Growing up during the Lebanese Civil War, famed architect and designer Aline Asmar d’Amman was often cozied in her room, her nose buried in a book to dampen the noise from the bombs outside. One of those stories transported her to a world she would one day come to know quite well. It was an essay written by Russian American writer Joseph Brodsky, who wrote awe inspiring prose on Venice, its charm and treasures.

Little did she know that when she was all grown up, she would spend almost a decade envisaging and executing the renovation of one of the city’s most historic palaces, Palazzo Donà Giovannelli, a noble residence built in 1436. Its original design was led by master architect Filippo Calendario, one of the visionaries responsible for the design of Palazzo Ducale, the ancient se

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