PALATIAL PALAZZO RESTORED

The second floor of this 12th-century palazzo in Genoa, Italy, had once been the grandest part of the seven-storey palace, with the highest ceiling, the tallest windows and the most elaborate painted decoration.

- Jane Margolies

It was here, on the "piano nobile", or noble floor, that the aristocratic family who had once occupied the building would have entertained guests.

But by the time Mr Matteo Rocca and Mr Ronan Dunphy saw the former showplace in 2019, it was a ruin.

Holes pocked floors and walls. Wind blew in through leaky wooden windows with dingy, rattly glass. The piano nobile lacked basic electricity, never mind heat and running water.

In the 1800s, the palace had been divided into apartments. Then the rear of the building was damaged in a bombing during World War II.

The second floor had become a tailor's shop and residence before the tailor and his family moved out, leaving the space empty for nearly 60 years.

Even with a cafe and restaurant occupying the ground floor and tenants filling the floors above, the second floor remained dormant, except for a jumble of old furniture and dusty books.

As Mr Rocca and Mr Dunphy roved around, it was impossible to discern how the rooms had originally been laid out. They shone torches up at the vaulted ceiling of the main room, where a fresco was covered with soot.

"I was afraid to touch the walls, afraid plaster would come off and crumble to the ground," Mr Dunphy, 37, said.

The man selling the place had acquired it decades earlier with the intention of fixing it up for himself, but had never managed the daunting task. The second floor was not just uninhabitable, but it was also no longer even classified as a residence.