In the 14 years Lidia Testa has lived in her Spanish hacienda with valley views off Mount Vernon Road in rural Auburn, she has never lost her connection with her Italian heritage, or her love of art.
Reared in metropolitan Brescia in northern Italy, Testa was a city girl, and remarked that the minute you stepped out your door anywhere in Italy, “art is everywhere.”
Testa’s passion for art and metropolitan culture are belied by the pastoral nature flowing down the rolling hills to the early evening lights of Lincoln in the valley below.
The undulating terrain is reminiscent of summer vacations she took in her youth while visiting her grandmother in Tuscany. The quiet sound of seclusion barely whispers any evidence of abundant wildlife all around.
Inside is a different dynamic. Art is everywhere. From the variegated tile of the courtyard entry through the front door to a long hall accented by intentionally imprecise archways, character abounds.
This home is comfortably warmed by displays of hand-thrown pottery, bowls, busts, period chairs, Japanese lithographs, a collection of original 19th century English engravings, photos, art books, everything this city girl brought to the country to insure she never forgot her roots.
The walls of most rooms are filled with original oils and watercolors of contemporary masters, including a Boulanger identical to a print that has warmed my family’s home for the past three decades.
A majestic Bennett bronze sculpture of a centaur gracing the living room is a sensitive balance of symmetry and strength, and anchors several lower-scaled pieces equally magnetic in capturing your eyes and heart.
Casa Serena, as Testa named her home, was originally designed and built by an English engineer who settled in Auburn from his native London.
He designed the hacienda to be passive-solar, taking advantage of the sun. Long, low eaves protect against the sun’s summer rays, radiant heat keeps the tile floors cool in the summer and warm in the winter, and French doors in the dining room open to distant valley views.
Floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room welcome the early morning sun, and in the master bedroom beckon in the last twinkle of night’s light.
Adjusting to a rural environment was not always easy for Testa, who confesses to a fear of animals, large and small.
Dakota, a friendly neighborhood Australian sheepdog, is a regular at meal time and is regularly disappointed, as Testa rarely feeds him and proffers little hope for the future.
Some years ago, early one morning she was greeted (or alarmed) by two cows nose-to-window at her bedside as she awoke at 6 a.m. This was the first opportunity the pajama-clad city girl had to run to the distant farmhouse to alert the neighbors about their escaped peekaboo bovine.
The second time, not too many years later, she was greeted at the front door in the courtyard by two horses who sauntered over to welcome their neighbor.
See Testa run, see the horses, see the neighbors laugh, see Testa move back to the city.
I asked her what she will miss most about leaving Casa Serena, and she said “the way the art fits the home.”
Ironically, her favorite room, where she likes to read and often falls asleep, has no art objects at all.
She won’t miss the animals — at all.
Talking Houses runs occasionally in Gold Country Homes. Jerry Sellers is a Realtor with
HomeTown Realtors in Auburn, he can be reached at (916) 871-8801, or e-mail him at seejerry@seehometown.com.
