Condé Nast Traveler's latest Readers' Choice Awards put a spotlight on one of Sicily's most storied addresses: the Grand Hotel Timeo in Taormina, which readers ranked among their favourite hotels in Italy. And it's easy to see why the property has held on to its fanbase for well over a century.
The Timeo started life modestly in 1850 as a simple guesthouse, perched above the Ionian Sea with a front-row seat to Mount Etna and the Greek theatre below. It has since grown into one of the island's most luxurious hotels, the kind of place where the guest list once read like a film credits scroll — Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor both checked in during their era of Italian summers.
The newest chapter is a Dior Spa, freshly opened on-site. It features mosaic floors (fitting, in Sicily), an infrared sauna, and a treatment menu built around Dior products — sculpting facials and Ayurvedic therapies among the offerings. After a morning of pampering, the hotel's gardens offer a shaded cooldown: citrus trees, sea breezes, and terraces designed for lingering.
The magazine paired the hotel with a packing list in the same spirit — think a Gigi underwired one-piece, an Omega Speedmaster 38, a vintage Van Cleef & Arpels Alhambra necklace, Valentino acetate glasses, and a Chanel silk and feathers brooch. The takeaway is less about the specific labels and more about the dress code: Taormina rewards a bit of effort. This is a town where evening passeggiata still happens, hotel terraces fill up for aperitivo, and linen and gold jewellery feel right at 8pm.
For travellers, the story is a nudge to look beyond Italy's usual city breaks. Taormina sits high on a hillside on Sicily's east coast, and the Timeo's gardens and spa make it a strong base whether you're here for a honeymoon, a wellness-focused escape, or a slow week of Greek ruins, granita, and Etna views. You can spend a day hiking or driving up the volcano, another wandering Taormina's tiny lanes and the ancient theatre, then come back to a facial and a sunset drink. That combination of old-school glamour and genuinely useful location is what keeps a 19th-century guesthouse topping reader polls in the 2020s.
If a full Dior-spa stay is out of budget, note that the town has plenty of smaller guesthouses nearby, and non-guests can sometimes book spa treatments directly — worth emailing ahead. Either way, pack the good sunglasses. Taormina is not the place to skimp on style.
