Monaci delle Terre Nere
Beamed boltholes and sleek suites
Fertile foothills, sea-facing slopes
At the heart of Monaci delle Terre Nere hotel is a dusky pink, 19th-century villa, lovely in its own right, but just a fraction of the scenery that awaits you. With Etna’s slopes behind you and the Ionian coast a sinuous blue laid out ahead, in between there’s a 62-acre working farm – so vast you’ll need staff to take you past the vineyards of rare grape varietals, secluded hilltop villas, orchards, natural amphitheatre, past the treehouse and chicken coop, and back to the open-air bar on a little golf cart. Naturally, it’s a spot with a serious eco-conscience too. Suites are either beamed airy villas in the grounds, converted farm buildings or lava-walled hideaways, and the team – local-expert owners Guido and Federica, a wine-savant sommelier, and a run of charmers from reception to the dining room – make you feel right at home in this expansive tract of Sicilian serenity.
Facilities
Rooms
27 rooms, including 15 suites and four private pool villas.
Checkout
11am, but later can be arranged, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.
More Details
Room rates include a buffet breakfast. A €2 city tax is due a person, a night (charged at check-out).
Also
The hotel’s cobbled hills and wild expanses can be tricky for even the most mobile guests – staff will happily pick you up in a golf buggy on-call, but be prepared to stretch your legs a bit.
Free Internet Access
Laundry
Pet Friendly
Pool
On-Site Restaurant
Room Service
At the Hotel
62-acre working farm with vineyards, orchards, a treehouse and chicken coop; library and small boutique; outdoor terraces; golf carts for transporting guests; free-to-borrow mountain bikes and Smart e-bikes; free WiFi throughout. In rooms: Independent air conditioning, coffee machine with organic pods, private wine stash with a selection of Etna wines made on the estate, selection of fresh organic fruit, artisanal bath products.
Our Favourite Rooms
Housed in a quiet 18th-century building, Estate Suite Minerale has a beamed ceiling and dramatic lava stone walls. It’s in the old wine press, giving it lashings of rustic charm, a unique split-level layout and sweeping views over the vineyards. Seclusion and style are found in Deluxe Estate Suite Fiore, a sprawling suite set in an eco-friendly building in the hotel's grounds. We love its mod four-poster, from which you can spy the sea through large windows. The Monaci Pool Villa is set amid the slopes, a fair walk (or short putter on the golf cart) away from the main villa, but worth the effort for the extra privacy and your own pool with views to sigh for.
Poolside
By the open-air bar, sunk into a terrace hewn into the foothills, the hotel has an unheated, outdoor saltwater pool with an infinity edge, overlooking swathes of the Sicilian countryside and cerulean sea.
Spa
The hotel has a small one-room spa, but treatments are also offered in-room for extra privacy. All the spa's treatments use organic essential oils to rejuvenate the body and mind through signature facials, massages, scrubs, as well as draining and detoxifying therapies. Ask for a bamboo massage, done with hot rods that reduce stress and strengthens the immune system. The hotel also offers outdoor Hatha yoga sessions in manicured gardens at the foot of Mount Etna.
Packing Tips
Volcanic rock murders inappropriate footwear, so be sure to bring hiking boots with a strong constitution (and super comfy trainers for bombing about onsite); and leave several bottle-shaped spaces in your luggage for some of the hotel’s own wines.
Also
On request, a baby cot (free), an extra child's bed for 3 to 12 year-olds (€90 a night), or an adult bed (€150 a night) can be added to all rooms and suites except the Deluxe; ask when booking.
Children
Welcome. There’s a treehouse and chicken coop, small playground, two badminton nets, table tennis and other games. The secluded villas dotting the grounds are best suited to families, and most suites have a sofabed.
Gallery
Food & Drink
Top Table
In summer, sit close to the terrace edge for uninterrupted, volcano and coast views; or ask for a private meal in a peaceful hillside locale.
Dress Code
Swooshy cottons and pastel tailoring oughta do it.
Hotel Restaurant
There are two: Locanda Nerello and a more casual poolside eatery, both serving a 0km menu and champions of the slow food movement, where dishes are determined by the daily harvest. Most of the fruit, vegetables and herbs are grown in the hotel’s own organic gardens with very local suppliers called in for the odd ingredient. Etna has a smattering of tables over a leafy terrace cut into a hillside, while Locanda Nerello is in the main villa and feels like a noble eccentric’s dining room, with its antiques, original artworks, neon signage, and curios, expect dishes like albacore Cinisara beef tartare with Salina capers, apple and egg; creamy carnaroli risotto with fennel, olive and orange zest; sweet-and-sour rabbit; and cannoli made to a heritage recipe. Refined Etna wines make the perfect pairing to the quintessentially Sicilian cuisine. Breakfast is a lavish buffet piled with local, organic produce, including fresh fruit, bread baked in the hotel's brick oven, pastries, local honey and seasonal jams, gourmet cold cuts, cheese and eggs from the estate’s own chickens.
Hotel Bar
Grab a glass of Sicilian wine at Convivium bar, situated in the villa's former cellar, or nab a cocktail for happy hour – the Monaci Spritz is a refreshing concoction with lemon liqueur, tonic water, angostura bitters and lemongrass tincture; or perhaps the Etna Mule with vodka, estate lemon and clementine juice, lavender syrup and ginger beer. All cocktails can be served by the pool too, where there’s a gob-smacking view of the coast and surrounding countryside. Or, you can take a romantic rendezvous in Locanda Nerello restaurant. Wine is a serious business around these parts, with Etnian wines being hailed as some of the best in the world and much of the park dedicated to vine cultivating (the owners have paired up with a local university to help reintroduce rare and lost varietals in their own vineyards). In fact, in the hotel’s old cistern, there’s a three-storey wine cellar lined with bottles, and the sommelier is a fount of knowledge for vinophiles, so be sure to book a tasting. For abstainers, the hotel's fragrant herbal tea selection includes home-made infusions such as bergamot and Sicilian lemon, green tea with rose muscat, and a few secret heirloom blends.
Last Orders
Breakfast is from 7.30am–10.30am, lunch 12.30pm–3pm, and dinner 7.30pm–10.30pm. Drinks at the pool bar run from 11am–6pm and in summer Locanda Nerello opens till 11pm.
Planes
Catania is the closest international airport about a 40-minute drive from the hotel. It has good direct links throughout Europe and a few destinations beyond.
Trains
The closest train station is Catania Ognina in Catania or Taormina-Giardini (both are a half-hour drive away). Each station runs a regular service to Messina, where you can catch the ferry to the mainland, and Sicilian destinations such as Syracuse (www.trenitalia.com).
Automobiles
The villa’s remote setting may make it a place of near-poetic seclusion, but it’s tricky to reach without a car. Unless you're happy to pay for taxis, be sure to bring or hire your own wheels. There are several rental companies at Catania airport, most with reasonable rates, and the hotel has valet parking.
Worth Getting Out of Bed For
The hotel’s far-removed setting makes it feel very much like its own little world, albeit privy to some of Sicily’s more vaunted views. So stays tend to be about hyper-local explorations, wandering the grounds, lazy swims in the pool, honouring aperitivo hour. But it’s not all passively passing the hours – you could glean some knowledge from the chef in a pasta-making class, which uses eggs from the hotel’s chicken coop; take a wine and olive oil tasting and a vineyard stroll with the hotel’s remarkably well-informed Tuscan sommelier, or take a masterclass with the resident mixologists, using estate herbs, fruits and flowers. There are bikes and e-bikes to borrow for free, and horse-rides can be arranged, but for an even gentler pace, take the hotel’s botanical walk as an intro to their 150 varieties of plant, flower and tree; or wander along the herb route, picking plants as you go to be turned into a restful tea blend. Yoga sessions are held here too. Weekly live, open-air jazz sessions (in the reception in winter) add a swing to proceedings, and Mount Etna has a tendency to blow its top (not too violently) from time to time, adding a delightful sense of drama to a trek up the sides (just remember to duck and cover); but it’s a must-climb experience – and if it happens to go off during dinner, hotel staff will call you outside to watch the spectacle. Little intense? A cable car can take you to the summit – the lift-off point is about an hour’s drive away. In the winter months, it cools down enough to ski on – on snow, not lava flumes. Our day-trip tip is Taormina, a living history lesson, with Corinthian, Byzantine and Baroque architecture and a remarkable Greek amphitheatre. Alternatively, hit the beach or venture out to Forza D'Agro, a hillside village where scenes from The Godfather were filmed.
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. .
