Portrait of a house in Sanaa

Nestled in the back streets of Sanaa's Turkish quarter is Marco Livadiotti's stunning home, a homage to Yemen's beauty by an Italian aesthetic.   Hard to believe almost 30 years have passed since I've been there. I was advised by friends to go straight to the rooftop on arrival. In those days flights from Europe arrived in the middle of the night and following directions, I climbed the steep stairs just in time to hear the morning call to prayer, an indescribable moment. The whitewashed city with gingerbread houses glimmered in the blue light, I was taken in by its extraordinary beauty, the smell of incense, the gardens and pepper trees, all very unreal and dreamlike. What was to be a two week stay turned into a year.

Marco's house was frequented by the whole expat community of Sana'a which at that time, in 1994, was relatively small.  They were mainly diplomats, NGO workers and academics, once in a while a rare traveller passing through. Livadiotti's father was the Imam's private physician, they moved to Yemen from Rome when Marco was very young. I arrived just after his marriage to Maha. Marco was like a Sanani, he spoke the dialect like a local and until the war broke out he worked passionately on the preservation and restoration of the local architecture around the country with many high quality projects. He was also managing the largest travel association there procuring jeeps and itineraries for the odd 'tourist' and traveller.