Flaking paint, splintered wood. Rust, erosion, water damage. To some, these read as nothing but signs of ruin and waste, intimations of mortality, a shadow over sunny days. To others, a delight in the manifestations of time passing is not morbid, but marvelous. Earth, poet George Meredith penned in his ode to autumn, “smells regeneration/In the moist breath of decay.”
In 2022, after years of working in fashion and the recent opening of their modern antiques gallery and interior design business, 7887 Gallery Studio, in Reggio Emilia, Raffaele Corsaro and Gabriella Cataldi treated themselves to a Sicilian escape in search of inspiration. Vacationing on Ortigia – the island that forms the historical center of Syracuse in Sicily – they wandered from the tourist-filled streets near the waterfront to explore quieter byways, where they came across a crumbling, 17th-century palazzo. When they returned to house hunt a few months later, they visited 25 properties; little did they know the last one they’d be shown would be the time-worn pile they had encountered earlier.
Built in 1600 on what was once a main thoroughfare, the palazzo was transformed in the 1930s to become a clinic and nursery. It later reverted to residential use, but after sustaining damage in an earthquake in 1990, it was abandoned. By the time Corsaro and Cataldi acquired it, the property had been reinforced and made safe, but it remained in a rough state. “In the courtyard,” recalls Cataldi, “time seemed to have stood still, with rusty machinery and scaffolding that had been abandoned for over 20 years. Two palm trees stubbornly emerged from the cracks in the lava stone floor, a silent sign of nature’s resistance. When we entered the building, we found a state of total decay – windows with broken glass, widespread dampness and completely deteriorated plaster.”
From the start, notes Corsaro, the couple was determined to “bring back to light the original beauty of the building without erasing its decadent charm, leaving the passage of the centuries through it visible.” They restored existing doors, cleared away multiple layers of plaster to better reveal the original, arched vaults and reunited rooms that had been fragmented over time.
“For the furnishings, we chose light and, at times, slightly eccentric elements, capable of enhancing the beauty of the building without overpowering it,” describes Cataldi. “Materials such as steel, designed to almost disappear and blend into the spaces, coexist with iron and damask and panne velvets, recalling the ancient Baroque magnificence so present in the Val di Noto and in the history of the building. Stone is another fundamental element, ever present – fragments of columns, sculpted heads that emerge like memories. For us, it’s essential that the interiors be perceived as a continuous narrative, made up of elements that seem never to have been added but simply always existed, preserved by time.”
The homeowners’ essentially minimalist approach allows the past to shine through while still expressing a very contemporary spirit. In shape and color, an iron Vanessa Bed in lobster red (by Afra & Tobia Scarpa for Gavina) is a vivid contrast to the earth-hued barrel vault above it. A sitting room – floored in vintage Sicilian cement tiles sourced from local antique dealers – features a brass-clad wet bar of the couple’s own design, snug within a niche. A smooth plaster wall in the living room is punctuated with a trio of disparate objects: a Brutalist iron sconce created by Marcello Fantoni in the 1970s, a bronze head from Benin and a sculpture of bronze and lapis lazuli made by artist friend Sergio Fiorentino.
“This is our escape, a place we return to whenever we can find some free time, not just in the summer, but throughout the year,” shares Cataldi. “Here, everything slows down, time expands and life becomes simpler. Everything we need is already here – the sea, nature, history and people – and that’s what makes it truly special.”
Photography by Helenio Barbetta.
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