Pressed between the slopes of Etna and the Ionian shoreline on Sicily's eastern coast, a nineteenth-century baronial villa and a scatter of low-slung contemporary lodges hold an unlikely conversation across several acres of subtropical garden. Donna Carmela Resort & Lodges takes its name from the noblewoman who once presided over this estate near Riposto, and the layering of periods is the property's defining architectural argument — the original tiled-roof villa with its rendered facades and tall shuttered windows set against pavilion-style guest lodges whose exposed concrete ceilings, floor-to-ceiling glazing, and wide-plank oak floors belong firmly to a contemporary Italian design sensibility. The lodges carry the more resolved interiors: raw concrete soffits left deliberately unfinished, dark-veined stone panels used as vertical headboard inserts, steel-framed furniture in dusty blue upholstery, and pale oak joinery forming open dressing rooms that blur the boundary between sleeping and bathing spaces. Outside, lava-stone retaining walls enclose lawns planted with Canary Island date palms, citrus trees, and bougainvillea — a garden that feels more North African than European in its botanical ambition. The pool-side restaurant pavilion is framed in dark timber with a woven-reed ceiling that filters afternoon light into something amber and warm, wire bistro chairs set around white-linened tables oriented toward the circular pool and the layered greenery beyond.

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