Quinta da Regaleira (Sintra)

Sintra, Portugal. This estate museum is famous for it's symbolic gardens, with underground tunnels and spiral staircase wells based on Tarot rituals. But the house was more intriguing to me, and less crowded. Pedictably opulent, the rooms are delicately decorated in every medium. But it's just impossible not to look at the distracting black stanchions, so the subtlety is lost. The stations probably wouldn't exist if there were guards or docents. What's that little step inside the fireplace?

These display cases compete with the room. They bring the focus down and center, away from the portraits along the ceiling.

The architecture itself is untouched, until this stand out wall and entry appears suddenly, along a narrow stairway corridor. The room is devoted to the Italian set designer and architect Luigi Manini.

The facade is a watercolor design for opera curtains.

The blown up watercolor is beautiful, but it seems ironic that this display about the designer interferes with his own design of the house it's in.