In the early 20th century, Villa Igiea played host to royalty, celebrities, and aristocrats.
Now, after an extensive restoration, its doors are once again open.
Royal banners flapped in the wind while officers and cadets in smart naval uniforms swarmed over polished decks.
From left: Curtains used to deflect sunlight in Palermo; a bust of Igiea, the Roman goddess of health, at Villa Igiea.Federico Ciamei
The Vanderbilts turned up in their yacht, as did Nathan Rothschild and J. P. Morgan.
Opera singers, playboys, minor aristocrats, and that new phenomenon, movie stars, all followed.
In those careless years, there was still an enigmatic, Gatsby-like aura around Ignazio and Franca Florio.
From left: A classic Favignanan decorative detail; the view of the Mediterranean from Cas’almare, a guesthouse on Favignana’s northern coast.Federico Ciamei
They appeared effortless, elegantly poised in a life of privilege and wealth.
Palermitans dubbed her the Queen of Palermo.
Palermo is the most underrated city in Italy.
From left: Cala Rossa, a popular cove on the island of Favignana; the former Florio tuna-packing plant, now a museum.Federico Ciamei
I would rather spend a day there than a week in Florence.
It is chaotic, seductive, swaggering, unruly, and endlessly charming.
In the 1780s, Paolo Florio arrived in Palermo from Calabria and opened a humble spice shop.
From left: The Donna Franca cocktail, made with gin, champagne, fruit syrups, and cherry foam, at the Igiea Terrazza Bar; the bar occupies the hotel’s sandstone vaults.Federico Ciamei
They were said to employ 16,000 people.
They founded a newspaper and a bank.
They ran 90 ocean liners to all points of the globe.
From left: Sicily’s Bay of Palermo, as seen from the Villa Igiea, now owned by Rocco Forte Hotels; original frescoes by the Neapolitan artist Ettore De Maria Bergler in the Sala Basile, Villa Igiea’s main reception room.Federico Ciamei
Palermo is the most underrated city in Italy.
I would rather spend a day there than a week in Florence.
It is chaotic, seductive, swaggering, unruly, and endlessly charming.
Bike riding by the sea on Favignana.Federico Ciamei
It veers between bellowing backstreet neighborhoods and grand monuments of soaring beauty.
It is impossible to understand Italy, Goethe said, without visiting Sicily.
He called it the “clue to everything.”
A cart decorated in honor of Santa Rosalia, Palermo’s patron saint.Federico Ciamei
A millennium ago, Sicily lay at the center of the world.
Around every corner there is another colossal pile.
Some have become crumbling tenements, barnacled with laundry; some have been reimagined as museums.
On orange-shaped juice bar on the island of Favignana.Federico Ciamei
But many are still inhabited by old aristocratic families.
Ignazio’s father, Ignazio Sr., had married a Sicilian baroness.
Any objections from her father had nothing to do with the family’s humble origins.
He was more concerned about Ignazio’s reputation as a womanizer.
He was right to worry.
Soon after their wedding, Ignazio went on safari in North Africa with 50 porters.
It was only the first of many indiscretions.
It is said Ignazio gave her a pearl every time he needed to ask for her forgiveness.
Apparently there are 365 one for every day of the year.
Cavalieri left the stage on the verge of tears and departed Palermo the following morning.
But it was a ghost of its former self.
Under a succession of owners, it grew increasingly frayed around the edges.
The old hotel has been fortunate in its new suitor.
Their brief was not to change the character of the hotel but to bring it back to life.
Related:12 of the Best Small Towns in Italy
Yet the Villa Igiea is not just a grand building.
I have rarely been in a hotel where the staff were so engaged.
Everyone, from the concierge to the doormen, seemed delighted at the return of Palermo’s grande dame.
Palermo is experiencing a renaissance, too.
Art galleries, smart cafes, and restaurants featuring young Sicilian chefs are opening in restored palaces.
The Galleria d’Arte Moderna showcases contemporary work in the Sant’Anna convent.
But what of the Florios?
How did they lose both their fortune and their dream palace?
I searched out two of the remaining descendants.
State contracts were withdrawn and given to northern enterprises.
Arbitrary government regulations seemed bent on crippling the Florio operations.
There were also question marks over Ignazio’s commercial instincts.
He continued to spend lavishly as debts spiraled.
It has a special place in the family’s history.
The phenomenal success of this enterprise was one of the key foundations of the family’s fortune.
Every year the Florios spent happy weeks on the island.
I set off there from Palermo, following in their footsteps.
Favignana, though only five miles from the coast of Sicily, feels halfway to North Africa.
It is not pretty or cute or lush.
There is a haunting edge-of-the-world beauty theresomething about vast skies and empty, elemental landscapes.
I found this cubist jumble at the port.
Along the coast people swim from shelves of rock in seas that are as clear as a desert sky.
Few foreigners have discovered Favignana, but well-traveled Italians adore it.
They have brought a sophistication to the island’s simplicity.
The rooms were full of shells and books.
Watery reflections danced across the ceilings while the mistral winds rattled the shutters.
In the mornings, before breakfast, I swam from the rocks.
I climbed to Fort St. Catherine, built by the Normans a millennium ago.
Favignana is the kind of place where you live simply.
Which must have appealed to Ignazio and Donna Franca.
All the frippery and pressures of their lives were left behind in Palermo.
But beyond that, these ancient seas and islands offer some reassuring glimpse of the eternal.
Beneath tall skies, among Mediterranean winds, grief may have been easier to bear.
It is said that the death of his five-year-old son destroyed Ignazio on a personal level.
It all unraveled with remarkable speed.
Favignana is the kind of place where you live simply.
Which must have appealed to Ignazio and Donna Franca.
These ancient seas and islands offer some reassuring glimpse of the eternal.
Still, there on Favignana, a century on, everyone remembers and admires the Florios.
There is a bronze statue of Ignazio’s father in the town square.
Ask anyone at the Villa Igiea the concierge, the waiter, the maitre d'.
They all know the story of Ignazio and Donna Franca.
The Florio story is not just about a hotel.
Their success is still a source of Sicilian pride, while their collapse still hurts.
Villa Igiea: The grande dame of Palermo, this 78-room, 22-suite hotel has a long history.
Highlights include a guided tour of the capital’s antiquities and a cycling adventure on Favignana.
A version of this story first appeared in the May 2022 issue ofTravel + Leisureunder the headlineA Sicilian Story.
