Villa Igiea, A Rocco Forte Hotel

Address: Via Belmonte, 43, 90142 Palermo PA, Italy
Phone:  +39 091 631 2111
Website: roccofortehotels.com

Palermo’s scruffy, honey’d maze longs for its golden age of flamboyant parties, operas and splendid palazzi with grand ballrooms. One of them was Villa Igiea, a turreted, coastal beauty built at the beginning of the 20th century for the wealthy Florrio family. Inside, Olga Polizzi and Paolo Moschino oversaw an impressive Belle-Epoque recovery mission – easing the frescoes, chandeliers and gilt into the 21st century, particularly in the rooms with orderly lines and subdued-but-sumptuous fabrics. Book a sea-facing suite, with windows pulling in a warm Tyrrhenian breeze and that sharp Sicilian light, illuminating the works of local artists. Its Old World Igiea Terraazza Bar is possibly the most genteel spot in all of Palermo, where European royals and silver screen icons, including Sofia Loren, once hobnobbed over Champagne and cigars. The fragrant gardens zigzag down via a scenic pool, contemplation benches and exotic plants to meet a clifftop terrace facing the port. The hotel’s Florio Restaurant perfectly captures Sicily’s exotic opulence, where palms sprout from enormous glossy urns, gilt mirrors multiply the splendour, and statues bear down on diners tucking into snapper and artichoke.