The Warmth by the Hearth

The master bedchamber in the west wing of Palazzo delle Ombre was a world away from the cold, subterranean terror of the flooded crypt. The room was vast and imposing, framed by soaring timber beams dark with age, and furnished with antique seventeenth-century Genoese velvet and carved ebony. Unlike the formal state rooms of the piano nobile, this was Lorenzo’s private sanctuary—a place where no corporate aides, no maritime lawyers,…