New Rizzoli Book Wows Us with Eclectic Venetian Interiors

Don't you love to snoop inside other people's homes? We certainly do, and the new Rizzoli book Venetian Interiors (Giuseppe Molteni and Roberta Motta, with text by Nicoletta Del Buono) takes us inside 15 of the most amazing private homes in Venice. We're treated to Italian interiors that light up the pages of this amazing coffee table book - from a blue-and-white palazzeto and a fabric designer's converted lumber warehouse to the home of a DJ who has filled his elegant rooms with high-tech electronics, frescoed ceilings, and rocaille wood paneling. Leave us a comment and tell us which of the ten rooms below are your favorites, and why! (All photos below are by photographer Giuseppe Molteni, copyright 2012 RCS Libri S.p.A., Milan.)

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Secrets and Highlights of the Isabella Stewart Gardiner Museum

(The Courtyard, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum)Janet Ramin - What do you get when you mix a Venetian palace, priceless artwork, a female patron, and a daring art robbery?  If you answered the Guggenheim Museum in Venice, you’re only partially right, but if you came up with the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, then you’ve hit bull’s-eye! These ingredients make for a thrilling history, maybe even for a movie. The Gardner Museum is back in the news with a reopening this past January after going through renovations and the addition of a new wing by Italian architect Renzo Piano - see below. The original building is seen at the right corner. 

(New Wing of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum)Modeled after a 15th-century Venetian palazzo, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum has always been considered a jewel among small museums, mainly for its masterpiece collection but also because of its beautiful, intimate and atmospheric space. It was also infamous for a dramatic art heist, still unsolved to this day. If you’re hunting for a Degas or a Vermeer painting, you may still uncover a hidden treasure out there!

(postcard of original Gardner Palazzo)The Gardner Museum is also one of the very few museums started by

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