"You know the daydream where you’re in a colorful vintage car zipping along cypress-lined Tuscan roads that line the Arno? Well, here it is. You turn off onto a gravel path ending at a sunny complex of restored 19th-century Italian factories that look more like farmhouses, with their terra-cotta tile roofs, faintly pink stonework, and painted shutters. Just as you turn off the car, Alice Nardi, daughter of celebrated Italian architect and designer Claudio Nardi, steps out of the house, arms wide, eager to welcome you to her famous father’s atelier. The studio, just 10 minutes outside Florence , now doubles as a relaxed guesthouse and collection of lofts. Most of the sprawling lofts have floor-to-ceiling picture windows shedding light over mismatched decor—Mies van der Rohe tables and sofas, Louis XIV chairs, chrome bubble lamps, gray stone kitchens—that still manages to be worthy of an Architectural Digest shoot. Ogling the view of the river, you notice hammocks swaying between the trees that flank the white sandstone swimming pool in the garden. A typical evening might begin at the main house, where guests can chat over a bottle of chiantiin the unpretentiously glamorous living room. Later, after dinner at one of the locals’ favorite spots in town, guests might enjoy the nighttime air with a romantic bike ride along the river."
