In 1994, I participated in the dance festival Pro Danza Italia, located in Castiglioncello, on the Tuscan coast of Italy. I returned to the festival in 1997 as a Pilates teacher, and then again to Castiglioncello in 2003 as a travel writer. During all three stays in the seaside town, I spent much of my free time hanging out in Gelateria Bocelli, where I had gotten to know the owner, Rossano Bocelli, a second cousin of the famous singer Andrea Bocelli. Gelateria Bocelli is no longer in business, but when I decided to create a miniature gelateria, there was no doubt about borrowing its name.
While the real Gelateria Bocelli was a tiny, sterile hole-in-the-wall, I wanted to create something a bit more elegant for my dollhouse shop. At the same time, I didn’t want to fall into the trap of the typical bubblegum pink decor that is so common with miniature bakeries and ice cream parlors. (Case in point: my childhood sweet shop!) I decided to use as inspiration for the exterior the one building I associate with Castiglioncello more than any other: Hotel Baia del Sorriso, where I stayed on my last visit there. Its pink stucco walls are more salmon-colored than true pink, and the terracotta roof of the adjacent villa seems a fitting model for the roofs over the dollhouse’s bay windows.
I started by outlining the areas in white paint, so as to keep the edges as clean as possible. Then I mixed dollhouse mortar with white paint and used a sponge to pounce on the stucco texture.
When the stucco was dry, I painted over it in pink. Earlier, I had done a test mixing the mortar directly into the pink paint, but the mortar’s gray color dulled the pink quite a bit. The white stucco layer preserves the true shade of pink.
Since the two side/back walls will not be visible, I didn’t bother with the stucco effect and just painted them pink. The two facades will eventually have white trim as well.
