Asmundo di Gisira

Style

Artistry in residence

Setting

Catania’s prime palazzo

Checking in to Asmundo di Gisira is like hunting for treasure in an alternate universe – you never know what you might find, but you’re sure to pick up something utterly unique along the way. This boldly designed art boutique is a canvas for Catania’s creative side. Each individually decorated space is the result of various collaborations with largely local artists, resulting in a masterfully curated mash-up of modern art and antiques. The Art Rooms are dedicated to fantastical figures from Sicilian mythology, including crocodile-wrestling heroes and elephant-enamoured mages, so you can piece together your bedtime stories from the artistic hints around you while your imagination really runs riot.

Facilities

Rooms

13, including three suites.

Checkout

11am, and check-in is at 2.30pm. Please note that reception is only open between 7.30am and midnight, so if you're arriving outside of these hours special arrangements will need to be made.

More Details

Rates include a breakfast of home-baked pastries and Sicilian savoury favourites (with eggs cooked to order), made exclusively using local ingredients from Catania’s historic market (just a cannoli’s throw down the street).

Also

The Aci e Galatea room is suitable for guests with mobility issues.

Free Internet Access

Laundry

Room Service

Spa

At the Hotel

Rooftop solarium, reading room, private dining room with open-kitchen, charged laundry service and free WiFi. In rooms: smart TV, electric diffuser with natural essences, minibar stocked with organic treats, tea-making kit, coffee machine and Ortigia bath products.

Our Favourite Rooms

Each stay at Asmundo di Gisira (divided between Art Rooms and Neoclassic Rooms) is truly one-of-a-kind. Choosing which exhibition space you’d like to sleep over in really comes down to picking out your favourite artwork. For the biggest bathroom in the palazzo (and your own piano for in-suite serenades) opt for the Bellini Suite, which takes its name from the Catania-born opera composer, Vincenzo Bellini. You’ll find some words of encouragement in metallic lettering above the bed, which read, “You make my heart go boom boom.” We’re sure Bellini would have agreed.

Packing Tips

Factoring in the Sicilian heat you’ll have to contend with during the island’s sweltering summers, breezy linens and a pair of oversized shades are best. But don’t be afraid to go bold with your colours and prints for your own Monica Vitti moment.

Also

Bathing at this hotel is quite an experience in itself. Some of the bathrooms continue the spa’s chromotherapy theme, others feature original floor tiles that have been upcycled onto the walls – and the Uzeta room’s five-metre-high monsoon shower quite li

Children

Welcome, but you’ll mostly find grown-up gallerists here.

Gallery

Food & Drink

Top Table

Any of the alfresco tables on the first-floor terrace come with sweeping city views, but you can also request to take breakfast on the rooftop (for an additional charge).

Dress Code

Whatever you’d wear to an art gallery, as that’s where you’ll be dining.

Hotel Restaurant

There’s no restaurant as such, but the ornately decorated private dining room (plus open kitchen) on the hotel’s second floor can be booked out by residents for brunch and dinner. Rustic Sicilian light bites (locally cured meats and cheese) are also served on the sun-soaked rooftop terrace, presented on cactus-style plates, which tie in with the surrounding succulents and fragrant potted plants.

Hotel Bar

Bitter blood-orange negronis and limoncello-based cocktails flow freely from the first-floor bar, accompanied by – you guessed it – Sicilian-inspired artworks. A stitched collage of old Mediterranean maps and island photographs by Palermo-based artist Rossana Taormina hangs alongside a whimsical mural by Swedish illustrator Daniel Egnéus depicting elephants, donkeys, butterflies and cacti – with a Sicilian story behind each drawing. Aperitivi and slow-food snacks can also be enjoyed up on Rooftop Gisira from 6pm each evening, just as the clouds above Etna begin to turn a dusky pink.

Last Orders

Breakfast is from 7.30am to 10.30am.

Room Service

In-room dining (available between 8am and 11pm) is a feast for the eyes in your own private gallery space.

Planes

Catania-Fontanarossa Airport (also known as Vincenzo Bellini Airport) is just a 20-minute drive away, and the hotel can help to arrange transfers for €‎30 one-way. If you’re starting your trip on the northern side of Sicily, you could fly into Falcone Borsellino Airport (Palermo Airport) and work your way around the island.

Trains

Catania Centrale is 10 minutes by car from the hotel, with easy connections to Palermo, Messina and Syracuse. Ask the hotel about its station pick-up and drop-off service, which costs €15 one-way.

Automobiles

There’s not much need for a car if your stay in Catania is fleeting - especially given the area around the hotel is pedestrian-only so there's no parking nearby - but much of Sicily’s coastal and rural charms are best discovered with some (ideally small, whizzy) wheels – particularly given Catania’s proximity to Mount Etna, which is steaming out for a visit.

Worth Getting Out of Bed For

Don’t expect the aristocratic air of Palermo – Catania’s charcoal streets are a little rough around the edges (much of the dark lava stone used to build the Baroque palazzi was hewn from Etna itself), but the city feels all the more characterful for it. A short, urban-safari stroll from Asmundo di Gisira is the curious (and rather comical) Elephant Fountain, a lava-stone Roman statue known locally as Liotru, which stands on an Egyptian obelisk in the centre of Piazza del Duomo. The south-west corner of this Unesco-listed piazza – a photographer-pleasing mish-mash of lava and limestone – leads onto Catania’s delightfully raucous La Pescheria, a daily fish market brimming with glistening seafood. This is as good a people-watching spot as it is the locally approved place to pick up the catch of the day. The classically inclined should visit Museo Civico, for the Biscari archaeological collection of colossal sculptures, Greek pottery and ancient mosaics, displayed within the imposing 13th-century Castello Ursino. And of course, it would be impossible to visit Catania without paying some sort of homage to its operatic legend, Vincenzo Bellini – whether it’s joining local dog-walkers for a sunny stroll around the picturesque Giardino Bellini, or stepping through the stucco and marble entrance of Teatro Massimo Bellini for a suitably lavish night at the opera. For some of the most magnificent views of Mount Etna, Catania’s main shopping street, Via Etnea well and truly lives up to its name – or get up close to the still-smoking giant with an off-road day trip (just a 45-minute drive away). Ask the hotel about guided crater tours (you can even hike to the summit), and wine tasting in the surrounding vineyards.

Earn or Redeem Points with World of Hyatt

This Mr & Mrs Smith hotel participates in the World of Hyatt loyalty program. As a member, you can earn and redeem points and enjoy exclusive benefits for qualifying nights. .