Ann Brenoff of the LA Times Hot Property column likened this home in Venice, California to the the Taybet Zaman Hotel & Resort and certainly it's like no home I've seen in the Los Angeles area before. The home belongs to two top photographers Philip Dixon and Véronique Vial. Dixon is a fashion photographer and Vial is an art photographer who has published several books. Their home is a Moroccan-style palace inspired and created for Dixon in 1995. The walled-in compound is located near Abbot Kinney and the beach but seems worlds away. The three-bedroom home includes a photography studio with natural light and a river-like pool runs through the main rooms, The indoor and outdoor space blend easily into one another. The consistent feel of the home is not lost even in the kitchen which has modern appliances but looks like it belongs to another place and time.

Such a distinctive home is not for everyone. The couple put their home on the market for $13 million in January. It's now down to $8.295 million.
Experience more lush living in luxury homes and mansions or see the stars living large with celebrity homes galleries at AOL Real Estate.

Anyone with the price of a room can book in at a grand hotel. It takes a little more effort to seek out the truly exceptional places to stay when traveling abroad in the continental style.*

There are some very posh and quite private places in Italy that don't exactly go out of their way to advertise: ancient castles and estates in Tuscany, sixteenth-century palazzos in Venice, and exquisite chateaus like the mountaintop Villa Beccaris in Piemonte pictured here.

In Italian Hideaways: Discovering Enchanting Rooms and Private Villas, out next week, Meg Nolan, formerly of the International Herald Tribune's Milan bureau, takes us on an armchair tour of the best of them. Take a look at the gallery below for an exclusive preview, and start saving up for that trip....

* (with apologies to Tom Waits)

Can't decide between a Ferrari and a yacht? There is no reason to have to choose between the two when you can simply combine them. Artist Livio De Marchi sculpted a boat that is a replica of a full-sized Ferrari F50 out of wood. De Marchi lives in Venice, Italy, and uses his one-of-a-kind wheels to cruise around town. Sadly, there aren't too many other places in the world where a car of this sort would be all that useful. If there were, we would be on a waiting list for one.

[via neatorama]

Assouline's special edition of In the Spirit of Venice by Alexis Gregory is a two-book set printed on thick cotton paper with golden edges, wrapped with soft fabric and contained in a luxurious velvet box. Gregory's book is a reminiscence of the famed city as seen through the eyes of a bon vivant with the love of telling tales of the history and characters of the city. Like all of Assouline's collections, the presentation is as important as the words.  You can pick up the ordinary version for under $30 but this deluxe version will run you $300.