Villa Pennisi

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• Temporarily closedper Google Maps
• Park
• Under 1 kmfrom Acireale center
• Official site
• 4.4 / 5101 reviews
• Acireale

A Grand Hotel's Secret Garden

In the 1870s, Baron Agostino Pennisi di Floristella envisioned Acireale as a fashionable spa town. He channeled sulfurous thermal waters from the ancient Roman baths at Santa Venera through a three-kilometer underground system to his property beside the new railway station, then commissioned Florentine architect Mariano Falcini to build the Grand Hôtel des Bains in neoclassical style, complete with an elegant garden for guests to stroll during cooler hours.↗

The garden was conceived as a pleasure ground in the eclectic tradition of great Sicilian parks of that era, designed to delight both body and spirit. Tropical palms, citrus, jasmine, and fruit trees were imported by steamship from distant shores. Guests could take tea in a pavilion, admire birds in the aviary, or simply wander among artfully trimmed hedges. It was here, in 1882, that Richard Wagner stayed and reportedly found inspiration to complete his opera Parsifal.↗

A devastating fire in 1880 damaged the hotel buildings, which were rebuilt but never fully recovered their grandeur. The thermal enterprise declined in competition with Taormina, and the Pennisi family eventually sold the spa complex to the state in the 1950s. The garden, however, passed into private residential use and survived intact—a rarity among Acireale's old estates, most of which fell to postwar construction.

What to Notice in the Garden

The garden's visual centerpiece is a magnificent octagonal gazebo in wrought iron, its geometric framework now smothered in cascading wisteria and false jasmine. Surrounding beds of blue agapanthus, roses, and colorful dimorphotheca create a ring of fragrance and color around its pebble-paved floor.↗↗

Among the specimen trees, two exceptional clumps of Phoenix reclinata are the garden's pride. This slow-growing palm forms clusters whose slender trunks arch and twist horizontally like the tentacles of an octopus, creating a canopy unlike any other. A towering Yucca guatemalensis claims a wide section of lawn, while Livistona chinensis, Cycas revoluta, Howea forsteriana, and Norfolk pines all add to the sense of a Victorian tropical collection still in living form.↗

Perhaps the most fascinating structure is the so-called tea pavilion, built in the form of a Greek cross with elaborate wrought-iron railings. On one side, a wall of raw black lava rock appears to burst through the building's elegant masonry—a theatrical trick designed to simulate an eruption of Etna invading the house. From its rooftop belvedere, accessible by a small iron staircase, guests once enjoyed a panoramic view of the volcano itself. Inside, large painted canvases of elegantly dressed women still decorate the walls.

Villa Pennisi in Musica

Each August, the garden opens its doors wide for Villa Pennisi in Musica, a summer festival founded in 2008 to honor Francesco Pennisi—a composer, painter, poet, and novelist who played a significant role in Italy's 20th-century avant-garde. The festival presents concerts of international caliber in the garden and the palazzo's grand 200-square-meter salone, with performances also staged in Acireale's Piazza Duomo and Cathedral.↗↗

The event is also a creative workshop: a parallel summer school for musicians, designers, and architects produces an original wooden acoustic stage built on-site each year. The late composer Ezio Bosso was a frequent guest, and the festival has maintained its program even through the pandemic summer, with staggered and distanced evening concerts beneath the wisteria-clad gazebo.↗↗

Visiting

Villa Pennisi is a private residence, so the garden is not open freely to walk-in visitors. Access is by reservation, typically for groups of ten or more, arranged through the villa's website at villapennisi.com. Admission has been listed at around €4 per person. The most accessible way to experience the garden without advance booking is during the Villa Pennisi in Musica festival in early-to-mid August, when the grounds host evening concerts open to ticket-holding audiences, or during FAI Open Days in spring and autumn.↗↗

The villa sits directly opposite Acireale's old railway station on Piazza Agostino Pennisi. From Catania or Messina, take the SS114 coastal road and exit for Acireale; the piazza is a few minutes from the town center. The garden is included in the Grandi Giardini Italiani network and has been nominated through FAI's Places of the Heart campaign.↗↗

Note: Google Maps currently lists the site as temporarily closed for general visits. Always confirm availability directly with the villa before planning a trip, as the festival and FAI events represent the most reliable public access.