Thanks to the generosity of many donors who have entrusted FAI with furniture and objets d’art through inheritances, legacies and donations, at Casa Carbone we have renovated part of the rooms on the ground floor by placing furnishings and objects selected according to style, era and themes in line with the history of the house-museum.
Casa Carbone is a fin-du-siècle dwelling in the heart of Lavagna that FAI inherited from the brothers Emanuele and Siria Carbone so that it could be opened to the public as a testimony to “how and where bourgeois families lived in Liguria before the demands of our civilisation depersonalised our dwellings”.
Part of the rooms on the ground floor, dedicated to welcoming visitors, were in need of renovation. Restoration and rearrangement were personally supervised by the famous interior architect Filippo Perego from Cremnago, who had already generously offered his professional services at the time of the inauguration of Casa Carbone. In the rooms he has harmoniously inserted furnishings and objects from various donations, selected according to style, era and themes in line with the history of the house-museum, which frame the collection of more than one hundred white and blue glasses including cups, risers, bon bon bon holders, and bottles collected and donated by Mino Baldissera and set up inside a showcase custom-designed by him and donated to the FAI.
This rearrangement is a concrete example of how each donation to FAI is preserved and enhanced.
Visitors can now take a seat on sofas and armchairs, admire the paintings hanging on the walls – repainted in blue – and the furnishings that complete and enrich these cosy lounges, a new link between the House and the life of the town of Lavagna. The work also involved securing and modifying the shutters of the French windows, which now, left open, allow those who stay inside to catch a glimpse of Via Riboli and passers-by to catch a glimpse of the rooms through the glass panes inviting them to enter.
The sense of warmth and care for the home that characterised the main floor, where Emanuele and Siria lived, can now also be found in the rooms on the ground floor of Casa Carbone, where objects and furnishings welcome the visitor with new stories to tell.
