Clinging to the steep flanks of a hillside in Umbria, a region commonly referred to by its countrymen as ‘the green heart of Italy’, is the historic town of Spoleto. A site of habitation since 1500 BC, the town is linked by a majestic 13th century aqueduct, to the steep, verdant slopes of Monteluca in the Apennine Mountains, where St. Francis it is believed to have had the first of the visions that changed his life.

Eight hundred years later another man has arrived in Spoleto and made it his home thanks to a vision, which though somewhat less religious, has nevertheless drastically altered the course of his life. His name is Wallace Shaw, a Scotsman in his late fifties, who has spent much of his time on the move, living and working across continents from Asia to South America, during a highly successful career in the world of fashion. He settled for a time in New York, while working as Donna Karen’s knitwear designer, before a restless return to London and a chance meeting with an Italian architect started the chain of events that have led Wallace to where he happily lives today, in a breathtaking palazzo with sweeping views over the rooftops of a medieval town and out to the rolling hills of the Umbrian countryside.

Spoleto itself boasts a wealth of historic attractions, including a magnificent Romanesque cathedral and an amphitheatre dating from the 2nd century AD. Yet even amongst this profusion of ancient landmarks Wallace’s new home is one of the most readily visible buildings in town for one simple but striking reason, from the north-facing side of the building an immense, 13th century stone tower rises fifty feet above the roofline, providing an awesome stone beacon to disoriented first-time visitors trapped in the intricacies of an Italian one-way system.

The torre may have remained intact and untouched for the past eight-hundred years, but the 290 sq m of interior spaces in Wallace’s penthouse palazzo apartment have undergone some drastic changes in the last seven years, as he explains.

“When I fist came to view this place back in 2003, on the recommendation of a friend of mine whose a local architect, it couldn’t have been more aesthetically different in here,” says Wallace. “It had been owned for a good number of years by an elderly Italian couple who had subsequently moved out a few years back to a property that had gardens, so when I arrived the already dated décor had been left to mould even further, making the whole property feel incredibly dark and dingy – which is quite a feat given the amount of natural light through here.”

However, spurred on by the enthusiasm of his architect Emanuel Gargano, Wallace soon saw past the surface grime and old-fashioned fixtures and fittings to see the full possibility of what could be achieved here.

“Initially this was a truly daunting prospect,” admits Wallace, “I’d never undertaken a project anything like this before, and it would have been quite intimidating back in the UK, let alone a foreign country. But two things really helped, one was the fact that I’d just moved out from living in a converted piano factory back in Camberwell, so I already had an idea of potential for large spaces like this, plus I had Emanuel infectious enthusiasm to bolster me. He had plans made in his head almost before we’d walked through the door, and once he’d explained them to me, as I looked out at the stunning view from the living room, I knew I had to make an offer.”

What Wallace and Emanuel wanted to do in the Palazzo was simply strip-back and open-up as much of the internal space as possible.

“As Emanuel explained to me, the initial layout here was typically old-fashioned Italian, which means divided into lots of different rooms but with no actual privacy because the all inter-connect, and you have to walk through most of them just to get from one side of the apartment to the other. So we planned to re-divide the space so that the reception hall flowed into a central corridor through the building with totally private rooms leading off up to the main living space,” explains Wallace.
The new layout also involved incorporating mezzanine floors into two of the larger bedrooms, one to serve as an overhead en-suite bathroom and another to be the sleeping deck above a private office and study in Wallace’s master bedroom.

“Because a lot of the rooms and the front hall area had been given low false ceilings, another factor contributing to the dingy atmosphere of the place, we decided the first thing would be to remove them and go back to the proper proportions with the original ceiling height throughout,” he explains “we knew that in itself would double the amount of light coming through the apartment but when we discovered that this would make the nearly all the rooms double height, with eighteen foot walls, we realised that by including a couple of mezzanines we could increase the overall floor area at the same time.”

When the sale of the property was finalised and Wallace became proud possessor of the palazzo in June 2003, the plans that had been laid were quickly drawn-up and submitted to the local authority for permission, which were eventually granted in entirety at the end of the year.

“It felt like quite a long time,” Wallace recalls “but that wasn’t because of any issues, it was just the plain length of the bureaucratic process out here – and I have to say I had two distinct points in my favour; one being that everything we wanted to do in the palazzo was about bringing back its original look, exposing the stone walls, and getting the rooms back to their proper dimensions. Plus I had a well-respected local architect with a back catalogue of successful projects of a similar nature who was dealing with the whole process for me. Without Emanuel I think I may as well have packed up and gone home!”

Fortunately there was no need for such drastic measures, as work began on the apartment at the beginning of 2004. Initially the lowered  ceilings were removed, partition walls taken down – to separate all the rooms and even creating a side corridor to the right of the main hall with access on either side for two of the bedrooms, as well as removing a bathroom and passage wall by the tiny kitchen to create a larger, contained kitchen area behind the living room at the far end of the property.

“And on top of all that we began ripping out the old décor and chipping off the plaster laid over the inside of the exterior stone walls and around the tower where it comes through the middle of the apartment,’ explains Wallace, “the first couple of month we were doing that was the real messy end of the project and I was delighted when it was over.”

“But when the dust settled, quite literally, I could finally see exactly what the dimensions in here were going to be, and it already felt completely different. That was one of the most uplifting parts of the project, because I new once it was completed this would be a magnificent space.”

Work then commenced on the project that was equal parts refurbishment and renovation.

“On the one hand we were exposing and saving original flooring in marble, wooden parquet and even patterned encaustic tiles. We were treating now exposed ceiling beams and replacing some of the rotted original wooden windows like with like,” Wallace recalls, and simultaneously in other floor areas we were pouring over a commercially hardwearing epoxy resin floor system, before installing modern mezzanines and the very contemporary galvanised steel staircase at the top of the hall, that gives access to the attic space and is probably the most prominent architectural feature in the building. It could all have been chaos, but fortunately Emanuel came into his own again, as he a ready assembled team of trusted builders and tradesmen who were terrific throughout.”

Thanks to the concerted efforts of the local workforce involved, on the first of July 2004 Wallace found himself the proud possessor of a five bedroom apartment with a spectacular 40ft long living/reception area, cleanly refurbished and simply furnished to allow the fusion of the freshly exposed architectural features to interact with the newly installed modern additions.

“To say I was overwhelmed would be an understatement,” says Wallace, “in fact, I realised that this was now such an extraordinary space that just living here would almost be doing it an injustice. So I now have regular local art exhibitions and music recitals in here as well. It’s still a thrill to wake up here every morning, and it’s wonderful to share this place with the other people of Spoleto.”