Vienna
Viola Stifter - is an architect based in Vienna, raised in a former Vineyard on the gentle rolling Upper Austrian hills and swayed by the coastal scenery of the Veneto. She graduated in architecture under William Alsop in 2001 and gained her Master in Exhibition and Cultural Communication Management at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in 2004.
Complementary to designing architecture for exhibitions she got a view from the 'clients' side by working at various cultural institutions (Kunsthalle Wien, Architekturzentrum Wien) and for the Commissioner of the Austrian Pavilion at the 8th Biennale Architettura di Venezia 2002. Apart from her focus on exhibition design she worked several years for the architecture studio Labvert in the area of shop & retail design (cosmetic counters for Giorgio Armani, Viktor&Rolf and Dior) and in the field of film & theatre for Donmartin Supersets and Wienerland.
Her design work has been awarded with a nomination for the Adolf Loos State Prize of Design 2007 and the Upper Austrian award for the promotion of talent for Architecture in 2008.
Vine
Refosco is a mysterious, very old family of dark-skinned grape varieties native to the Venetian zone and the area of Friuli. It is considered autochthonous in these regions. The name comes from the combination of the words rasp and fosco that in the Venetian or Friuli languages mean respectively grape and dark.
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The wines this grape yields can be quite powerful, complex and tannic with a deep violet color and a faint, not unpleasant, bitterness surfaces in the finish, dense & lively wines with bite. On the palate, there are strong currant, wild berry and plum flavors. The wines can stand some aging and after a period of four-to-ten years, they achieve a floral quality as well, assuming a bouquet of violets.
Venice
Giacomo Casanova (born in Venice in 1725). Histoire de ma vie. Volume 1, Chapter 8
During our meal, a priest happened to drop in, and, after a short conversation, he told me that I ought not to pass the night on board the tartan, and pressed me to accept a bed in his house and a good dinner for the next day in case the wind should not allow us to sail. I accepted without hesitation. I offered my most sincere thanks to the good old lady, and the priest took me all over the town. In the evening, he brought me to his house where we partook of an excellent supper prepared by his housekeeper, who sat down to the table with us, and with whom I was much pleased. The refosco, still better than that which I had drunk at dinner, scattered all my misery to the wind, and I conversed gaily with the priest.
I went to bed, and in the morning, after ten hours of the most profound sleep, the housekeeper, who had been watching for my awakening, brought me some coffee. I thought her a charming woman, but, alas, I was not in a fit state to prove to her the high estimation in which I held her beauty.
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