Home tour: continuing her grandmother's dream in this house near Florence, Italy

Ciao! Benvenuta al Val di Rose. This is my family house. I was born here, so it's very nice for me to have you here like a friend. It was the dream of my grandma, but she was very poor, so she started renting a room of this villa. It was from a very rich man from Florence, a doctor. She rented a room and then she was able to rent the whole house. Then my father decided to buy it for her. It was her dream to have this big house to welcome all his family. Now Val di Rose has the same soul of my grandmother. That's why we keep it alive, to keep this welcoming atmosphere, the same that she was dreaming about. Oh, wow, I love that. Paolo made this. Oh, that's beautiful. So I mixed some little treasures from the garden or some souvenirs from holidays. I have my candles. I try to recreate the perfume of the house and I make two different fragrances. This one is Val di Rose Antico, that is the same smell that I used to feel. I try to recreate the same, one of my room and one of the house. It reminds me of the smell of this house when I was a child. It's not easy to recreate what I remember from this house. Now, to be honest, I'm removing all the paint. I'm trying to look or remember what was the original color of the house. I'm looking at my whole childhood photo and I say, OK, this was the best color, because I would like to bring it back to that. Bring it back. In some room you will see I have already removed it. I have my bedroom, but not like this, of course. But now it's just for two. If they have children, we prepare a little bed. But we usually have couples, so they just need a place where to relax, especially now in the winter. My new hobby is, how do you say, sewing? Sewing. I can only do pillow, because I learned. I used to buy linen and fabric, but I wasn't able to sew it. Now that I've learned to make pillow, I just... You can't stop. I can't stop. Yes, with whatever I want, I do a pillow. This room used to be Irene's bedroom when she was a child. And she told me that one day she wanted to remove a shell from the wall, and it revealed the original paint color that was in this room when she was still using it as her bedroom. And it got her all excited to remove the existing paint to reveal a large part of the original color of this wall. I really love this idea that she wants to bring the house back to how she remembers it. And I also love this detail in a room. It brings so much character. This room is now a sitting room that comes with one of the bedrooms, and the bathroom is in between the two. Everyone is asking me, how is it possible to have a window in the shower, and people will see, but this house has been built, and nobody lives there, so people can have a shower without anyone. Or they come to each other if you want to. Yes, of course. This was my grandparents' room. And here we tried to do the same. And their room was one of the most nicely decorated. So I started from here, but my dream is to find the whole color of the house in all the rooms. It's very easy to decorate here in Val di Rose, because especially the light, and it has this tall wall. How do you say? High ceiling. There is nothing. If you see, sometimes I welcome people that say, I would like to learn your style. People struggling to find how to decorate, how to create an atmosphere. And then they say, how do you decorate this room? And I say, there is nothing. There is just paint and just the necessary. There is nothing. But I think that some houses have their own soul that don't need too much. Exactly. Here we have also gifts from guests. It's called Rosa del Deserto. It's sand from the desert. And we have a lot of Saudi guests. These are from Spain, from a very good friend of my family. I have this little souvenir shop, because as I buy too much, and Paolo creates so much ceramic, it was born for the candle and the perfume I was talking about before. With the years, we added some little things. These soaps are beautiful. They remember me, my grandma. This was from my grandfather, the father of my grandfather. And she used to have this drawer full of useful things, like a little candle in case the light goes out, and soap to perfume. So, as I was talking about before, the perfume of her drawer remembers me, obviously. So the little soap, they are from the Florentine factory. So that's Paolo's. Paolo made everything. He can do everything. The shop has a beautiful collection of Paolo's ceramics that he makes in his little studio in the garden. The home scents and scented candles that Irene has developed based on the memories she has of her childhood, of how it smelled in this house. Little bits and pieces that she found over the years. Gems from a local monastery. And it's just a big collection of beauty and elegance. Yes, it is such a feast for the eye. I couldn't stop filming. The little terrace. From here we can see the Duomo. When I was a child, my mother used to drive the load right here. And it was full of Lenzuola. And I was here playing. And now it's a place for guests. This was my parents' room. And it used to be connected with the terrace. But now we have to create a little bed. It's a bathroom. And it has two windows. It's one of my favorites because of this. A view of the garden. And I love it because I remember... I have so many memories here. So I love it too. I'm changing a little bit. Because I stayed here this summer. We used to have one room, three. So I said, okay, let's go there with air conditioning. And relax a little bit. We wake up later. And living in this room, I turned at the table. Because I wanted to work looking at the Duomo. And I said, okay, but I want this. So every time I live in a room, I change something. This is also the secret of happiness. To be able to change. And if you keep a house the same... It doesn't breathe, probably. But if you change... It's like seeing the same things in a new way. And this was... A railing from the stairs? A friend of mine renovated his old house. And was throwing a lot of nice things like this. And I said, no, you don't have to throw it away. And he said, what can I do with it? And I said, I don't know. Give me and I will see. So to demonstrate him that I can do something with it. I can see why you want to keep this house. And keep the soul alive. It's so beautiful. I think you can... Only people that come here can feel. Because sometimes it's just about a nice photo. But when you are in the house, I think you can feel. And then... This was the living room area. We used to have this big living room that we had to separate. It used to be two different rooms. But I stayed here and I said, no, it's too near the other room. So we decided to make only one. Like a little sitting room again. And for children in case they came. And we let the little bathroom and the shower in the other side. In the room. This is my first pillow. And now I'm more good. The first pillow you made? Yes. And it used to be an arazzo. And I used the frame for another room. Paolo has created an apron made with leather. With a friend. And they used to call it The Maker. And he wanted an apron in leather. And his friend said, okay, I can do it. And he started producing with the brand The Maker. And a guest found The Maker of Florence and said, Paolo, this is for you. Beautiful. And now I have it to draw my flower. I really liked how Irena used these little baskets to decorate the wall. In every place I go or travel or even if it is one hour from home, if I found one, the day is nice, was nice, I buy one and I put here. Just a collection of memories. And here there is the last room. This was the old arazzo. I bought this from... And I made this also to cover the electric things. Ah, again. Yes, again. This is a sheet. This was for the bed. I couldn't find one and last minute I made this. And I would like to arrive to this color. But I'm not sure that all the room is the same. Can you see how many things? I tried to learn to put, but every time I said, oh, no, it's too much. And I remove, and I remove. And my husband said, oh, please, stop. Too much for me is impossible to do. You see, this is very simple. Sometimes people say, OK, but what problem do you have with the mirror? And I say, no, but it's OK, just one. Sometimes here, when there are beautiful dress and nice shoes, and I say, oh, I like, I would like to take a photo. Because it's nice when people arise and, as you say... Bring their personality. Bring their personality, yes. In Italian we say, dai la. That means you give the note just to start, no? And you just give a little bit of inspiration, and people can continue your story. This is the ancient kitchen. It was like this, but the space, but was connected to the room just near here. And we used to have... What is this? I mean, a fireplace there? Yeah. But now we have not anymore. Where did you find the big cabinet? Was it in the house? No. It comes from the laundry of Montecatini Terme. They closed it, and they sold all the stuff that were in the laundry. And a friend of mine bought everything, and I bought from her the table of the veranda, this cabinet, and the one in the hall. It has been really a nice experience, because when we opened it, the wardrobe was full of things. For me it was like a Christmas moment. Yeah. The only thing we changed is for the fridge. But Paolo is very good with wood too. Ah, yeah. So he made a little fridge for our guests. It's a mess, but... Everybody needs a handyman husband. Yes, he is. See, in fact, I asked him, I want something here. And as you can see, it's just wood. For me, the important thing is the use of the things. I just needed some shelves, and he made this. The functionality. Yes, the functionality. And the fun fact is that we really use all this stuff, if not for decorating. Sometimes you see a place where everything is nice, but we really use everything. I bought a lot of these things. Also, when I went to New York or Copenhagen, I always looked for vintage shops. And when I came back home, they looked like they had always been here. And everyone asked me, how do you describe the style of Val di Rose? And I said, I don't know. It's just Val di Rose for me. But I'm sure that when something doesn't fit with Val di Rose, I know and I feel. So I don't know the style, but I know what is not in the style of Val di Rose. Exactly. I just know what is not good for this place. This house to me feels like such a beautiful and personal collection of treasures. It is filled with so many beautiful furniture pieces, and I also love Irene's beautiful collection of dishes. As I like to travel during the winter, I started buying everything from my travel. And I travel a lot from France, and some from England. And all my guests, all my friends, when come here, arrive with some plates. So every piece is from a friend. I use it a lot also for my cookbook. So I love to have a lot of props. And textiles, of course. I love also to buy this brocante. My style is very messy. So sometimes there are some places, like here, where I just put my things. And I said, OK, I will keep it like this, this season. And it changes with the weather, with the season. Yes. What more can I say about this absolutely beautiful family home? What I love is that you can feel that this has been lived in. It has a story. Each room, each item has a story. And I love that Irene and Paolo have decided to continue the story that her grandmother started writing decades ago. I hope you have enjoyed this home tour video as much as I have enjoyed filming it. Thank you so much, Irene and Paolo, for inviting us to your home and showing us around. If you want to see more home tour videos like this one, be sure to subscribe to my channel. And I hope to see you back for a new home tour video very soon.