How does a person thinking about buying a vacation home in New Hampshire wind up intent on home ownership in Italy? Better yet, how does a Hot-lanta couple decide they need to live in a 16th century villa in the Vento region? We're talking about a house built in 1552! Sally and Carl Gable's story of buying Villa Cornaro is fascinating and, by the way Sally tells it, very funny. Palladian Days is a great combination of historical facts about the region, the architect, the owners of the house as well as modern day Italian ways. Everything from fixing the villa to opening it for tours, recitals and concerts is covered. Gable includes Italian recipes, hilarious stories of the many, many visitors, the 15 minutes of fame when Villa Cornaro was featured on a Bob Vila show.
As an aside, I borrowed both the audio version and the print version. I recommend doing both because you will miss out on something if you do only one. Kathe Mazur's reading of Palladian Days is brilliant. I loved her accent. But, the book version includes great photographs that really bring the entire villa into perspective (it really is massive!). And don't forget about those recipes! ( )

A well-written account of life in a centuries old Venetian country house. An American couple somewhat impulsively falls in love with this elegant structure, buys it and proceeds to live there during the temperate parts of the year (no central heating or cooling). We're taken into the history of the construction, the people who lived there and the famous architect who built it. We are taken into the small town which surrounds the home and experience the interesting interaction between these implanted Americans and the local folks. Much time is spent on descriptions of food and some recipes are included. The best part is stories of the workmen who come to keep the home functioning. The Gables are good writers interlacing their humorous stories with background material and keeping the book moving with short chapters and minimum erudite descriptions. They have the personalities and skills to integrate well with the town and with the intellectuals who take an interest in their home. If you liked A Year in Provence, you will like this, too. ( )

This review is for the abridged CD version. This is a rather scattershot memoir of the trials and triumphs of life in a Veneto villa designed by Palladio. Narrated by the author, it has bits of information about the nearby residents, the history of the original owner and his descendants, the villa’s history, Venetian art, family life, maintenance of a national treasure, and assorted other topics. To me, it never described any of these very well, though it had a few good moments. Diverting enough to listen to in the car, but I retained few lasting memories. ( )

Three comments about this work, which I like. First, it is a cleanly written testament to the ability of ample resources (time, focus, commitment, money) to make significant contributions to the physical and social fabric of the cultural continuum. Second, it is just as much a romance as anything a Broadway composer ever saluted, save that the romance is not between boy and girl but between a high-energy American couple very much of our times (Sally and Carl Gable of Atlanta, Georgia) and a Palladian villa whose needs make it vulnerable and whose historic beauty makes it irresistible (Villa Cornaro in Piombino Dese, the Veneto). Third, the “voice” of the book does not succumb to the usual traps of attempting to be either too academic for the purpose or too sentimental for the intellectual comfort of the uninvolved.

Rather, this is a straightforward, clear-eyed account of the relationship between the Gables and the villa and what each has brought to the other in the almost two decades since Sally first read the fateful ad in the New York Times. One of the most appealing aspects of the book is the way in which it presents the citizenry of Piombino Dese, not as eccentrics with lovable or irritating idiosyncrasies (as is so often the approach in such works), but as real people attempting to retain connections and customs that matter to them even as they inevitably bridge old socioeconomic patterns and new.

This is, in short, not a book for those looking for a cozy account of “ooh, sweet couple buy really nifty house and live happily ever after (although they appear to have done so).” Nor will it appeal to those seeking a professionally comprehensive history of Palladio, Palladian houses, the Veneto, and modern-day Italian politics. For those, however, who see important architecture as the embodiment in concrete form of the spirit of civilization past and its preservation and adaptive use as a test of civilization present, this book is a fascinating read, as much for what it leaves between the lines as for what went upon the printed page. ( )

A wonderful topic for a book that suffers from the author's vanity and limited exposure to the world. Acquiring and living in a villa designed by one of the world's greatest architects offers a sheer unlimited number of interesting avenues. The book is at its best when the new owners have to deal with their (lack of) creature comforts, the intrusion of unwanted house guests (scorpions!), the daily upkeep and renovation of the building.

The parts about Andrea Palladio, the villa's architecture and the Cornaro owners could have been systematized and expanded. A lot of times, obvious connections are left dangling, such as Venice's involvement in Cyprus which started by a Cornaro marriage to the local king and ended with the death of a Cornaro at the sea battle of Lepanto, a coda to Venice's loss of Cyprus. The Cornaro were involved at the beginning (marriage) and the end (death).

Instead, the author discovers basic Italian cooking, the Italian language and Italian family life. These observations include some nuggets but mostly lead to question the quality of the ivy league education of the author. Married to a Southerner, is she really so amazed about the existence of regional dialects? An extremely sheltered suburban mom discovers the world but her judgment does not improve in the process and the book is littered with mistakes of understanding (eg at the beginning of the new millennium, Italian budget deficits were not worsening but actually improving - as Italy scrambled and fudged its way into Euroland.). If you are looking for a book about Americans living abroad, this may be of interest. If architecture is your focus, Witold Rybczynski's A perfect house might be a better match. ( )