Villa Igiea

Ignazio Florio wanted a sanatorium. In 1899 he commissioned Ernesto Basile, the architect of Palermo's Liberty style, to transform a villa at Acquasanta, on the bay north of the city, into a clinic for tuberculosis patients, and named it after Hygieia, the Greek goddess of health, as he had named his daughter. The plan changed before the works were finished. In 1900 Villa Igiea opened as a hotel, and it has been the hotel of Palermo ever since; since 2021 it has been run by Rocco Forte Hotels as Villa Igiea, A Rocco Forte Hotel.

History

The Florios were the richest family in Sicily at the end of the 19th century, with shipping lines, Marsala wine, tuna fisheries and sulphur. Ignazio Florio and his wife Franca made Palermo a stop for European society, and Villa Igiea, on the site of a villa that had belonged to the English admiral Cecil Domville, was built to lodge it. Ignazio's brother Vincenzo founded the Targa Florio road race in 1906, and the hotel filled with drivers and their followers each spring. The family's fortune collapsed between the wars and the hotel passed to other owners, running through the 20th century under its old name and, in its last years before Rocco Forte, as an Accor property. Rocco Forte Hotels took it on in 2019, closed it for a restoration and reopened it in the summer of 2021.

Architecture and design

Basile's work is the reason the building matters. The Sala Basile, the former dining room, is painted from floor to ceiling by Ettore De Maria Bergler with female figures among flowers and water, one of the chief works of Italian Art Nouveau, with furniture by the Palermo firm of Vittorio Ducrot, Basile's regular collaborator. The exterior is a castellated villa in pale stone with towers and terraces, set in gardens that drop to the sea and a small marina. Olga Polizzi, Rocco Forte's director of design, restored the interiors with Paolo Moschino and Philip Vergeylen, keeping the Basile rooms intact and furnishing the bedrooms in Sicilian colours and ceramics.

Rooms and suites

There are 100 rooms and suites, facing the sea and Monte Pellegrino or the gardens. The suites on the upper floors have terraces, and the largest carry the names of the Florios. Floors are tiled, and the bedrooms mix antiques from the house with new pieces.

Dining

Florio, the restaurant, is named for the family and serves Sicilian cooking under Fulvio Pierangelini, the chef who directs the group's Italian kitchens. The Terrazza Bar Igiea runs along the terrace above the garden and the sea and serves lunch and aperitivo. The Bar Igiea inside keeps the Belle Époque rooms in use through the evening.

Wellness

The Irene Forte Spa has treatment rooms and a gym, and the outdoor pool is set in the garden below the terrace, with the bay and the marina beside it.

Weddings and events

The Sala Basile is the room every Palermo wedding wants, and it is used for receptions and gala dinners, with the gardens and the terrace for ceremonies and drinks. The hotel also has meeting rooms for company events and is the city's main venue for them. As a luxury hotel in Palermo with Basile's rooms and a garden on the sea, it has little competition for a large reception.

Location

Acquasanta is about 4 km north of the centre of Palermo, on the bay below Monte Pellegrino, with the hotel's marina at the foot of the garden. Mondello beach is about ten minutes by car, and the centre, with the Palazzo dei Normanni and the cathedral, about 15. Palermo Centrale station is about 15 minutes by taxi. Falcone-Borsellino airport at Punta Raisi is about 30 km away, around 40 minutes by road.