Maria Giovanna Vella

May 16, 1939 - March 21, 2021

What to say about the exquisite person who was our Maria? Impeccable in her taste, exuberant in design, appreciative, and generous.

Maria Giovanna Vella of San Francisco died unexpectedly March 21, 2021 at UCSF Medical Center due to complications arising from heart surgery. Born in 1939 in Sonoma to Gaetano Thomas Vella and Zolita Marie Clerici, she was the third of four children. She moved to San Francisco to attend San Francisco State in 1957 where she remained thereafter on Telegraph Hill. After her parents death she also occupied the family home in Sonoma. There in the garden, in which she participated first with her mother and then continued to develop for twenty additional years, she was truly happy. After college she worked for the San Francisco architecture, urban design and planning firm Okamoto Liskamm and then Okamoto Associates. Subsequently she was the first director of Fiberworks, a non-profit collective uniquely devoted to textile art and one of the owners of Vella Cheese Company.In the early 1980s she founded Bomarzo Floral Design, a floral and event design firm which managed many small and large events, provided flower arrangements for restaurants, offices, shops and homes. Always artistically brilliant and original, Maria mentored many artists and designers and had a large network of friends among them. Her shop on Vallejo Street in Russian Hill became a beacon for artists, designers and flower lovers for 40 years. The shop, as she called it, was a reflection of her. It was a hub, buzzing with energy and often brimming with flowers. It was an obliging host to gatherings of all kinds and a true representation of her aesthetic and eye. One could often find her sitting quietly at her desk, balancing her check book, watching the light and observing people as they passed. Many friendships began at the Dutch door, when people stopped to ask: “What is this place?” A question that always delighted her. She is survived by her younger sister Zolita Vella and her niece Artemis Millán of New York, her sister in law Sally, her cousin Jerry Benedetto of Sonoma, her nieces and nephews Ditty, Chickie and Thomas Vella of Sonoma, Thomas Vella of Modesto and Paul Jacobsen of Budapest, her great nephews and nieces Ross and Marius Cannard and Miranda and Gabriel Luddy of Sonoma, and many other great nephews and nieces and cousins, her longtime partner John Sanger of San Francisco and their devoted dog Mixto & cat Ricco. Maria was delighted by her friends, anecdotes, animals, human foibles, a good story, a complicated dream, children, and of course plants and flowers. She avoided the distasteful, and she had her own sense of time. Observant to a fault and pleased to be entertained, her singular sense of humor and appreciation for the absurd inspired one to look for moments to recount. She is beloved and remembered by the large number of adored and adoring friends and family who will celebrate her life at some time in Sonoma, among them Mildred & John, Amaryl & Lori, Karina, Wes & Shia, Lizzie, Pino, Francesco & Sofia, Hiroko, Holly, Len & Tauba, CRose/Bunny & David, John & Bill, Sue, Jim, Kate & Russ, Kate, Brandon, Dani & Asher, Susan, Alan & Julian, Dan & Nellie, Bobby, Jack, Michael, Cathy, Sarah, Dillon, Nico & Jasper, Ann, Sheri, Michael/Juanita, Hideo, Lydia, Matthew & Luis, Denise, Willett, Christine, Oscar & Theo, Beverly, Arden, Andrew, Marni & Siri, Thelonious & Bruno, Nhan, Jose, Bob & Tony, Emily & Ron, Cathy & Rob, Beth & Peter, Margy, Al & Leslie, Jeri Lynn & Tom, Eph & Diane, Betty & Carl, Emily & Ron, Rob & Cathy.