Azure is a rare colour in the animal and vegetable kingdoms. When we see it in nature, it is not proper azure, but the result of light diffraction: it happens with some birds’ feathers, the sky, ice, water and the wings of butterflies. Once squashed, blueberries are red rather than blue. So, which room did you choose? In which one did you sleep? In the azure one. In Casa Flora, the colours of the lagoon were brought into the rooms. There is the shade of green of the narrowest and clearest canals, the most heart-breaking Venetian shade of pink, and the soft azure of our room. An original briarwood door opens on a noble fireplace, a file photograph of the Fifties hanging above it and shining with longed-for life. Casa Flora is a modern vacation house, and one of the most imaginative, since it lies in Venice showing a perky and contemporary character that would feel natural in Los Angeles. Its Californian feature is the confidence in welcoming light and flora in its domestic spaces. The rest speaks of local skills and Italian manufacture, Venetian if possible. Google Maps misplaces Casa Flora, and we like it this way: we like that Gioele (Romanelli, three generations of hoteliers) meets us near the well in nice Campo San Maurizio to lead us himself to Casa Flora. Venice will not be educated by modern means.

Words and pictures Meraviglia Paper.