Every room has its own bathroom, with a stone basin and old brass taps; linen dried in the courtyard; a writing table; heating and cooling; and windows that open. None has a television.
The courtyard room
Its own door onto the courtyard, four steps from breakfast.
Ezo means courtyard, and this room is almost part of it: a glazed door opens straight onto the stones under the vine. Thick walls keep it cool in July. It is the one room without stairs.
The fireplace room
An 1890s fireplace in green tiles and two tall windows on a quiet street.
Bukhari means fireplace, and the room is built around one: green tiles and a cast-iron grate, kept now for their colour rather than their heat. Two tall windows look onto the street, which goes quiet after nine.
The pomegranate room
The smallest room, the one the pomegranate tree grows past.
Brotseuli means pomegranate. The tree in the corner of the courtyard reaches this window, and in October its fruit hangs close enough to see the cracks. A small room that feels like a ship's cabin.
The balcony room
A carved balcony over the courtyard, wide enough for two chairs and the morning coffee.
Aivani means balcony. Double doors open onto the carved wooden gallery that runs the length of the courtyard; the vine is at eye level, and the light comes through the balustrade in diamonds.
The gallery room
Behind the glazed gallery, where mornings arrive in amber and blue.
Shushabandi is the glazed gallery, and tall doors open onto it from this room. Its panes were cut again to the 1891 pattern, so amber, blue and green squares cross the floorboards as the morning goes. The ceiling rose is original.
The mountain room
High ceilings, a French balcony and the ridge of Mtatsminda above the roofs.
The street-side room with the highest ceiling in the house and its plaster cornices intact. From the French balcony you look up past the roofs to the ridge of Mtatsminda. The daybed takes a third guest.
The attic
Under the old timber beams, with a skylight over the bed.
Skhveni means attic. The beams are the original ones, oiled rather than painted; the walls are whitewashed brick and the floor is old terracotta under a kilim. The largest room, and the most stairs: fifty-eight of them.
The house, two of the rooms and the courtyard at different hours.