Riva Lofts Florence

Riva Lofts Florence

Cross the Arno by vintage bicycle from central Florence and you land at Riva Lofts, ten lofts built into a nineteenth-century former factory that architect Claudio Nardi converted into his own home and studio in 1999, three kilometres from the center and near Santa Maria Novella Basilica, the Medici Chapels and Pitti Palace. The stone-walled lounge keeps its cross vaults and a library beside a large fireplace, and the same room opens through a picture window onto a private garden and a white sandstone pool guests use through summer. Nardi designed the loft kitchens, and the studios, 300 to 1,000 square feet, mix restored factory elements with 1950s furniture and materials like Corian and old wood, so no two of the ten rooms read the same. Breakfast, Wi-Fi, in-room soft drinks and bicycles come with every stay, and Riva Kitchen serves dinner Wednesday to Sunday plus Sunday brunch in the same rooms. There is a massage service, a library, a picnic area in the garden, and staff who work in English, Italian and French. This suits travelers who would rather borrow a bike and ride to Parco delle Cascine than queue outside the Uffizi, who want a garden and a private pool more than proximity to the Duomo, and who like knowing whose taste shaped the room they sleep in. It will frustrate anyone who needs an elevator, since there is none, or anyone who wants a full-service front desk running around the clock rather than a small, home-run guesthouse. What Riva Lofts has that its Florence peers don't: it began as one architect's own house, and the kitchens he built for himself are the ones guests now cook in. Riva Lofts is ten design lofts inside architect Claudio Nardi's former home on the Arno's left bank in Florence, three kilometres from the center, built around a stone lounge, library, and private garden pool in white sandstone. Nardi designed the kitchens himself, and there's no elevator.