At a Glance

• Location: Palermo, Sicily, Italy
• Number of Rooms: 100, comprising 72 rooms and 28 suites
• Room Stayed: Junior Suite with Sea View
• Dates of Stay: July 2026
• Rates: From EUR 1,200 per night in shoulder season.
• Value for Money: Reasonable. It is expensive for Palermo, with little comparable local competition, but the accommodation, dining and service make it a worthwhile choice.
• Best For: Travellers wanting a luxurious base for exploring Palermo.
• Would I Return? Yes, if visiting Palermo, but I would not make a special trip for the hotel alone.

What It Does Well

• Sympathetic restoration that preserves the building’s historic grandeur
• Fresh, modern room interiors
• Understated, attentive service
• Strong dining and food quality 
• Attractive outlooks over the gardens and water

Areas for Improvement

• Pool is small relative to the number of rooms
• Poor service from bar staff
• Limited spa facilities
• Beautiful historic rooms that feel underused outside private events

First Impressions

Villa Igiea has a reputation for being the best hotel in Palermo. The contrast with its immediate surroundings is vast: the neighbourhood held little appeal for me, but the hotel was an enjoyable place to spend time.

It demonstrates how well Rocco Forte handles historic properties. There is grandeur in the building, comfort in the rooms and an understated warmth to the hospitality. 

Setting and History

Palermo has a strong identity, though not always an immediately pretty one. I found much of the city dirty and unattractive, but it also has an authenticity that can feel missing from Sicily’s more polished, tourist-driven destinations like Taormina. Its history, architecture, markets and food still make it worth experiencing, even if the city does not charm in the most obvious way.

Villa Igiea sits on Salita Belmonte, outside the historic centre, overlooking the Gulf of Palermo and a small marina, with gardens and water views that make it feel set apart from the city.

The property occupies a 19th-century villa that was transformed into a grand hotel around the turn of the twentieth century, with distinctive Art Nouveau interiors. It also served as a hospital at points in its history, and you can still sense that in parts of the building. Rocco Forte took over in 2019 and reopened the hotel in 2021 following a substantial restoration that preserved much of its historic character.

Arrival Experience

We arrived late in the evening to an efficient check-in and warm, helpful staff.

The entrance looks onto broad white marble hallways with a slightly institutional, almost sanatorium-like quality, though they still feel elegant. Elsewhere, frescoed and richly decorated rooms add a different kind of grandeur. The contrast makes the building memorable, while the warm welcome keeps it from feeling imposing.

The Room

We stayed in a Junior Suite with Sea View, which felt recognisably Rocco Forte: fresh, refined and comfortable. The view across the hotel towards the water was lovely, and I would prioritise a sea view when booking.

The bathroom was well laid out, with a large window above the bath looking out towards the gardens and water. Colour palettes and tiles vary between rooms, and some are more colourful than others, but ours felt fresh and practical.

Some rooms also have terraces with good outlooks, although the larger outdoor spaces we saw felt a little bare. They had the space, but needed better furniture to feel properly usable.

At turndown, the hotel left Irene Forte skincare samples in the room. It felt more like a sales tactic than a thoughtful turndown gift, especially as we have seen the same thing at other Rocco Forte properties, including Brown’s and The Carlton. At a hotel like Villa Igiea, something more personal would have worked better.

Dining

Dining was a highlight, with excellent food and good, attentive service at breakfast and dinner. There are three main options: a formal restaurant in an original Louis XVI hall, a casual Sicilian poolside bistro and a cocktail bar housed in sandstone vaults. Together, they provide sufficient variety for a short stay.

Breakfast is served in the formal restaurant, with seating either in the indoor dining room or outside on the terrace overlooking the gardens and water. The terrace is the prettier option, although in the summer heat, indoors was sometimes more comfortable. The buffet was modest but well presented, supplemented by dishes from an à la carte menu.

Dinner was handled with the same care. We were never left waiting for someone to replenish a drink, and staff noticed what was needed without hovering.

The bar is one of the hotel’s most beautiful spaces, set beneath vaulted ceilings with intricately painted walls, historic detailing and a terrace that opens out towards the gardens and Gulf of Palermo. 

Facilities

Villa Igiea sits somewhere between a city hotel and a resort. The building has scale, the gardens and water views give it a more relaxed feel, and the facilities include a pool, a tennis court overlooking the water, a spa and a gym. But the setup is still fairly compact, so I would book it as Palermo’s strongest luxury hotel with some leisure facilities, rather than as a full resort-style stay.

The pool is pretty, set within the gardens overlooking the water, with green-and-white striped daybeds. It is small for a hotel with 100 rooms, however, and can become busy at higher occupancy.

The spa occupies a separate building, giving it some privacy. During our stay, it offered treatment rooms, a wellness/relaxation area and a gym, but lacked a full thermal circuit. I understand there are plans to add a sauna and steam room, which would make the offering more complete.

Some of the hotel’s most impressive spaces are not facilities in the usual sense, but the historic rooms themselves. The frescoed Salon Basile is particularly distinctive, and other rooms feature ornate ceilings and elaborate decoration. Several of these spaces appeared largely empty during our visit, presumably because they are used mainly for events. It felt like a missed opportunity: Villa Igiea has some extraordinary interiors, but not all of them feel woven into everyday guest life.

Service

Service was good overall. Reception was helpful, recommendations were useful and requests generally required little follow-up.

The bar was the exception. Staff there were not especially friendly or engaged, and the tone felt noticeably colder than elsewhere in the hotel. It stood out because the rest of the service had been much better.

There was also an isolated housekeeping incident where a staff member entered our room without knocking, then left without apologising after realising we were inside. Respecting guests’ privacy is fundamental, and this should not have happened.

Would I Stay Again?

Yes, if I had a reason to return to Palermo. I would not ordinarily recommend adding the city as a routine stopover, but for travellers interested in its culture and character, or whose arrangements require a night there, Villa Igiea would be my preferred base.

I would allow time to enjoy the hotel as well as explore the city, but would not make a special trip for the hotel alone.

Final Thoughts

Villa Igiea brings together the qualities Rocco Forte handles well: historic character, comfortable accommodation and understated hospitality. The facilities are modest, but the building and dining make it much more than somewhere to sleep between outings.

If you wish to have us assist with any bookings email us at bookings@stripetravel.com or contact us here. By booking with us, you will likely receive the following additional benefits:

• Upgrade on arrival, subject to availability
• Daily breakfast for up to two guests per bedroom
• $100 USD equivalent food and beverage credit to be used during the stay
• Early check-in and late check-out, subject to availability
• Complimentary Wi-Fi