There were tastier things to drink at the Biltmore Hotel's champagne brunch. This stunning Miami landmark is on the National Registry of Historic Places.
For $65 per person we sipped Perrier Jouet while a jazz trio played in the palm court. I have to admit, most of my breakfast consisted of caviar and blinis (hey, those are pancakes, and that's breakfast).
The civilized living continued as we toured Vizcaya. Built in 1916 for the head of the International Harvester company, it's a liberal interpretation of a Venetian palazzo.
The gardens cover a verdant 80 acres. Local Miami residents were enjoying their patrimony.
Professional photographers appeared to be snapping photos of disturbingly young brides. The young women turned out to be ornately dressed 15 year olds. Their families were memorializing their quinceanera, or "sweet 15" celebrations.
Inside Vizcaya rooms radiated off a central courtyard on three sides. The "fourth wall" was the deep blue sea. Each room was packed with gorgeous items from the marble floors all the way up to the carved ceilings.
The months immediately after World War I must have been the garage sale to end all garage sales.
It was an easy time for the mansion's creators to snap up the thousands of priceless European art treasures that decorate the house.
We saw a second-century Roman tub, a harpsichord from 1619, and Renaissance tapestries that had been owned by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
I couldn't help but think that it would make a prime exchange home.
--
Sent via Empower HTML Mail Viewer For BlackBerry
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
No comments:
Post a Comment