For more than 400 years the cloisters of the San Domenico Palace were closed off to the outside world and enjoyed only by monks. The former Dominican convent has been making up for lost time ever since, becoming a haunt of the rich, famous and infamous to Taormina throughout the 20th century including the likes of Greta Garbo, Maria Callas, Edward VIII, Princess Margaret and Elizabeth Taylor — earning a reputation for opulent decadence from the time of the Grand Tour.
Now after a three-year overhaul the 111 room hotel fully reopened earlier this year as part of the Four Seasons stable. Throughout its long history though, one thing has not changed: that mesmerising view of smoking, smouldering Mount Etna, surely one of the most compelling in Europe.
