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The Grand Hotel Villa Politi was founded in 1862 from the love between the Prussian noblewoman Maria Theresa Laudien and the Syracusan artist Salvatore Politi, who fulfilled his wife’s dream by giving life to a distinguished monument of memories, today a symbol of prestige for Syracuse. The mansion is located on the Latomie dei Cappuccini, a historic site carved into the limestone rock.
The elegance of the neo-Renaissance–inspired interiors of the Grand Hotel Villa Politi has welcomed distinguished figures from the world of literature such as Winston Churchill, Edmondo De Amicis, Gabriele D’Annunzio and Edward Morgan Forster; leading personalities from politics and the clergy, including the Princes of Piedmont, Presidents of the Italian Republic Giuseppe Saragat and Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, as well as, in more recent times, Matteo Renzi and Pope John Paul II; and renowned actors such as Vittorio Gassman and Monica Bellucci.
“I have never slept so well in my life” is Winston Churchill’s declaration of love for Villa Politi. In April 1955, he spent his holidays here with his wife, Lady Clementine, together with family members and assistants. From the rooms of Villa Politi, Churchill wrote a letter to Queen Elizabeth and devoted much of his free time painting and smoking his cigar on the splendid Terrazza delle Latomie and in the suite named after him, as well as in Syracuse’s only tea room.
During the Second World War, Villa Politi was used by the Americans as an operational base until 1946, when it was renovated and reopened to the public.
In 2004, the Grand Hotel Villa Politi was officially declared of “historic and artistic importance” by the Regional Department for Cultural Heritage and still preserves its timeless architectural and cultural charm, standing as one of the most fascinating historic palaces in Sicily.
"Delightful hours I spent on the terrace of the Grand Hotel Villa Politi… Syracuse seems to float gently upon the sea, dreaming of its 2,700 years of history.”
Edmondo De Amicis, 1906