Ortigia Island - Casa Roberto

Casa Buen Retiro is located at the last floor of an antique baroque building, in the Island of Ortigia, UNESCO World Heritage and historical centre of Syracuse.
It is a small attic with three terraces and it has been decorated with fantasy, originality and exquisite taste to offer a charming and funny holiday.
The name of the house is inspired by the owner, a journalist of interior design, who created and used this fabulous house as a personal retreat. The house has also been published in a magazine of interiors.
The terraces, 50 sq meters on three different levels, overlook the sea and the panorama.
Their floors are in sicilian cotto tiles and they are surrounded by a balustrade realized in blue cast iron, that recreates an original liberty design typical from the island. The first terrace is at the living level and it presents an original covering because its arches recreate the design of the nearby Church.
An external staircase leads to the second terrace, with a spectacular panorama and seaview. The last one is on top and has an en plein air shower, particularly useful and refreshing under the hot sicilian sun.
Inside, every room tells a story and a different emotion, by mixing local pieces of furniture with ethnical and vintage ones.

In the living room the original wooden ceiling has been painted in white, the floors are covered with the typical mediterranean cement tyles. These last have been custom made in Morocco. A wooden, colorful staircase links the living to the dining room, that are on two different levels but at the same time create a wide open space.
The entire room is open, bright and cozy. The floor has the same colors of the staircase (turquoise, pink and black) the furniture mixes deco pieces, with sicilian elements, together a chinese cupboard and a bronze chandelier painted in bright yellow.


 In one of the bedrooms, the wooden ceiling has been painted in light blue and the floor, in a cobalt cotto, climbs over the wall creating a unique headboard.
The canopy bed has been painted in magenta and has vintage bedside tables from the Fifties.
In the bathroom, both floor and walls are covered in tiles from the Sixties; the bathroom suite is from the victorian age and in the shower we find a funny porthole with seaview.
The view is extraordinary also in the kitchen. The wooden furniture has been painted with the sea colors, and embellished with antique crystal knobs. The seat can be reversed to the wall, so to create a sense of continuity.

The entrance to the other intimate room is through an original door, painted in black and coral stripes. Here the bed is in alluminium painted in coral, and it has a neoclassical style. The liberty chandelier is british and through the wall you can see a collection of ancient anphoras. The room has direct acces to the second bathroom, where the shower is “totalyzing”, while a second door leads directly to the terrace.