Casa Cuseni (Cuseni House), Taormina

Cuseni House stands as a living museum and guesthouse, built as a villa between 1900 and 1905 by British painter Robert Hawthorn Kitson. It was crafted using local stone, marble, and terracotta in a Palladian-inspired design, influenced by preparatory sketches of artist Sir Frank Brangwyn preserved at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. The result is an elegantly layered structure-stacked cubes and double cubes-with colonnaded loggias opening onto terraced gardens that offer breathtaking panoramic views.

The villa houses a remarkable collection of over 2,700 items-watercolors, antiques, furnishings, Islamic stained glass, and rare textiles-preserved as a museum of the Grand Tour and Arts and Crafts heritage. Of particular note is the dining room created by Sir Frank Brangwyn, a unique surviving example of his Arts and Crafts work, complete with original furniture and a richly symbolic mural.

During World War II, the community safeguarded Cuseni House’s treasures, even as the villa served as headquarters for fascist, German, and subsequently Allied forces. After the war, Kitson’s niece, Daphne Phelps, inherited the house and-rather than sell-opened it to artists, writers, and intellectuals as a retreat and pensione. Among her guests were luminaries such as Tennessee Williams, Roald Dahl, Bertrand Russell, Henry Faulkner, and many others.

Run by the Robert Hawthorn Kitson Foundation in partnership with the City of Taormina, it is Sicily’s oldest house‑museum and has been declared a National Monument, with multiple protective designations. In recent years, it’s also been included in the UNESCO Registry of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Visiting Cuseni House offers travelers a rare chance to wander historic gardens, admire preserved period interiors, and feel the echoes of the great creative minds who once called this extraordinary place home.