Palladian Days: Finding a New Life in a Venetian Country House

I had the distinct pleasure of experiencing a private tour of this wonderful villa, with art and architecture students from the University of California at Berkeley, and enjoyed meeting Sally and Carl Gable in June 1997. I waited for years for this volume to appear. The wait was worth it all! I recall the splendor and excellent porportions of the Villa. And the welcoming presence of the Gables. You cannot completely understand their quality as people, and their commitment to preservation of this historically indispensable home, until you stand in their presence. Their knowledge of the history of the Villa, and the renovation and restoration techniques, is limitless. And above all, their understanding of European and Italian workers, and their families, and the town setting in which the Villa sits, is amazing. Here within this book, you have Sally as your affectionate guide. I had no clear idea, until I read the book the first time many months ago, that she would prove to be such a fascinating writer. Such clear and evocative writing! Those of you who are familiar with that zany and rich animal otherwise known as the "Italian Character" will understand immediately that she has penetrated into the core and spirit of the Italian social world that swirls around her home. She and Carl opened themselves up to the intimate worlds of all persons that intersected with the Villa, its most recent preservation, and its month-to-month upkeep. The details of that progressive seeping into that social world are fascinating. And the pacing of the unexpected calamities and expensive surprises which awaited them, spilling down on them without warning, will be familiar to any of you who know Italy, and Italians, well. Because what happened to the Gables happens to all residents of Italy. This life force emerging from the Italian Volcanic Soil could be summed up this way: "Why worry about the future? It's going to smack you in the head soon enough. So, lighten up in the meanwhile. Have some wine, and some vegetables and soup and pasta, and sit down and watch the sunset, and see what's happening with the neighbors." LIFE will coming crashing down upon you, soon enough. Ms. Gable captures the sequences of her learning about this in individual chapters that hang in the mind. With wit, great clarity of understanding of character, and tons of humor knitted into all of her stories. I encourage all readers of this book to go to this Villa, which is unusual in its double-height Reception Hall, in the absence of original painted fresco "paintings." Ms. Gable has it correct that the Cornaro family brandished their immense wealth and influence in daring to incorporate intensely expensive real sculpture into the Reception Area, in carefully calculated placements in niches set into the plaster walls. They lavished more expense, in the first building of this Villa, in their country home's Reception Room than most nobles could have mustered in their entire

Informative, amusing, thoughtful, analytic, on occasion sentimental - strikes a perfect balance, a great pleasure to read - unforgettable . . . Story in brief: Upon stumbling by chance over a classified advertisement Sally goes nuts over the idea of buying an Italian historic monument on sale, a real Palladian villa she can scarcely afford. The grand place is on sale and Sally gets really obsessed over it - she manages to drag her beloved, nonchalant, husband Carl into this too. A noble obsession indeed; Sally eventually overcomes all obstacles and succeeds in making her dream come true: she manages to buy the thing, and the rest is history. No, this is no fiction. Sally and Carl Gable are real persons. American, too - (sigh . . . .). The book provides a lively and very personal account of the Gables' adventure of taking hold of the renowned Villa Cornaro, built by Andrea Palladio in 1552 for the wealthy Venetian patrician Giorgio Cornaro, the restoration jobs they had to undertake, their process of adapting to life within a rural Italian community, making friends, Veneto adventures and misadventures, history, local customs, culinary delights - and what have you. Along the way the reader gets a lot of information on the villa itself, its immediate surroundings and its history, as well as an overall historic and local background. I ordered Sally's book almost as an afterthought, bundled to my order of Palladio's "The Four Books on Architecture" (translated by Robert Tavernor) and Tavernor's own "Palladio and Palladianism" (two absolute "musts" on the subject of Palladian architecture, along with Vitruvius' "The Ten Books on Architecture"). That proved to be a lucky day. Sally & Carl Gable's book details original Palladian architecture as seen from the perspective of the actual inhabitants of the architect's creation, and its surrounding community and history - a rare human-centric first-hand account, perfectly complementing scholarly publications on the subject. Informative, interesting and lively, never a boring moment, a lot to learn, a joy to read. When you are sad that a book is over, you know it has been a great book . . . . Highly recommended (if that has not been apparent from the above).

It takes a lot of determination to do what the Gables (and the Rushes before them) did. They bought not just any villa in Italy, but one of the supreme villas by one of the most noted Renaissance architects. Owning this house becomes a career and the Gables shoulder it with love. The book has many b & w photos, but for a better look, Google "Palladio" (boglewood should appear in the top links) for color photos which are more striking. This site, by the Gable's son, has even more info on Palladio and his villas. Each morning it takes 30 minutes to open the 44 heavy shutters and another 30 to bolt them at night. The Gables hire someone who can make the rounds in 20 minutes. Other needs of the house: a working kitchen, leaks in the roof and moisture in the floor, rewiring (I think it took 3 weeks), scorpion irradication (which is minimized in text but took 3 years), a conversion from septic to city sewage similary take time and outside help. While two authors are credited, it is clearly Sally's voice. The book is divided into short essays, each devoted to a topic. Many of them stand on their own, and could be published elsewhere for other purposes. For instance, the visit to the archives, clearly makes readers appreciate the research that goes into historical writing. Other vignettes describe friends, Venetian glass, the Cornaros, the frescoes, other Palladio villas at a visit from Bob Vila etc. We learn that actual costs are higher or lower than estimates or expectations but there are no stated amounts. Whatever the costs, it's clear, to embark on such a project you need devotion, flexibility and deep pockets. This is a delightful book. If you are not interested in Palladian architecture when you start it, you will be when you're done.

Review of "Palladian Days" by Julia Rush. As former owners of the Villa Cornaro - which Sally and Carl write about so enthusiastically, interestingly, and in detail in their new book "Palladian Days" concerning among other things, the problems which arose during their ownership, we are pleased to see how well they have managed.. They have handled problems well (roof and back balcony and scorpions, etc.) and we chose them among the several prospective buyers because we knew that they would be able to handle any emergency that arose and that they would fit into the town and had the necessary funds and would obtain the knowledge necessary to do maintenance and repairs properly. They have been more perfect than we could expect - and in the sixteen years (since 1989) that they have owned the Villa they have maintained it perfectly, done repairs and restorations as needed, opened the Villa to the public, and all of the town loves them and appreciates what they do and their friendly attitude. Sally took the trouble to learn Italian immediately, and this got her off to a good start. Carl has, I believe, lectured on the Villa Cornaro (as Richard had also done for twenty years while he owned it) and Palladio and the influence of the great architect, and they have a marvelous web page - with an amazing amount of history of the Villa including pictures, and other major Villas by Palladio and the Cornaro family. Carl has also written a very good book on Murano Glass. Sally and Carl's research on the Cornaro family, the Villa Cornaro and Palladio and other villas and beautiful Venice (which comes out in the book as well as the web pages) amazes me and we are quite proud of them for it. My husband, Richard Rush, purchased the Villa Cornaro from the Italian government (L'Ente per le Ville Venete) in 1969, after a year of negotiation and with letters of recommendation from several of our friends, "The Richest American", the late J. Paul Getty, who was restoring a villa near Rome, and Richard's friend, the Secretary of Commerce, C. R. Smith, and Count Giorgio Geddes de Filcaia, whose family owned a 250 room palace near Florence and who was a friend of Richard's for some years because of his interest in automobiles - especially Ferrari. He translated our proposal, and it was perhaps because of him we became interested in living in Italy, although we had been collecting Italian art and antiques for a number of years, had written in the field and my favorite city is Venice.. The Villa which had been used as a school for young children and was purchased by the Italian government(L'Ente Per Le Ville Venete) to keep it from further damage, was in need of restoration - of all new electric wiring, all new plumbing, new baths, new kitchen equipment, and the glass in the leaded glass windows was broken, the metalwork on gates needed restoration, the gardens were over-run, there were posters pasted on the front garden wall,

I bought this for a friend last week and after she finished it I stole it back. I absolutely loved it. I have visited Italy twice myself and everything written in this book totally reminded me of it. It is basically about two people (Americans) who buy an insanely famous Italian villa built in 1552. This covers the years since then and the sometimes hillarious things that have happened to them. This is mixed with historical detail about the architect Andrea Palladio and the Cornaro family who commissioned him to build it. I guarantee you will love this book and probably laugh just as loud as I did. Also try the risotto recipies in the back. The one I tried so far was brilliant. My friends think I invented it.