When staying in Polizzi I like to slip down the mountain road, the SS120 and take the autostrada to Palermo to wander the streets of the capital; discovering and rediscovering.

And when I stop the night in Palermo I sometimes stay in a hotel by the sea: Hotel Villa Igiea; to gaze out to the Tyrrhenian to turn my back, for a bit, on one of my favourite Italian cities and to revisit one of Palermo’s most beautiful Liberty style (Art Nouveau) rooms.

(Once a private villa, Hotel Villa Igiea, with gardens and terraces stretching down to the sea, was renovated as a hotel in 1908 by the leading Sicilian Liberty Style architect Ernesto Basile for the Florio family. It was a time when Palermo was one of Europe’s finest Art Nouveau cities).

The room I revisit: Sala Basile, on the first floor of  Hotel Villa Igiea is a complete work of art.

It is just past the concierge’s desk, up a few steps on the left hand side. And, if you aren’t spending the night have a drink on the terrace overlooking the sea, listen to the jazz pianist and then wander. (Anyway, the staff love to share the treasures of the hotel).

Related Blog Post: Things not to miss in Palermo Part 1

If Sala Basile is free the double glazed doors are always unlocked; go inside and spend a while looking at the splendour of the frescos painted by the entrusted artist Ettore de Maria Bergler and the organic form of the curved wood worked by Vittorio Durcot; both chosen by Ernesto Basile.

A captivating room, Sala Basile expresses all the elements of the Liberty Style; where nature dominates and it is floral, free flowing, mythological, botanical and sensuous.

I came to learn that De Maria Bergler's fresco painted walls capture the four parts of the day; the sunrise painted on the east wall, daytime and the sunset on the centre wall and the night on the north wall.

De Maria Bergler didn’t stop with these walls; on the western side where Basile created an elegant colonnade De Maria Bergler painted three glorious peacocks above, also representing the periods of the day: one with an open tail representing dawn; another with a tail half closed, sunset; and the third with its head down in a sleeping position, night; they are magical.

Beneath the rising and setting suns are shapely maidens moving gracefully between meadows of scented flowers: irises, lilies and roses and orchards of citrus and pomergranates.The allure of Sicily's mythological power is captured in this Art Nouveau room by the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Wander Sala Basile, slowly.

Salve,

Suzanne    

Note: Background reading; notes from Hotel Villa Igiea. Suzanne