Luciano Pavarotti

I am a fan of Pavarotti's voice - to me, the most touching voice on earth. I wanted to bring this divine voice to you in two of the most beautiful songs he ever sang.

Close your eyes and listen

Pavarotti sings 'Caruso'



And one more: Pavarotti sings Nessun Dorma live in Paris

Bravo e Grazie!

Luciano Pavarotti, the singer with the most beautiful and divine voice on earth died this morning at his villa in Modena from cancer, age of 71. For more than 43 years Pavarotti sang in the greatest opera houses in this world. Alone at New York's Met he performed 400 times on stage. He was part of 'The Three Tenors' and also popular for 'Pavarotti & Friends', his cooperation with other artists.

Link:
Official website of Luciano Pavarotti.
American Public Media celebrates the life of Luciano Pavarotti on Performance Today.

Flora of Calabria (part I)

White Oleander

00 Fixings and Faucets

I found the German website Megabad that has resonable prices for Duravit bath fixings and delivers to Italy when the time has come. That means I do not have to buy everything here and now in China and ship it and store it! I am relieved. How to store 6 bathrooms? Where and without disappearing...

I have good experience with several Duravit products. E.g. the toilets from the Serie Starck 1 and Starck 3. The picture left shows the wall mounted compact WC Starck 3 (360cm x 475cm). This fits perfectly small bathrooms and guest toilets. I have them all with WonderGliss surface finish for longterm 'clean and attractive-looking'. It costs 149 Euro (or 193 Euro with WonderGliss) via Megabad.

What is the advantage or disadvantage of a one piece WC? Has anybody experience? Or is it just a matter of space and design? We have thick walls and could mount them all. My husband says it would look nicer. Or should we use a one piece toilet for the masterbathroom like the one in the picture (Duravit Starck 3)?


Regarding the faucets we just love the simple design of META.02 by Dornbracht (see left picture). However, here in China I found some design copies from Beijing based brands that seem not bad either and cost only a fraction.


While the original Dornbracht faucets cost between 170 and 225 Euro via Megabad (depending on what you want), the Chinese one by Boloni cost about 83 Euro and by CIBOL about 60 Euro only (all plus plus pop-up waste, siphon, screws etc.) Left picture shows the faucet by CIBOL.
(Remark: Looking at CIBOL's website, you find a showroom picture looking pretty much like the latest cover of the Duravit brochure. While Boloni has no pictures on their website. Probably they do not want to get into trouble with all the European brands they copy.)

For the sinks I am not sure yet. Too many options:

In my opinion this is the smallest and nicest designed 'one piece double sink' Grand Kanal by Rapsel (110cm x 50cm).

This is another Duravit sink from the 1930 Serie. This would match our iron claw foot bath tub in the masterbathroom. However, we tend to combine the one 'antique' looking bathtub and its matching 'antique' looking faucets with modern classic style fixings and faucets for shower, toilet, bidet and sinks.


More modern but classic would be this Happy D sink with chrome stand from Duravit. Unfortunately the chrome stand is more expensive than the sink and I would need two of it for the masterbathroom. Maybe I find something else.




For my sons tiny bathroom (the one that hangs on the side of the house) I thought about this Vero sink (left picture), still Duravit. It comes in different sizes and I thought about the 500cm x 470cm one. But maybe instead of this edgy sink a curvy sink, like the Happy D, would be better for a children bathroom.

Still so many decisions to make. But one is done.
We bought the iron claw foot bath tub last Saturday here in Beijing. The Chinese brand name is Varro, but somehow it is related to the US brand StThomas. I am not sure if this is their Chinese joint-venture, but Varro definately delivers products to StThomas. So we spend only about one tenth of the price StThomas charges in the US. I hope it does not break after one year!



Links:
The German Brands:
Duravit
Dornbracht
Megabad (online discounter)
The Chinese Brands:
CIBOL
Boloni
Varro

Point of Departure

When I was in Pizzo this summer, I posted that the house looked worse than last year when we bought it. Did you read that? Did you believe me? Those of you who still associate the Italian word palazzo with a glamorous palace got the wrong idea.

In Italian casa means 'home'. It can be a 'house' or an 'apartment'. A villa is a big house with a big garden. And a palazzo is a big house with no garden. Italians have nice sounding words for simple things and our palazzo is far from glamorous.

I reported that almost all window glass was broken. Probably kids threw stone at the windows. Of course some of the glass was broken before and all windows need to be replaced anyway.

Wild plants are growing on the floors of several rooms inside the house. Outside they grow on the walls as well as on the terrace and the balcony. Rain water is following their roots. We need to isolate the house well to avoid the penetration of rain water.

And last but not least more graffiti was on the doors.

I hope that all this 'wildness' will fade soon after we have the permission to start the renovation works. The permission is expected to be given in September. Let's see if the architect can keep his promise :)

Pizzitani

Pizzitani who had to leave Pizzo must feel homesick for the rest of their lives, until they can come back to this special place on earth between the sea and the sky.

I just came across this picture (I am working on our bathrooms, yes me too) and I stared at the photo for several minutes... thinking of all the Pizzitani (people from Pizzo), who had to leave this beautiful place on earth to find work somewhere else. And lucky Pizzitani who live here and cherish the value of life in Pizzo.

(Picture courtesy by CC, my husband)