There is a sense of homecoming when you move into a building you have known most of your life. When my partner Nicol Castellini Baldissera and I were preparing to move out of Casa degli Atellani, his familys seat in Milan for five generations, a chance phone call led us to our current home, a top-floor apartment in a palazzo in the Brera neighborhood.The 1,200-square-foot apartment is in a building owned by Nicols childhood best friend, Bruno Sforni, and it was during a casual call that Sforni mentioned that it was vacant. In 2022 Bernard Arnault bought Casa degli Atellaniincluding the Leonardo da Vinci vineyard at its centerand we, along with Nicols father Piero and numerous other family members who lived in the family compound, were looking for new homes.Francesco LagneseThe author (left) and Castellini Baldissera. The 19th-century Italian chairs are in a C&C Milano stripe. The dining table belonged to Piero Portaluppi, Castellini Baldisseras great-grandfather, and the rug is an 18th-century Agra.Nicol met Sforni when they were classics students in high school in Milan with a shared love of the arts. He often visited his friends family home, the Palazzo Recalcati Tagliasacchi. I spent countless afternoons in their drawing room overlooking the garden, with the Orto Botanico di Breras towering trees just beyond the walls, Nicol says. It was a house filled with women: Brunos mother, sisters, grandmothers. Even their dogs were female. And it held treasures: In his late fathers study, I remember being awestruck by a collection of Modigliani drawings, an early lesson in art connoisseurship that would stay with me.It is an amalgamation of old and new, filled with the collections of a lifetime.Moving into this palazzo all these decades later has felt, for him, like a return to those memories. Sforni still lives downstairs; we sometimes hear music from his piano playing echo up from the courtyard. Over the decade that Nicol and I have lived together, I have come to cherish his connections to family and friends. For me, a writer and producer who works from home, and an American in Milan, discovering this sense of community has become an essential part of my experience in Italy.The apartment needed to be updated, which is why it sat on the market for a time. But I was undaunted. Ive seen Nicol transform countless spaces for himself and for his clients. He is a wonder with color and blending objects to create a story in any room. While we did renovate the kitchen and bathrooms, much of the transformation in the rest of the apartment relied on the strategic use of paint and texture.Francesco LagneseOn the terrace, the custom awning is by Guido Toschi. The folding chairs are by Casa Tosca, the tablecloth is by Lisa Corti, and the silver tableware is by Argenteria Dabbene.As a figlio darte (child of artists), Nicol often draws upon the work of his great-grandfather, the architect Piero Portaluppi, for inspiration. His influence is apparent in many of the collections Nicol has designed, including wallpaper for PictaLab Milano, carpets for Gucci, and furniture for Casa Tosca, the company we co-founded in 2020.Our apartment was built in 1523 and renovated in 1828. Nicol riffed on that history by incorporating numerous Italian touches, from the Visconti sun painted on the drawing rooms ceiling to the guestrooms framed walls, which are in a pastel palette inspired by 18th-century Venice. The rest is a reflection of our wanderlust, with finds from across Europe and Morocco, where we also have a home.Francesco LagneseThe 18th-century cast iron bed in the primary bedroom is from Genoa. The bed linens are by Morpho + Luna, the antique pendant is by Piero Portaluppi, the desk is Austrian Biedermeier and the 1967 red chair is by Gnter Beltzig.Nicol is a wonder with color and blending objects to create a story.From Casa degli Atellani we brought a number of pieces: a round Portaluppi table that was in Nicols great-grandparents dining room; a magenta and moss Agra rug that miraculously fits our new living room; and even the wall-to-wall library, which Nicol designed decades ago for a -cousins apartment. Other pieces were designed fresh for the space, such as the kelly green sofa and the striped living room curtains, in a fabric that forms part of the collection Nicol designed last year for C&C Milano, the textile company he co-owns with his father and cousins.Step Inside This PalazzoFor the wall treatments, Nicol worked with longtime collaborators at PictaLab Milano. We have a shorthand, Nicol explains. Each new project is a chance to refine past ideas. In the main bedroom they created a textured effect reminiscent of antique velvet, inspired by a palazzo they had worked on in Genoa, while in the living room the faded pink was inspired by the distressed external walls of Venetian palazzos. In the entrance the dated wood paneling was enhanced with a faux boiserie overpaint.This house makes me smile, Nicol told me. It is an amalgamation of old and new, filled with the collections of a lifetime and positioned in my favorite corner of the city. Were very lucky to live here. I couldnt agree more. The apartment is a reflection of our liveslayered, storied, and personal.This story originally appeared in the April 2025 issue of Elle Decor. SUBSCRIBE