Grand Hotel Timeo, A Belmond Hotel, Taormina

Address: Via Teatro Greco, 59, 98039 Taormina, Sicily, Italy
Phone: +39 0942 627 0200
Website: www.belmond.com

Grand Hotel Timeo’s cinematic backdrop of Mount Etna and the glittering Naxos Bay once captivated Grand Tourees, who’d beeline for Taormina’s storied hotel (first opened in 1873). Today’s equally well-dressed guests saunter back from the Slim Aarons-style pool to marble bathrooms for long Acqua di Parma soaks, or an afternoon Aperol Spritz with the same staggering views that bewitched Oscar Wilde and LH Lawrence all those years ago. Breakfasts here are worth wrenching yourself out of wildly comfortable beds for – an elaborate, silver-service feast of sweet Sicilian classics, with healthier options balancing out the granita and irresistible mound of pastries. While the hotel sits in plum position for Taormina’s main thoroughfare (and just in front of the Greek Amphitheatre), its sister hotel, Belmond Villa Sant’Andrea lines up cabanas along the beach, a few hairpin tracks or a shuttle ride down the cliff. But the main event, really, is Otto Geleng’s Michelin starred tasting menu, served under flickering oil lamps and the smoky exhale or occasional fiery spurt from Etna.