Sunday Escape - La casina delle civette in Rome A treasure in the heart of the capital
In the heart of the Roman neighborhood Nomentano, inside the park of Villa Torlonia, there is the Casina delle Civette, a small building that looks like something out of a fairytale book, so named because the owls are its recurring decorum. Designed in 1840 by Venetian renowned landscape architect Giuseppe Jappelli commissioned by Prince Alessandro Torlonia, it was born as a country with external walls of brick and tufa, looking so much like a mountain hut called Capanna Svizzera. More than sixty years later was restored by Enrico Gennari that turns into a fine residence, featuring a collage of materials (stone, copper, brick, wood, marble), of styles, of which the prevailing neo-medieval style and art nouveau. New jobs added to the building original porches, turrets, loggias with decorations in yellow tiles, green and turquoise, floor mosaics and especially with stained glass windows depicting peacocks, swallows in flight, rose, fairies and owls.
On sunny days, these jewels shine transparent like flowers, the grapes and the whole vast repertoire of figures and naturalistic motifs that inhabit them. In 1997, he survived the Second World War and a fire, after a long restoration, the Casina delle Civette a museum of glass, with a library of Applied Arts which contains about 1,400 volumes. What are you waiting? If you love the atmosphere of this magical fairytale and surreal place it is right for you.
