Grand Hotel Timeo

From the Hideaway Report

September 2011 Hideaway Report

Set in terraced gardens filled with jasmine, vines, citrus trees, cypresses and urns of scarlet geraniums, the elegant 72-room Grand Hotel Timeo, now an Orient-Express property, opened in 1873 in the shadow of Taormina’s spectacular Greek theater. The property underwent a three-year renovation before reopening in 2010, but it retains the alluringly genteel atmosphere of a stop on the Victorian Grand Tour.

Our arrival was slightly chaotic — it would have been helpful to have been told that you park below the hotel and that a golf cart comes to collect you — but check-in was charming, and we were immediately besotted with our deluxe seaview suite with its oak parquet floors, vaulted whitewashed ceiling and handsome Sicilian oil paintings. The spacious sitting room was exquisitely furnished with a powder-blue damask sofa and several ormolu-accented stone-topped intarsio (inlaid wood) bureaus. The quality of the furnishings and the impressive attention to detail — heavy wooden coat hangers in the closets and pressed linen hand towels in the spacious, well-lit white marble bath, for example — brought to mind the late and still much-lamented CIGA hotel chain, which once set the standard for luxury lodgings in Italy. I also appreciated the easy-to-use electronics, including a master light switch on each side of the bed and an iPod dock. Despite a diligent search, I couldn’t find anything that was wanting.

So just a minor quibble or two: Someone should tell the chambermaids to keep their voices down in the hallways; and service was very slow in the restaurant. However, we loved our shrimp and orange salad and pizza Margherita at lunch, and a sublime risotto with clams and Ragusa cheese at dinner. The pool is on the small side, too, but this isn’t the hotel’s fault. Taormina is a rich archaeological site, so you can’t just sink a shovel into the ground as you might elsewhere. Mrs. Harper also gave high marks to the hotel’s spa, where she had an 80-minute “Sicilian Senses” treatment, which included a pumice foot exfoliation and an olive-oil soap body cleansing.

Personally, I particularly admired the gallery of old-fashioned reception rooms on the main floor, with their Victorian writing tables and fine views over the bay. No one seemed to use these elegant and atmospheric spaces very much, but they are chiefly responsible for the hotel’s personality, which still evokes the sepia-toned romance of the Grand Tour and the leisured civilities of another age. And they also mix a terrific Negroni in the tiny adjacent bar!

On my next visit to Taormina, I will request Junior Suite 314 (or equivalent), which has French doors leading to a balcony from which to enjoy superb views of the Bay of Naxos and Mount Etna. (Alternatively, Double Deluxe 116 also has a memorable view and a nice little balcony.) The Grand Hotel Timeo proved an ideal last stop on our Sicilian journey, since it alone would prompt a swift return to this enchanting island.

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