Antonello
in Naples
— Italy

   The apartment of Antonello and Gennarina has to be reached, conquered. It took them months of searching. Guests have to cope with three flights of narrow stairs, after which they arrive in a home full of space, light and shade. It is an old flat the owners have completely refurbished, leaving features - beams and floors - full of history intact, but also fully expressing their need for new things. “This house has changed us”, says Gennarina. “We liked it right away because it was hard to see in perspective what it would become, but we could also catch a glimpse of it”. The story of this family is a tale of migration: Antonello and Gennarina’s children were born in northern Italy on Lake Como, then at a certain point they returned to Naples where the couple is originally from. “We never felt the yearning of returning that happens to many people,” says Antonello, “but we do like to set off on a new journey. We do not experience this house as a situation of stability achieved, but instead, when people tell us ‘you’ve made the home of your lifetime’, we say “no, heaven forbid!” We hope we will keep moving. That should be the desire, to continue this adventure”. Before finding this flat they lived nearby, renting a house from the 1700s, with enormous rooms and a low price but without light. So the search began: months and months, paying rent, moving from one house to another, waiting to find the right one to purchase only to finally discover the one near where their search began. It is a house with a view of the cathedral, and you can even catch a glimpse of the sea, and the Girolamini complex right in front of the window. “First came six or seven months of urban nomadism during the search period. Then the renovation was long and complicated which frightened us a bit. This house made us stronger, thanks to its spaciousness and light. We fed on that light, and it continues to give us energy everyday”.

   It is a family that often talk all at the same time. The daughter studies in Madrid; the son is training to be an actor and already working in the field. Two enthusiastic parents, who speak of them with contagious excitement. “Homes,” says Antonello, “should always be in progress. You have to change the furnishings, move things around for a different feeling in order to evolve”. Gennarina nods in agreement. “I try, at all costs, to live in the space without filling it up and staying in touch with what is necessary without giving in to the urge to accumulate”. The home is a place to think, they both say, both working in the art world. “When I look out the window and see the Girolamini complex, I think about the people who have been there to study, to dig deep in the books. It contains one of the most important historic libraries in the world, three churches, the cloister of the orange trees, and a picture gallery”. They have purchased a house that may not be forever but they seem to love it very much. “Especially in the afternoon, and obviously in the summer, there is so much light that you have to defend yourself; and when we shut the shutters, it is wonderful to live in the cool darkness, always with the certainty that the light we seek is there, and we are keeping it out by choice. Just open the shutters, and it all comes flooding back in”. Antonello and Gennarina are waiting to resume the moving journey, sooner or later.