Relais Antica Badia, San Maurizio 1619

Relais Antica Badia, San Maurizio 1619

Ragusa is two cities in one, which is not a metaphor. Ragusa Superiore is the upper town, built after the catastrophic earthquake of 1693 on a grid of baroque streets, and Ragusa Ibla is the lower town, rebuilt on the ruins of the original medieval settlement in an explosion of baroque excess that the UNESCO committee recognized in 2002. The Relais Antica Badia is on Corso Italia in Ragusa Superiore, in an 18th-century palazzo whose facade announces nothing from the street and whose interior announces everything: frescoed ceilings, Murano chandeliers redesigned from the originals, Caltagirone ceramic floors from the same period, a stone staircase with white limestone inserts that has been preserved with the precision of a museum and the warmth of a private house. The 12 rooms are individually furnished with antiques, designer pieces, and the kind of Sicilian fabrics that earn their place against frescoed walls. Several have balconies directly over the Cathedral of San Giovanni Battista, which is either the view you came for or a detail you will not recover from once you have had it. Ciano, the adjoining restaurant, serves creative Sicilian cuisine that guests consistently describe as the best meal of their trip, which in a region with this much competition is a specific kind of achievement. The Truffle Bistrot handles something more casual. The ground floor spa runs to sauna, Turkish bath, and personalised treatments, compact and well-used after a day in the Val di Noto. This is a hotel for people who want to be in Ragusa rather than near it, with Ibla twenty minutes on foot downhill, Noto, Modica, Scicli, and Marzamemi all within an hour by car, and the cathedral across the road through the window at breakfast. The short version: Twelve individually furnished rooms in an 18th-century palazzo on Corso Italia, with frescoed ceilings, Murano chandeliers, balconies over the cathedral, and Ciano restaurant next door making a strong case for staying in for dinner.