Only a stone’s throw from Craigdarroch Castle in the historic Rockland area of Victoria, the Villa Marco Polo Inn stands apart from the Tudoresque mansions and Samuel McClure-designed Arts and Crafts homes for which the neighbourhood is known. For while in British-influenced Victoria it’s not hard to find a place that offers a traditional afternoon tea service, it is unusual to sip tea served from a samovar while you’re surrounded by elegant Italian decor, perched on a Persian rug and gazing out a set of French doors.

Back in 1923, Frederick Nation, a well-heeled member of Victoria’s upper crust, had the home built as a wedding present for his daughter, Helen. Eliza Livingston and her husband, Clark Bingham, purchased the home in 2003 after she fell in love with the home’s Italian Renaissance façade. But the Inn’s eclectic, international take on classical style is the result of a conscious effort by Livingston to reflect her own personal taste and experience. The building’s roots are Italian, but Livingston’s vision was something far more Eastern.
“We wanted it to be different from what one normally sees in Victoria, something that would make people feel as if they’ve stepped out of time and place,” says Livingston, a San Francisco native whose family lived in Iran when she was a teenager. “We’re trying to evoke the countries of the Silk Road and the Middle East.”

The Italian-influenced interior decor—left over from a previous owner—seemed like an ideal jumping-off point for a thematic exploration of “Venice to the Orient,” she says. The journey begins in the main foyer, where the tumbled marble tesserae (cubed stone) floor introduces a Tuscan feel that’s offset by a painting of a Persian shah that her father brought back from Iran. Step into the living room and a sofa covered in cut velvet of deep green, claret and gold adds an Islamic contrast to the fireplace, which is flanked by cherubs in marble relief and a pair of ornate, 18-karat-gold Italian light fixtures.

A registered heritage building, the Inn is subject to municipal bylaws banning all but the most benign exterior modifications. Interior remodelling is allowed with approval, but Livingston says most of the changes have been cosmetic rather than structural. All of the bathrooms have been remodelled with modern luxury in mind—the most difficult and expensive part of the transition as the work done by the previous owners wasn’t up to code. Floors were torn up, plumbing replaced and wiring ripped out. “The hardest part was rectifying changes that had been made that were not according to code,” Livingston says. “There was a lot of stuff that had to be fixed just so we could be legal.”

The Inn’s four rooms, previously converted for bed and breakfast use, have been redecorated and bestowed with evocative names: the Zanzibar Suite, the Persia Suite, the Alexandria Suite and the Silk Road Suite. Livingston says she chose fabric and paint in deep burgundies, clarets, ochres and umbers to reflect “the colours of spices and herbs that Marco Polo brought back from the Orient.”

Carved shutters known as mushrabiya clad the windows of one room. They are a type of window screen used in harems throughout North Africa and the Middle East, and Livingston notes that they were once used as a portal through which women could look out without being observed themselves.

Over the past few decades Livingston and Bingham have travelled extensively, with Tuscany and the Amalfi Coast region of Italy topping their list of favourite destinations. The unique collection of antiques and artifacts the couple has accumulated along the way contributes to the Inn’s exotic feel.

On a clear day, the cozy space offers a stunning view of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Olympic mountains hulking in the hazy blue beyond. But the secret to the Inn’s unique ambience, says Livingston, is many south-facing windows that invite in an ever-changing palette of light and shadow. “There’s a certain light quality in this house that reminds me of Italy,” she says.

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