As for myself I am only truly comfortable in homes where classical portions have been observed. The symmetry of a Roman villa is conducive to a sense of inner harmony through subordination of randomness. You enter through the atrium and proceed into the peristyle, a columned courtyard decorated with statuary and fountains and small trees bearing fragrant fruit. You don’t need to worry about privacy fences because the exterior walls of the structure extend to the property lines and the backyard is, in effect, inside the house. Windows never face out into the world but only inward into the peristyle or impluvium. The over all feeling is one of complete mastery over the menacing possibilities presented by exterior chaos.
Beatus ille qui procul negotiis … paterna rura bobus exercet suis, solutus omni fenore….. Horace
