courtyard gestures early tufa construction practices while the scaled plantings create a sanctuary to enjoy the bouquet of your spirit.

Gori Delights

Through a fabulous twist, I Birkenstalked* into Signori Gori's Celle Estate to linger in the lashes of his landscaped bliss. A patron of the arts, he invites mind-blowing artists to take residency at his Italian outpost in return for their landscape installations on the property. Beverly Pepper, Cy Twombly, Sol Le Wit, Richard Serra and Robert Morris are but a few that fill his guest book and local permit rap sheet. Hiking through his back 40 leaves your chin brushing your shin in awe.

*Birkenstalked: To visit a foreign, national treasure with obsessive delight while backpacking through Europe. A personal portmanteau fav- new word, don't look it up.