Isola Bella Museum reopen

The Isola Bella in Taormina will reopen to the public today, Friday 12 April, after the final works started last November and concluded in recent days. This is one of the sites managed by the Naxos Taormina Archaeological Park which since 2021 has financed a complex series of extraordinary maintenance interventions for over one million euros.

The Marine Park of Isola Bella regain the Museum

"Activities and work sites were specifically planned in the low season – underlines the regional councilor for cultural heritage and Sicilian identity, Francesco Paolo Scarpinato – also in consideration of the nature of the site, which has always been much loved and crowded with bathers all over the world. year, with a peak in attendance in the summer. Precisely in August 2023, Isola Bella recorded its historic visitor record with over 20 thousand entries in a single month".

The last intervention involved the renewal and bringing up to standard the entire electrical system in the various housing units of Villa Bosurgi, the pavilion dwelling that characterizes the islet since it is camouflaged among the rocks and lush vegetation. The renovation of the entire system, damaged during a storm, cost over 500 thousand euros.

Furthermore, between 2021 and 2023, other extraordinary maintenance and conservative restoration interventions were carried out on some rooms of the building and on the external paths that connect the various pavilions together. A complex and articulated action, also entirely borne by the Giardini Naxos and Taormina Park for an amount of approximately 340 thousand euros.

"It is a very delicate site - states the director of the archaeological park, Gabriella Tigano - which requires constant care and attention. In addition to these ordinary and extraordinary maintenance works, in fact, others have been carried out in great urgency for around 200 thousand euros, such as the restoration of the underground water pipe which had been moved by the impact of waves and billows last winter, the consolidation of the vault of the dock, the securing of a rock ridge and a maritime pine along the path followed by visitors, today anchored with steel cables". The interventions were coordinated by the architect Daniela Sparacino, director of the Park.

Isola Bella can be visited every day, from 9am to 6.30pm (spring time). The cost of the ticket is 5 euros (full) or 2.50 euros (reduced).

Surrounded by the sea and connected to the mainland by a thin isthmus of land subject to the physiological cycles of low and high tide, Isola Bella is a very delicate site which every year requires complex maintenance work scheduled during the low season by the Naxos and Taormina Park.

The interventions of the last three years have given visitors a series of rooms of the historic Villa Bosurgi, an example of ante-litteram bio-architecture due to its pavilion shape camouflaged between the natural recesses of the rocks and the lush botanical park.

The two floors of the main body and the spectacular terraces overlooking the sea have been renovated, the secret doors hidden in the rock, the indoor and outdoor swimming pools (in which a protective net has been installed) and the paths that wedge through the greenery and arrive at a series of enchanting terraces overlooking the sea in the wildest part.

On the first floor of the villa, in the area set up as a museum, a series of documentary panels tells the story of the islet, from the Grand Tour to the English Lady Florence Trevelyan, from the twentieth century film sets to the family of the last owners, the Bosurgis. Next to it is the small collection of archaeological finds recovered from the seabed of the islet. Among these are the beautiful female face (pròtome) found in 1967 caught in the nets of a fisherman and the sword, which refers to Islamic and Byzantine examples, discovered by volunteers in 1991, recovered by the Carabinieri and restored in Florence. The boat trips departing from Giardini Naxos and sailing to the marine park of Isola Bella now can add a cultural touch to their itinerary. The reopening of Isola Bella add somenthing new to the list of things to do while visiting Taormina.