Long before Villa Sant’Andrea, a Belmond Hotel, became one of Taormina’s grand hotels, it was simply a family home. That distinction matters at Gwendoline’s, the property’s cocktail bar, where the story begins with an English engineer, a Sicilian railway and a view of Mazzarò Bay that proved difficult to leave behind.
Robert Trewhella arrived in Sicily in the late 19th century to work on the Circumetnea railway. He and his wife soon became enamoured with this pocket of the coast and began building a summer house above the bay. Their son, Alfred Percy, completed it in 1919. The property eventually passed to their grandson, Richard Manley, who turned it into a hotel. By the 1960s, Villa Sant’Andrea was drawing a decidedly cinematic crowd: Burt Lancaster, Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Peter O’Toole all stayed here. Francis Ford Coppola followed in 1971, accompanied by members of “The Godfather” cast, including a young Al Pacino, still on the cusp of international fame.
Gwendoline’s, the Cocktail Bar in Villa San Michele’s Former Drawing Room
Gwendoline’s takes its name from Gwendoline Manley, the wife of Arthur Reginald Ivor Manley, and its sense of intimacy from the room it inhabits: the former drawing room of the original villa. That history gives the bar the feel of a private salon rather than a conventional hotel watering hole, as though the Manleys might still be entertaining guests over drinks. The most sought-after seat in the room is beside the broad window overlooking Mazzarò Bay. From here, cocktail in hand, the appeal is immediately apparent. More than a century after the Trewhellas chose this corner of Taormina for their summer home, the same sweep of blue still provides the room with its defining feature.
Inside, the design borrows from the language of 20th-century Italian masters, Gio Ponti among them. The bar itself is wrapped in three-dimensional blue tiles made in Italy expressly for the hotel, their geometry and colour echoing the water outside. Works by Taormina-based artist Alessandro Florio bring another layer of Sicily into the room. The Mediterranean, in other words, makes its presence felt well before the first drink arrives.
Gwendoline’s Cocktail Menu and the Madame Geneva
The menu picks up the thread, moving between the Manley family’s British heritage and the flavours of Sicily. Its starting point is an old household ritual: the family would entertain visitors with tea and Sicilian pastries. At Gwendoline’s, that memory has been translated into five cocktails, presented in British-inspired glassware and built around house- made preparations. “Madame Geneva” is perhaps the clearest expression of the idea. Sicilian gin meets matcha tea, lemon cream and fresh orange juice, before the drink is finished with a zuppa inglese foam. The combination is unusual yet remarkably legible: the botanicals of the gin, the island’s citrus and the creamy, dessert-like finish turn a family ritual into a cocktail with a distinctly Sicilian accent.
The Mixology of Fabio Rosella
For Bar Manager Fabio Rosella, mixology is ultimately a storytelling medium. Alongside a team of 22 bartenders, he builds the programme around seasonality and local ingredients, with the structure of each drink and the guest experience guiding the work behind the bar. Gwendoline’s succeeds because the history is allowed to live rather than being put on display. A summer house became a hotel; its drawing room became a bar; afternoon tea found its way into a cocktail glass. And through the window, Mazzarò Bay remains exactly where it has always been: the view that started the whole story.
The article first appeared on Coqtail – for fine drinkers. Order your copy here
Photo courtesy Villa Sant’Andrea, a Belmond Hotel
