Celebrities

I was reading today the latest post by Style Court.

Courtney had the great idea  of the "Three Wishes" and asked Interior designer Grant K.Gibson, whose blog I also follow daily, to describe his. If I can add a comment I am sure Grant had another wish come true having just returned from Venice.
When I read that one of his wishes was to own Villa del Balbianello at Como Lake, being a Milanese myself I could not pass to mention again the superb Villa which luckily was donated to  F.A.I. (worth looking at the website) and which we can now visit during the year.

 

In the spring of 2006, the movie Casino Royale was filmed in front of the villa (the outdoor scenes of Bond recovering).The same villa can also be seen in Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones.
I often spend time at Como Lake, in Moltrasio, not far from that villa and I was there when they were filming Ocean's Eleven in 2001. The whole area was so excited (Brad was there with Jennifer, they were still together then, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia were sipping cappuccino in town...) George Clooney soon after  bought a beautiful 18th Century villa 10 minutes from us and here are some images you may enjoy.

This is the facade, simple, elegant, neoclassical style.

The dining area with the original large fireplace and floor. The monk's table may be from previous centuries (it is called "Fratino" in Italian)

The master bedroom (not my favourite interior decoration...but who would care???). The floor is an elegant ornate "terrazzo veneziano" or "graniglia di marmo".

The ceiling...apparently George bought the villa because very fond of the ornate ceilings and he said in an interview "This was before television, so you just watched the ceiling"...well if this ceiling is in the master bedroom it would be so great to forget about television and I am sure many of us would looove to watch that ceiling...while resting...

This is where he maintains his "physique du role"

and here is where he can relax after so much excitement (!!!)

and, just between us, when in Moltrasio we can still see him playing soccer at times with the kids outside the church! What a guy!

In my "Art, Architecture, Interiors" tour in Milan I added a night at Como lake because I find it magnificent and also because...you never know...

Thanks to Courtney and to Grant for the sudden inspiration they gave me to write this post.

You may also like to read:
A House on Como Lake
The end to an era of excess
James Bond's bedroom