Historic centre of Noto
Four rooms with vaulted ceilings and wrought-iron balconies, sixty metres from the Cathedral. Coffee happens in the courtyard, before the corso fills up.
The house
Noto fell in 1693 and was rebuilt from nothing, all at once, in the same stone and the same style. This palazzo dates from then: the door on via Cavour, the passage through to the courtyard, the staircase up to the piano nobile.
The four rooms are on the first floor, the one with high ceilings and frescoed vaults — faded, not repainted. We redid the wiring, the bathrooms and the beds, and left everything else alone. The floors are the original ones, cracks and all.
My sister Marilena and I look after guests ourselves. This isn't a hotel and won't become one: four rooms is what we can genuinely take care of.
Demonstration image
Enclosed on three sides, full of potted lemon trees and jasmine. In summer it's the only cool spot in the centre at three in the afternoon.
The Cathedral, Palazzo Nicolaci, the Tina Di Lorenzo theatre. Step out of the door and you're already inside the UNESCO site.
Noto almond granita and brioche, brought to your table. Nobody rushes you and nobody clears the plates while you're still eating.
We'll tell you what time to climb the bell tower, where to eat without a tourist menu, and which beach to pick depending on the wind.
The rooms
Each with its own outlook and character. All with private bathroom, air conditioning, wifi and a coffee machine. The prices shown are low-season minimums.
Demonstration imageThe corner room, two windows and the best-preserved frescoed vault in the house. Four-poster bed hung with pale linen, walk-in shower.
Demonstration imageWith the wrought-iron balcony over the corso: in the evening you sit there and watch the town go past. Double bed plus armchair bed.
Demonstration imageThe quietest one, window onto the rooftops and the bell tower. Low vaulted ceiling, iron bed, desk under the window.
Demonstration imageBreakfast
Tables are laid under the lemon-tree wall. There's no buffet: you order at the table and it's made there and then, like at a bar — except the bar is your house for a few days.
The granita is Noto almond, the real thing, with a brioche col tuppo. Then sheep's ricotta, almond pastries from the baker downstairs, blood oranges squeezed in front of you, warm bread with Val di Noto oil.
Anyone leaving early for Cava Grande or the beach can ask for breakfast from 7:30 — just tell us the evening before.
Where we are
Via Cavour runs parallel to the corso, one block up. You're inside everything and out of the noise: you walk everywhere, and at night you come home without touching the car.
Demonstration imageReviews
9.5 average across 428 reviews on Google and the major platforms.
“The Corso room has a balcony you can see half of Noto from, and in the morning almond granita arrives at your table in the courtyard. Marilena booked us a restaurant where we were the only non-locals.”
“A perfectly restored piano nobile without a hint of that boutique-hotel blandness. The frescoed vault in the Nicolaci room is faded and real, which is exactly right.”
Questions
We hold reserved spaces in a car park three hundred metres away, outside the zone, at 8 euros a day. For unloading luggage we issue you a transit permit — just send us your number plate before you arrive.
No. It's a listed eighteenth-century palazzo and the rooms are on the first floor, twenty-two steps up. The Cortile room is on the ground floor with no steps: if walking is difficult, ask for that one.
Corso faces the street and on summer evenings you hear people until midnight. Volta and Cortile are quiet. If you're a light sleeper tell us and we'll put you at the back.
Yes, always, served at your table in the courtyard from 8 to 10:30. Early risers can have it from 7:30 by telling us the night before.
What doesn't go to a platform stays in the price you pay — and you get the restricted-zone permit either way.