The Heart of a Home

Last summer I found myself standing in the entryway of Villa Monastero in Italy, a house constructed in the twelfth century and a former home to nuns, a noblewoman and a couple of businessmen. 

I'm here for a tour of the house and gardens and even though I live through Florida’s scorching summers every year, I don’t think I’ve ever felt quite this hot before. 

It seems I’m visiting Italy during a heat wave of historic proportions. The locals say it’s the steamiest summer they’ve had in more than a hundred years. 

And everywhere I go, air conditioning is weak or non-existent, especially in my historic hotel that never saw a need to install it.

I took a ferry to get to the villa, where I sat on the top deck in the blazing sun for the 20-minute ride from my hotel. 

I walked uphill over cobblestone steps and winding streets and I’m pretty sure sweat has glued my clothes to my skin {perhaps permanently}.

And now I'm standing in the muggy lobby where a grand staircase diverges into two flights to tour opposite wings of the villa. 

Even though traipsing through old houses is my favorite thing to do when I’m on a trip, the single thought soaking into my sweaty head is how much longer until I can get a cool, refreshing gelato.

Christie Purifoy writes about the heat and the cold and the changing seasons in her book Roots & Sky after she moves to an old farmhouse in Pennsylvania called Maplehurst. 

She first sees the house on a day of record-breaking heat. On that sweltering day, it didn’t feel like the home of her dreams at all. 

But she felt as if her dreams started rearranging themselves when she stepped across the threshold.

Chronicling her first year at Maplehurst, she slowly settles into the rhythms of the seasons, hosting her neighbors, planting her garden and savoring her ordinary days. 

When her son slides down the banister of the staircase, inflicting a long gash in the woodwork with his belt buckle, she realizes that her dream and everyday life meet head-on within the walls of the house.

Christie’s writing is poetic and lyrical, evocative and expressive, sometimes poignant and often elegant. 

The house is the constant framework, the abiding presence in a year, in a life of changes. 

The house inspires her journey home. 

It houses her growing family. 

And it opens the doors to usher her into God’s dwelling place.

Her first year at Maplehurst brings joy, heartache, the end of seasons, a new life and a new beginning. 

And for so many of us, isn't that what home is all about?

I manage to breeze {while dreaming of one!} through the villa’s rooms of ornate furnishings and head back through the cobblestone streets toward the ferry. I spot a sign for gelato on the shutters of a rather ordinary looking door. 

But as I step inside, I notice I’m in a little cove-shaped room with walls of gray fieldstone and white plaster and a white-bricked chimney in the center. 

Unexpectedly dangling from the wood beams in the ceiling is an elegant chandelier. 

It’s extraordinarily charming and I find it more enchanting than the grandiose villa I've just left.

Sometimes there's more to find inside than might be evident from an exterior facade. 

Our stories, our lives, our hearts -- much like a house -- are waiting to be shared, discovered, opened.

Longing for family, adventure, love. Willing to get a little dirty, weather scratches, show off a former grandeur.

Swing wide the doors, fling open the windows, unhinge the shutters. 

For I think there's nothing quite so inviting as an open heart and a welcome home.

My gelato revives me and I board the ferry for the ride back to my hotel. 

And for the first time on my trip, I found myself longing for my Florida home where even though it's hot outside, I can savor the frosty breezes of my trusty air conditioner.


I'm part of Revell publisher's blogger review tour for Roots & Sky by Christie Purifoy. I received a complimentary copy of the book, but the opinions are completely my own.

I'm having coffee with my friends at Holley Gerth's place at Coffee for your Heart and with Bonnie Gray at the Faith Barista.