San Domenico Palace, A Four Seasons Hotel - Cloisters Above the Sea
PROJECTS
San Domenico Palace, A Four Seasons Hotel in Taormina is a study in presence and poise. The former Dominican monastery sits on a rocky terrace above the Ionian Sea, its cloisters and stone corridors opening to gardens, terraces and long views to Mount Etna. The mood is hushed without being precious. History is everywhere, yet the spaces feel open and current, a calm frame for contemporary life.
The architecture sets a clear rhythm. Two wings meet across courtyards and loggias, one rooted in the 14th-century convent, the other a Liberty-style grand hotel added in the late 19th century. Restoration has left the bones visible. Frescoes, fragments and carved inscriptions sit alongside new finishes and light. You sense the hand of specialists who cleaned stone, revealed columns and coaxed old surfaces back to life.
Rooms and suites lean into restraint. The palette is pale and tactile, letting the structure speak. Openings are tall, thresholds generous, and sightlines carry to sea, garden or cloister. Materials are chosen to sit easily next to centuries-old fabric. Brass and timber read warm against cool stone. Nothing competes with the setting. It adds up to a quiet, intelligent kind of luxury.
Outside, the 21-metre infinity pool draws a line between sky and water. At certain hours the terrace feels like a ship’s deck, with the coast falling away and Etna on the horizon. Lush planting softens the architecture, and cloistered walks move you from the formal to the intimate, from sun to shade. This is where the building’s monastic origins still register, in the way the grounds slow your pace.
Dining folds place and craft together. Principe Cerami serves a refined take on Sicilian cuisine with those wide views as a constant, while Anciovi on the pool terrace keeps things light and Mediterranean. In the evenings, Bar & Chiostro brings people back to the cloister with a soft glow and a measured buzz. The experience is rooted in locality and season, with service that feels precise rather than staged.
There is a thoughtful layer of culture under the surface. The palace holds a collection of around five hundred artworks linked to its monastic past, from religious scenes to everyday life, many gathered in La Sala della Grande Madia. Inscriptions uncovered during the renovation connect the present to names and hands from three centuries ago. These details are not museum pieces behind glass. They are part of the route you take to breakfast or the walk to the garden.
Summer brings a brighter accent. The hotel’s creative collaboration with Dolce&Gabbana returns with a Blu Mediterraneo mood at the pool and an intimate pop-up in the former sacristy. Cerulean patterns and hand-drawn motifs nod to Sicilian ceramics and coastal light, a seasonal overlay that amplifies rather than overwhelms the house style. It is a dialogue between fashion and place that feels unusually natural.
