pergola

noun

1. A framework in the form of a passageway of columns that supports a trelliswork roof; used to support and train climbing plants.

   “The thick vegetation met overhead, interlacing into a natural pergola, and through this tunnel of verdure in a golden twilight flowed the green, pellucid river, beautiful in itself, but marvelous from the strange tints thrown by the vivid light from above filtered and tempered in its fall.”

   “By the little garden pergola open to the winds some fluttered peacocks were blotted nervelessly amid the dripping trees, their heads sunk back beneath their wings: while in the pergola itself, like a fallen storm-cloud, lolled a negress, her levelled, polecat eyes semi-veiled by the nebulous alchemy of the rainbow.”

   “While both pergolas and arbors are most dramatic cloaked in climbing, flowing plants, only a pergola will stand naked as a piece of architecture.”

   “When I first saw the movie, Chocolat, my favorite element wasn't the plot or the character development or even the cinematography. It was the cloth-draped pergola under which a very special birthday dinner was served.”

2. Such a framework employed to provide shade, especially over a patio.

name

1. A surname from Italian.