Perched on a limestone promontory above the Gulf of Palermo, its ochre-washed Liberty-style facade rising directly from the sea cliffs, this former Florio family villa carries one of the most layered histories in Sicilian hospitality. Commissioned by the Florios — the extraordinary merchant dynasty who shaped modern Sicily — and completed around 1900 to designs attributed to Ernesto Basile, the building that became Villa Igiea A Rocco Forte Hotel was originally conceived as a sanatorium before the family reclaimed it as a private residence. Basile, the Palermo architect who brought Sicilian floral ornament into conversation with Viennese Secessionism, left his mark most indelibly in the frescoed dining hall, still considered among the finest examples of Italian Liberty decoration anywhere. The 2021 renovation, guided by Olga Polizzi with interiors developed through the Rocco Forte design team, pressed the existing architecture into a palette of sage green and warm white that complements rather than competes with Basile's plasterwork. Guestrooms alternate between two registers: some furnished with dark four-poster beds, tobacco-coloured upholstery, and rattan armchairs beneath Murano glass chandeliers in petal form; others dressed in the softer sage scheme, with upholstered headboards framed by hand-blocked fabric panels and botanical cushions drawing on the villa's garden character. At the pool terrace, a cluster of salvaged classical columns planted at the water's edge frames views across to Monte Pellegrino — antiquity deployed as garden ornament in a way that feels entirely, naturally Sicilian.

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Discover history, majesty and serenity at Villa Igiea: a turn-of-the-century palazzo at the perimeter of vivid Palermo, the foot of Mount Pellegrino and the Gulf of Palermo. A long-loved seaside-meets-city sanctuary for royalty, dignitaries and Hollywood luminaries, trace their paths through tiered villa gardens that sweep down to the port and out to the Tyrrhenian Sea; on excursions to Palermo’s bustling markets, Baroque palaces and ancient sites, or yacht trips along its picturesque coast; and through Villa Igiea’s Italian restaurants, atmospheric bars and palatial Art Nouveau interior, revitalised as a Rocco Forte hotel.