PORTA is the product of love, effort, and endurance. Of friendship and family. Of creativity, discovery, and appreciation. Of learning, building, and editing. It is Alice and Francesca — but also every person who works so diligently alongside us, who shares our vision, excitement, creativity, and (let’s not forget) our love of the order and process that keeps us moving ever forward. Like all the best things in life, it is a joy. It is a tussle. It is evolving. It is a constellation of people and ideas that, three years in, we marvel at, delight in, and are so proud of.
This is a love letter to PORTA — which means it is also a love letter to all of you who have brought it to life with us, both on the ground and in your homes.
The genesis of PORTA was deeply personal. As our new families grew, we found ourselves thinking about the ways our parents gathered around the table and entertained their friends. We missed the detail, the consideration, the creativity of our mothers — the tradition and “just-so” of our grandmothers — and wondered how that might fit into our own lives as new mothers, now living far from where we grew up.
Today, three years in, PORTA feels like its own being — one we have built but also grown alongside. It has shaped our understanding of what it means to bring people together in the now. If PORTA has taught us anything, it is that gathering happens in beautifully personalways.Youcan gather yourself with a quiet cup of coffee. Your family for breakfast around the kitchen island. Your partner for a bowl of pasta and a glass of wine. Your larger family for a Sunday lunch. And, of course, friends — friends, friends — for a drink, a dinner, a party.
The world outside is a wild place — a cacophony of noise, speed, and energy. A swirl of big ideas and short timelines. Wonderful and overwhelming in equal measure. In relation to this, the environment we create for ourselves in the midst of all this matters. A little beauty matters. Objects that hold meaning matter. The spaces you move through, the things you touch, the rituals that punctuate your day — these are what make life feel grounded, creative, and alive with a little magic. This is where the beauty of PORTA exists: in the quiet, pleasing, handmade moments that bring satisfaction and artistry to the day.
And so, as we step into our fourth year, we feel both inspired by what PORTA is and excited for what it is becoming. In the months ahead, we’ll be sharing small windows into our days — the essence of PORTA as we live it: moments that shape us, lift us, or simply make us smile. Notes on living, with those we love, in all their everyday beauty and small chaos. They are not grand declarations but quiet observations — the kinds of moments you might miss if you blink, yet the very ones that give shape to a life. We hope they reach you in the same way PORTA does: as a small but meaningful part of your own daily rhythm.
