Eat Pray Love~On the Italian Culture

I did this post in 2008 before our first trip to Italy. After spending an accumulative 7 weeks there and having kids live there for three years I can clearly see that Luigi Barzini was right on. It will be interesting to see the new movie, Eat Pray, Love in August when it is released.
"I recently read Eat Pray Love in anticipation of our trip to Italy. Elizabeth Gilbert summarizes Luigi Barzini, in his 1964 masterpiece, The Italians, that was written when he'd finally grown tired of foreigners writing about Italy and either loving it or hating it too much. He tried to set the record straight on his own culture. He tried to answer the question of why the Italians have produced the greatest artistic, political, and scientific minds of the ages, but have still never become a world power? Why are they the planet's masters of verbal diplomacy, but still so inept at home government? Why are they so individually valiant, and yet so unsuccessful as an army? How can they be such shrewd merchants on the personal level, yet such insufficient capitalists as a nation?

He said it had much to do with a sad Italian history of corruption by local leaders and exploitation by foreign dominators, all of which has generally led Italians to draw the seemingly accurate conclusion that nobody and nothing in the world can be trusted. Because the world is so corrupted, misspoken, unstable, exaggerated and unfair, one should trust only what one can experience with one's own senses and this makes the senses very strong, in fact they are stronger in Italy, than in all of Europe. This is why, Brazini says, Italians will tolerate hideously incompetent generals, presidents, tyrants, professors, bureaucrats, journalist and captains of industry, but will never tolerate incompetent 'opera singers, conductors, ballerinas, courtesans, actors, film directors, cooks, tailors...' In a world of disorder and disaster and fraud, sometimes only beauty can be trusted. Only artistic excellence is incorruptible. Pleasures cannot be bargained down. And sometimes the meal is the only currency that is real. (This is a thought worth some reflection.)

The Pieta~Michelangleo

To devote yourself to the creation and enjoyment of beauty, then, can be a serious business---not always necessarily a means of escaping reality, but sometimes a means of holding on to the real when everything else is flaking away."

I really found this so interesting and it struck a cord with me that I don't fully understand but I want to ponder. I find some truth in it in relationship to my profession as a decorator, how my senses can be trusted to find the beauty in the chaos. It is all rather worth some serious thought and reflection for me."

Luciano Pavarotti

Decorating a Mantel~Wedding Style

Yesterday was such a fun day. Our friends, Timme and John's son, Alden is getting married in another week in Idaho. So they had a "pre-ception" for them here in CA at their beautiful home last night. It could not have been a more lovely evening! The weather was gorgeous, the dinner delicious and the company outstanding. They had the dinner catered and we dined outside by the pool~ it was heavenly!

Timme asked me to decorate the mantel in her living room with something nice. I was delighted to help out. A mantel is simple enough but I wanted to ask my friend, Maureen, to help me. She, you may remember, use to help me stage homes and she is also a floral designer.

Neither one of us had ever made a live garland we confessed when we sat down to do it! Ah, the pressure...but we decided to give it a go. Actually it was remarkable easy and a lot of fun. The hardest part is keeping it fresh looking for a few hours. We started out tramping through our yard just cutting various greenery and then we brought it all in, layered it and wired the seven foot garland together. The heartier the green the better they held up!


I bought two beautiful hurricane candle holders, some white sparkly sand and some light yellow candles to blend in with her Tuscan wall treatment. I ♥ her walls, all mottled looking and so Italian! Scrumptious! Look at the detail below.


The bride had selected a dove gray and white as her wedding colors so since there are no gray flowers we were aware of, we decided to complement the room with a little touch of saffron yellow. We also used some little white flowers and some baby's breath pompom thingies ( my highly technical description since I have no clue what they are called) that made up the bouquets for the tables. We grabbed some white lights and a couple rolls of wired, delicate, white ribbon with a little shimmer and this is what we came up with for the party. They seemed pleased and it made a nice focal point being the first thing you saw when you entered the room from the foyer. The fireplace is just fabulous with the granite surround and hearth and the beautiful carved wood detailing.

Most of the evening they had a video
of the bride and groom playing on the
flat screen above the mantel.
For this shot it was music.

Maureen and I had a lot of fun doing it!
We are constantly laughing when we are together...
so it was a win/win for us all!