Villa in Capo d'Orlando, Sicily, Italy with private pool for 20 persons
Sophisticated, charming, and dynamic. Capo d'Orlando, located in the province of Messina, is a surprisingly attractive destination.
Its current name, dating back to the Norman era, refers to the legendary paladin of the successful Chanson de Roland, who apparently stopped here during a crusade in the Holy Land. However, its ancient Greek name, Agathyrno ("he who carries the splendid thyrsus"), reveals that it was originally a city sacred to Dionysus.
Due to its strategic position, Capo d'Orlando is one of the most popular seaside resorts on the Tyrrhenian coast. It is about an hour away from Cefalù (towards Palermo) and Milazzo (towards Messina), and it is also the ideal base for adventurous day trips between the sea and the mountains, discovering the Sicilian villages of the hinterland, some of the most beautiful in Italy.
Capo d'Orlando is famously associated with Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, cousin of the reclusive Baron Lucio Piccolo of Calanovella who, while staying at Villa Vina, wrote most of his masterpiece The Leopard. Villa Piccolo, together with its park, is located on top of a splendid hill that dominates the plain of Capo d'Orlando. The 19th-century complex is now a museum house run by the Piccolo di Calanovella Family Foundation.
Let's leave Villa Piccolo and head towards the promontory that overlooks the coast along which the town centre is developed, to take the best postcard picture of Capo d'Orlando. To reach the panoramic point, you have to climb a few hundred steps, winding through plants and scents typical of the Mediterranean scrub.
At the top, next to the remains of an ancient medieval castle, stands the 17th-century Sanctuary of Maria Santissima di Capo d'Orlando, also known simply as the Sanctuary of the Madonna. A pilgrimage destination on the occasion of the feast that takes place on 22 October, the building with a single nave and three chapels is surmounted by a ceiling in inlaid wood in the shape of an eight-pointed star.
From up here the view is extraordinary: the eyes dance from Capo Milazzo to Cefalù, with the Aeolian Islands emerging from the water in front. Observing the city below, you can easily recognise the main shopping streets, Via Piave and Via Vittorio Veneto, which run parallel to the seafront.
At the foot of Mount Madonna is the other symbol of the city, the Lighthouse, which was activated at the beginning of the 20th century. Nearby, once past the building, there is a coastal lake, fed by underground fresh and salt water.
Continuing along the coastal road that offers enchanting glimpses of the sea, you reach the hamlet of San Gregorio.
In the small fishing village, which inspired Gino Paoli's Sapore di sale, there is a small church, dedicated to Pope Gregory the Great, and a small square, a summer meeting point where you can enjoy a good ice cream, overlooked by the typical fishermen's houses.
From here begins the Goletta Path, an unusual and highly suggestive trekking route of medium difficulty, totally immersed in nature, which in ancient times constituted the only connection between the village of San Gregorio and the centre of Capo d'Orlando.
Not far away, the Terme Bagnoli, the ruins of a thermal structure belonging to an ancient Roman villa dating back to the 3rd-4th century AD, are worth a visit. The baths, consisting of eight rooms, were damaged by seismic events. However, it is possible to see three rooms: the frigidarium, the tepidarium and the calidarium.
Continuing on, you reach the port of Capo d'Orlando Marina, one of the nerve centres of Sicily's glamorous tourism. From here every summer, influencers (and not only) set sail and spend a dream holiday between one island and another of the Aeolian Islands aboard luxury yachts and charter catamarans. After spending a whole day on the beach, the port becomes the ideal place to relax with a bit of shopping, an aperitif at sunset and an unforgettable gourmet dinner. However, the place of the heart to explore at a slow pace remains the Andrea Doria seafront, which with its kilometre-long free beach, lapped by a crystal-clear sea, offers sunrises and sunsets of indescribable beauty. Sports enthusiasts can treat themselves to a jog and enjoy one of the most incredible routes in the whole of Sicily: try it to believe it!
Villa Orlando