Luxury Hotels Atlas / Places / Italy / Taormina / UNA Hotels Capotaormina
UNA Hotels Capotaormina
Taormina, Italy · UNAHOTELS · Accessible Luxury
Luc Besson shot the free-diving duel of The Big Blue here in 1988, and the restaurant on the jetty still carries the film's name, Le Grand Bleu. The hotel was cut into the top of a rock promontory in 1973, seven floors of it, and the only way down to its private beach is a lift bored straight through the cliff. Above that sits a saltwater infinity pool with Mount Etna and Isola Bella in the same frame.
- 190 rooms
- Opened 1973
About UNA Hotels Capotaormina
- The Big Blue could not be released in Italy until 2002, held up by a defamation suit from the real free diver Enzo Maiorca, who objected to Jean Reno's version of him.
- The private beach is volcanic rock rather than sand, and it belongs to the hotel alone. There is no path in from the land, only the lift shaft driven through the promontory.
- A restyling launched in 2024 under Studio Ceccaroli Architettura has reworked 73 of the hotel's 190 rooms so far.
History
The hotel went up in 1973 on the rocky headland of Capo Taormina, south of the town, and it was built the way you would build a fort: seven floors carved into the top of the promontory, all of them facing the sea, with a tunnel and lift sunk through the rock to reach the water. Fifteen years later Luc Besson arrived to shoot The Big Blue. Jacques Mayol and Enzo Molinari hold their most dangerous breath-hold contest at this hotel in the film, and the restaurant beside the jetty has been called Le Grand Bleu ever since. Other Taormina locations in the picture include the railway station, the old town and the San Domenico Palace.
The house is run by UNA Italian Hospitality, part of Gruppo UNA. A refurbishment programme launched in 2024, with architecture and interiors by Studio Ceccaroli Architettura, has so far restyled 73 of the 190 rooms.
The setting
Capo Taormina is the headland that closes the southern end of the bay, about three kilometres below Taormina's historic centre and roughly the same distance from Isola Bella, the tiny islet joined to the shore by a shingle spit. The Bay of Giardini Naxos opens to the south, with Mount Etna behind it; Naxos was the first Greek settlement on Sicily, founded in the eighth century BC. Catania Fontanarossa airport is about an hour down the coast.
Open UNA Hotels Capotaormina in the atlas for live weekend rates, photos, and the full folio.
More hotels in Taormina
- Grand Hotel San Pietro Taormina — Independent · Accessible Luxury
- Hotel Metropole Taormina — Independent · Accessible Luxury
- Hotel Villa Carlotta — Independent · Accessible Luxury
- La Plage Resort — Independent · Accessible Luxury
- Palazzo Vecchio Taormina — Independent · Accessible Luxury
- Panoramic Hotel — Independent · Accessible Luxury