Discerning Travellers for Selected Properties in Sicily

PALERMO, ITALY, April 04, 2012 (Press-News.org) I voluntarily began my tour of Sicilian dwellings at this 17th Century Palazzo built on the old city walls because of its owners who are my friends. My feelings for this place, the last home of the famous writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, are particularly fond and my appreciation for its imposing beauty have kept me close to the actual owner, Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi, whose painstaking restoration of the structure and its halls have brought it back to its original grandeur.

Today I have left my sentimentalism behind and replaced it with a professional attitude.

As I mount the daunting stairwell, I feel the disdainful stare of the ancestors in their historical and haughty costume portrayed in the oil paintings that hang the walls: "who is he who dares to present himself here?"

Past the large entrance with its black and white marble flooring into a somber room framed in amber, then the writer's silent library, the sea-facing ballroom and finally the blue reception room where the owners await my arrival. Their names are Gioacchino e Nicoletta Lanza Tomasi di Palma.

Their important name carries more with it than just a title and both players possess reputable cultural backgrounds: Gioacchino is one of Italy's major musicologists, he has directed some of the best opera houses in the country as well as the Italian Culture Institute in NY for 4 years; Nicoletta speaks 5 languages fluently and has long worked as a translator and musical coordinator, besides recently completing a study of ancient Sicilian culinary recipes which she has adapted to the contemporary palate.

Both participate actively in the careful preservation of the vast Palazzo.

We are about to embark in an amusing and brilliant conversation.... Gioacchino, who is the direct heir by adoption to Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, is an astonishing teller of recollections and anecdotes about the Palazzo and its famous tenant. One could listen to him for hours as he recounts the literary reunions in the library, once the only inhabited room on the second floor of the Lampedusa's mansion, the birth of the novel "The Leopard", the recording of the author's voice on tape, the fascinating pieces of art collected here, each one of which tells in turn a tale of Sicilian antiquity, the relationship with the writer's eccentric cousins, the Piccolo di Canovellas...

The atmosphere that transpires from the beauty of these halls bestows on this Palazzo a quality of charm which is unprecedented, a precious legacy.

During our conversation, I asked both my interlocutors to explain what had pushed them to open the doors of this historical home to visitors from the outside world who had not taken part of the treasured remnants of a past and glorious lifetime.

Their reply was unanimous: they both feel a need to share this heritage with those who will appreciate its value, with curious travelers of ancient Sicilian routes who want to immerse in stories of past knowledge, culture and traditions, a way of life that back then belonged solely to the privileged upper echelons of society.

Many of the current owners of historic villas and homesteads have followed the example of Gioacchino and Nicoletta, opening their homes to a select and intelligent type of tourism, whose demand has become increasingly strong and selective; many of them have sought to preserve a rich family history, others have simply evaluated an increase in the economic burden in the maintenance of these buildings which is not alleviated by the public domain.

Website: http://www.travelsicilia.com