Seven Rooms Villadorata

Sleeping inside the Palazzo Nicolaci

Seven Rooms Villadorata occupies a wing of the Palazzo Nicolaci di Villadorata, the palace with balconies on brackets carved with grotesque figures on via Nicolaci, the street that is covered in flowers in May for the Infiorata. The hotel entrance is at via Cavour 53, the parallel street above. The palace was built between 1720 and 1765 to a design by Rosario Gagliardi, and since 2009 part of it has been devoted to accommodation. The idea of the house, designed by Cristina Summa, is that you sleep as a guest of the prince: salons with 18th-century frescoes, period furniture and balconies over the historic centre.

The hotel has held the Michelin Key, the distinction the guide gives to accommodation, since 2024. It is open all year.

The rooms

There are ten, rooms and suites, on the upper floors of the palace. The suites are spacious and keep the frescoes; several have a balcony over the heart of Noto and one lets you see the coast on the horizon. The website does not publish the full list of amenities for each room, so if you need something specific, such as an extra bed, ask when you book. The house itself gives prices from €500 a night.

The terrace and the osteria

On the roof is the Terrazza Villadorata, the palace's private terrace, meant for the sunset aperitivo with views over Noto's Baroque. In the old cellars, with pointed arches and barrel vaults, the Osteria Villadorata operates, with its entrance on via Rocco Pirri 19. Its menu, of Sicilian and southern cooking with nods to the eastern Mediterranean, relies on Slow Food presidia. The menu published in 2025 had a four-step tasting menu at €65. It is booked separately, on +39 334 7933384.

Getting there and parking

By car, from Catania you take the motorway towards Siracusa and then the one that continues towards Gela. The hotel has private parking, which in the centre of Noto saves a lot of driving around: ask when you book how to get to it, because the old town has limited-traffic streets. On foot you are a few steps from the cathedral, the town hall and Corso Vittorio Emanuele.

What is nearby

The Baroque walk through Noto starts at the door: the cathedral of San Nicolò, the Corso and the visit to the Palazzo Nicolaci itself, with its ballroom. For breakfast or a granita, Caffè Sicilia is on the same Corso. The Vendicari reserve is a short drive south.