Picture: Sean Fennessy
I’VE checked out my ancestry and it seems I don’t have a single Mediterranean bone in my body. There must have been a mistake. How else to explain my profound love affair with all things Italian?
Last week I spent a fascinating hour or two with Italian-born Melbourne legend Piero Gesualdi, a man who’s left an indelible imprint on the city’s lifestyle landscape through several decades of fashion boutiques and restaurants. People have likened the architect-turned-retailer’s new Fitzroy emporium, Mondopiero, to stores in Milan, but having experienced it for myself, it’s better. If only Milan’s 10 Corso Como had half the wit, passion and romance. Mondopiero (www.mondopiero.com.au) is exactly as its name translates — it’s Piero’s world, and when you’re next in the southern city it’s well worth a visit.
From the whimsy of a taxidermied giraffe on a gold-leaf wall (yes you read that correctly) to Gesualdi’s hand-picked furniture, glass, ceramics and fragrances, it’s a uniquely personal gallery.
Prego, si accomodi.
Neale Whitaker, Daily Telegraph
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au