One afternoon, last spring, while wandering the lovely hilltown of Ragusa Ibla in Sicily’s Baroque South East,  I came across a beautiful  Liberty style building, Villino Arezzo. 

That afternoon I had walked uphill from Ragusa Ibla's Piazza del Duomo.

A hilltop villino

Taking up an entire block, noble Villino Arezzo stands handsomely on the very top of  a flat hill on Piazza Dottor Solarino. Overlooking a valley on one side and partly a little derelict on another. I was intrigued. 

This charming Liberty villino, built in 1910, was designed by Ragusa engineer, Giorgio Migliorisi. And the Arezzo family of Trifiletti's family crest, of a crowned eagle, sits atop the building.

An overgrown garden on one side

The ornate gates on the side, which neighbour the University of Catania’s Agrarian Faculty, were closed with sheets of corrugated iron and the name Villino Arezzo could be made out, etched in the stone columns topped with crouching lions.

The garden on this side was charming and a little tangled - overgrown, the windows and doors shuttered and closed and, the dusty pink, Liberty floral carvings in the mossy fence columns were clear.

A place to stay

I walked around, took some photos and lingered. The imposing balcony facade which opens to the valley, has a tended garden, green and treed.

There is a B&B there called Castello Vecchio.

The website for the 5 room B&B says that Virginia Arezzo runs it and that the villino sits on 'the ruins of Cabrera's castle'. The B&B  must take up only part of this gracious building. And, with the Arezzo surname she is very likely a descendant of the once noble Arezzo family of Ragusa.

Villino Arezzo's main entrance, off Piazza Dottor Solarino, is formal and is only a few steps up from the piazza. Unfortunately this side of the villino now faces a carpark.

To return

I would love to return to Ragusa Ibla this summer, to stay a night at Castello Vecchio and to hear the story (hopefully from Virginia Arezzo) of this lovely villino, perched on Ragusa Ibla's 'highest spot'.

Salve,

Suzanne

A Note:

Websites used: http://www.castellovecchio.com/

http://www.ibla.it/pages/15-palazzo-arezzo-di-trifiletti