Casa Cuseni, Arts and crafts museum in Taormina, Italy
Casa Cuseni is a museum in Taormina housed in a former private villa built on a hillside with views toward Mount Etna and the sea. The building includes furnished rooms from the early 1900s and a surrounding garden with African plants, English roses, and local citrus trees.
Robert Hawthorn Kitson, heir to a British locomotive manufacturing fortune, had the house built between 1900 and 1905 as a winter home in Sicily. During his ownership, it became a meeting place for artists and collectors, and after his death it was preserved as a place open to the public.
The dining room is the only surviving interior by Sir Frank Brangwyn, a Royal Academy member, with hand-carved wood panels and painted ceiling sections that visitors can see today. The room gives a clear sense of how wealthy British collectors decorated their winter homes in Sicily at the start of the 1900s.
A visit generally requires booking in advance, as the property opens only for guided group tours held in several languages. The house sits on a slope inside Taormina's old town, so sturdy footwear is a good idea for the stairs and uneven paths.
The garden contains a section called the Theosophical Park, with a Temple of King Solomon and a large Menorah that the former owner used for spiritual ceremonies. These structures reflect the esoteric interests that were common among wealthy European travellers at the start of the 1900s.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 60,000 contributors worldwide.
