Martha Stewart was there

Inside the guest wing of Palazzo Chupi and the Carlyle's Presidential Suite

Inside one of the guest wings of Julian Schnabel’s West Village Palazzo Chupi, I am told to take off my shoes and let my eyes adjust to darkness. Why don’t we turn the lights on? I ask. As I wish. There is a “bath room,” as in an open area with a giant marble freestanding tub, which I am told was once a sarcophagus. There is also a bathroom, with a toilet, and that one has a room-sized, multi-tiered, mosaic-tiled shower stall.

There are old Schnabels, a giant sculpture (like, double my height, at least), stone tables, a trompe l’oeil rug, a jacquard silk-upholstered chaise, multiple enormous chinoiserie armoires that lock with keys. There is a dining room and a patio and who knows what more I’m not shown because some things must be saved for “another time.” The bed, though, is the crown jewel. It’s in the middle of this un-cozy space, facing a floor-to-ceiling window. A threadbare brown sheet covers a crumpled duvet. This bedding, he says, literally belonged to Casanova.