Independent on Sunday 25th July 1999Life inside a CanalettoSarah Greenberg .... The Casa dell'Albero, as this 17th-century merchants house at the Ponte dell'Albero is known, was the most comfortable palazzo I sampled. A narrow, three-storey structure on a tributary of the Grand Canal, it belongs to members of the grand English clan of the Sitwells. They moved here after selling the family's Tuscan villa at Montegufoni, and they brought some of that villa's Old Masters and heavy antiques with them. The art, the marble floors and original wood beams dazzle, but this is a house meant for living in rather than looking at. Books are tucked under the eaves and Landseer dog prints and old fox- hunting certificates hang haphazardly. Each of the three bedrooms opens on to the quiet canal and is dominated by a bizarre but beautiful antique bed that straddles the tiny space like a behemoth, pinning the equally ornate armadio (wardrobe) against the wall. Something about this place made us want to stay inside. The roof terrace was ideal for listening to birds at breakfast and sipping Prosecco and Fragolino (a pink sparkling wine made from berry-flavoured grapes) at twilight...
|
 |
Sarah Greenberg stayed in:
|
