A 17TH-CENTURY VILLA IN FLORENCE, DRESSED IN A PALETTE OF CORAL, SAGE AND SALMON, IS ARCHITECT SHONAN PURIE TREHAN'S HOME AWAY FROM HOME.

It has been nearly two years since architect Shonan Purie Trehan shifted to Florence.

- RAJASHREE BALARAM

By now, the strangers she bumps into on her daily morning jog are not quite strangers anymore-there is that undemanding exchange of shy smiles, gentle nods, the sweet crinkling at the corners of people's eyes. "Florence is an intimate city that way," says the AD100 architect. Though Trehan is more than familiar with its nooks and crannies, she admits that the city continues to seduce her at every turn even now. The sheer profusion of architectural marvels all round is something that she confesses she'd always be smitten by.

It is not surprising, then, that Trehan would move into a house that would have visibly endured the march of time. The 400-year-old villa that she now calls home is a two-storeyed structure with architectural features that would typically find a description in historical novels. "It's an old, old place," she says, "there is nothing open-plan about it. There are lots of compartmentalisations-small passages, foyers, anterooms, vestibules, even a tower with a terrace."