Photos by Michael Woodall The wide deck around the pool provides ample room for entertaining. The design also allows the pool to be seen from all of the main-floor windows. Stone for the home was quarried locally and installed with mortar made with dirt from the ground around the house.

Inspired by homes in Italy, an Arizona residence offers creature comforts inside and out.

When colored leaves on the trees around their Minnesota home begin to fall, it’s Jane and Greg Goven’s cue to pack up and head for their Scottsdale getaway. “We love Minnesota; it’s where we raised our children,” says Jane. “But Greg is retired now, so we’re free to escape the cold weather.”

The Govens’ winter retreat was architecturally inspired by photographs they took in Tuscany. “We spent four days there,” recalls Greg. “We hired a guide to take us back into the old, sometimes abandoned villages and residential areas because we wanted to capture images of the architecture there from the 1500s and 1600s.”

Architect Erik Peterson and builder Scott Edwards mimicked design elements from those pictures. “You see it with the stairway by their front courtyard, and you see it with how we used stone and brick together,” explains Edwards. “The trick was to use modern building techniques but keep that historical look they wanted.”

Peterson designed rooms with adjoining outdoor living spaces. He incorporated more than 140 arches over doors and windows and found that the Govens’ lot was ideal for a new home intended to look like an old home in Northern Italy. “There’s a natural wash, so we added a bridge taking you to the house, and you truly get the feeling of leaving the street and going into a village,” Peterson comments. “There are a million places to get lost around the house, and that makes it fun and exciting for them.”

“It’s a very large home, so my goal was to take the large spaces and create an intimacy,” notes interior designer Cathy Stark. Using wood and travertine flooring, granite countertops and Venetian plaster on walls, she brought an earthy sensibility and warmth to the home. Adding brightly colored artwork is what Stark calls the “icing on the cake.”

The designer holds a degree in fine art and also studied art in Europe. These life experiences gave her an intuitive eye for creating rooms that look like they are from the area of Italy that so enchanted the homeowners—spaces that reflect its rich Italian artistic legacy.

The Govens know that when the thermometer hits the freezing mark in Minnesota, their friends and family members are usually bundled up and indoors. The couple’s own winter memories include enjoying an alfresco Christmas Eve dinner at their Arizona home’s outdoor dining table, entertaining poolside, or relaxing by the fire pit as they watch a desert sunset.

“For me, a retreat is a very comfortable place—one you go to that has a relaxing environment,” says Greg. “That is what we attempted to build for ourselves here.”

Built-in bookcases with hand-carved detailing flank a massive fireplace in the formal living room of this Scottsdale home. Trestle beams and a wood-molding rail partway down the walls were added to make the high-ceilinged room appear more intimate.

An antique Bible stand is a charming touch in Jane and Greg Goven’s stone- and brick-faced wine room.

The family room—the “epicenter for entertaining”—has a stone fireplace, a wet bar with a quilted leather front, terra cotta-color Venetian plaster walls, and furnishings in browns and cream.

Jane and Greg Goven have their own private enclaves—his-and-hers offices. His office has a green sofa, a work table in the middle of the room, and wood flooring in a basket-weave pattern; the flooring echoes the design of the box-beam ceiling. Subtle and pretty details make

Jane’s office feminine, including a petite chandelier, pillows with rhinestones, and lush silk and mohair fabrics. Wood flooring here is set in a herringbone design. “When we have friends over, all the girls can go in my office and chat,” says Jane. “It’s nice having your own space.”