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Romano Palace Luxury Hotel
Catania, Italy · Independent · Near Luxury
When it opened in 2004 it was the first five-star luxury hotel on this stretch of the Catania coast, planted on the Playa, the eighteen-kilometre sand beach that turns into the city's summer nightlife after dark. The style is unapologetic Sicilian Baroque with Egyptian flourishes, and the whole thing sits inside a private park of 15,000 square metres laid out around an Arabian fountain. Fontanarossa airport is five minutes away, which makes the quiet of that garden a genuine surprise.
- 104 rooms
- Opened 2004
About Romano Palace Luxury Hotel
- All 104 rooms and suites sit on just two floors, with bathrooms finished in mosaic and semi-precious stone.
- Catania's Baroque centre, about ten minutes north, was rebuilt in black lava stone after the 1693 earthquake levelled the city, and Mount Etna's 1669 flow had already reached its walls twenty-four years before that.
History
The Romano Palace Luxury Hotel and Conference Center was built in 2004 on Viale Presidente Kennedy, the seafront road along Catania's Playa, and renovated the following year. It presented itself as the first five-star luxury house on this part of the Sicilian coast. Two storeys hold 104 rooms and suites, each given its own colour scheme and outlook, with bathrooms set in mosaic and semi-precious stone. The architecture is theatrically Baroque, with eclectic and Egyptian-inflected decoration, and the grounds run to a private park of about 15,000 square metres built around a large Arabian fountain, a pool with whirlpool jets and a beach concession on the Playa.
The setting
The Playa is Catania's sandy beach, eighteen kilometres of it running south from the port towards the mouth of the Simeto. Along the shore sit the lidi, the beach clubs that turn into bars and dance floors after dark, which is why this quiet strip in winter is the centre of the city's summer nights. Mount Etna stands behind the city; its 1669 eruption reached Catania's walls, and the earthquake of 1693 flattened what was left, producing the black lava Baroque centre that is now a UNESCO World Heritage site about ten minutes north. Fontanarossa airport is five minutes the other way.
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More hotels in Catania
- Palazzo Sangiorgio — Independent · Accessible Luxury