Hotel Atelier sul mare

Giovanna Main

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An avant-garde art hotel in the typical Sicilian fishing village of Castel di Tusa. Its unique 'art rooms', each designed by international conceptual artists, offer a surreal and unforgettable stay.

The whitewashed curves and irregular windows of this Deco-inspired building would not seem out of place in Bel Air or Miami Beach. But Castel di Tusa is a fishing village right on the northern coast of Sicily which has retained a gentle unhurried charm where grizzled fishermen tend to their nets and old ladies waddle though the narrow streets.

Through the door of Atelier sul mare, however, you enter a different world. The cool reception, with its newspaper frieze, linear fresco and banner which claims Devozione alla bellezza (devotion to beauty), belies owner Antonio Presti's passion for contemporary art which is continued throughout the hotel.

Rather like a museum where you can sleep within the artworks, each of the 14 rooms has been created by cutting-edge artists who have pondered the sea and the landscape and come up with an inspirational and magical space. No two rooms are even remotely the same, which makes for an unforgettable stay.

There's a flower-strewn terrace in which to lounge and chat to some of the interesting guests, or you can take a walk along the pebbly beach just outside of the hotel. Close by is the owner's other passion, the Fiumara d'Arte ('stream of art'): a sculpture park erected on an old river-bed, where avant-garde and surreal installations are made more achingly beautiful by the quality of the light.

The small, informal restaurant serves distinctive Sicilian dishes and also acts as an unofficial exhibition space. There are other restaurants in the village that serve the catch of the day, be it polpe (baby octopus) or pescespade (swordfish).

Room rates : Art rooms, €180; standard rooms, €120 (double, B&B).

Rooms to ask for : Linea d'ombra by Michele Canzoneri - sleep on a raft afloat a blue ceramic sea. Trinacria by Maurizio Staccioli - a huge triangular bed with red triangular partition and walls made from Etna's black lava. La stanza della terra e del fuoco by Luigi Mainolfi - shattered terracotta is repieced together on the walls and floor to create a stark, burnt landscape that is only broken by an iron chair and a simple white bed.

Number of rooms : 40, 14 of them 'art rooms'.

Phone : 00 39 0921 334 295

FAX : 00 39 0921 334 283

Address : via Cesare Battisti, 4, Castel di Tusa, Messina 98070.

Website : www.ateliersulmare.it

Map : link to Multimap

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