My favourite Airbnb: A library apartment in the heart of Palermo

I have never manifested a trip as precisely as I did my winter escape to Palermo. I have had the image of the city skyline taken from the summit of Palermo’s cathedral as my screensaver for a year, and when I finally arrived at the top after climbing up those (many) steep steps, the view was as magical as I had expected.

Sicily’s capital city has experienced a gradual increase in tourism over the past few years, following its designation as the Italian Capital of Culture in 2018. Once a destination where holidaymakers would only land and soon escape to the nearby and wonderful beaches of Cefalù, the city has now gained popularity and is finally receiving the recognition it has always deserved.

Unlike some other famous towns in southern Italy, such as Lecce, which tends to be empty during the winter months, Palermo is a city whose light is never dimmed, regardless of the month of the year or the weather forecast. If the city is a fabulous point of entry for a summer road trip through the island, it’s even better as a weekend getaway during the colder months, filled with art, history, winter sun, and plenty of very good food. A place of chaotic romance, where grand palaces rise in the middle of busy market streets and coexist with tagged walls and the smell of braised chestnuts.

Palermo offers numerous lovely hotels to spend a few days, as well as many great Airbnb options to truly immerse yourself in the city like a local. However, if Venice is famous for its enchanting palazzos and Milan for its ultra-modern skyscrapers, Palermo’s architecture is all about the iconic Liberty style, an Italian variant of Art Nouveau that characterises some of the most stunning buildings in the city, including the renowned Villa Igiea and the historic Grand Hotel et Des Palmes.

Scrolling through the many homes for rent on Airbnb, I stumbled across one that seemed like the perfect mix of Sicilian tradition and design-led modernity. A stunning apartment located in an elegant Liberty-style building, minutes away from the bustling city centre but far enough to avoid the crowds, filled with thousands of books that inspired its name: Liberty Library.

The flat is about half an hour’s drive from the airport and fifteen minutes from the central station, but having spent some time in the city before our check-in date, we strolled less than thirty minutes from Palermo’s cathedral, down the lively Via della Libertà to get to the quiet, residential neighbourhood of Politeama-Libertà, where our Airbnb is located. No crowds of tourists around, only people walking their dogs, doing their daily shopping and going about their day.

The building, completed in the early 1900s, is a stunning example of Palermo’s Liberty architecture. Once inside, the first thing that is immediately noticeable is the lovely scent, a signature fragrance that permeates the entire flat and adds a touch of luxury to the experience, typically found only in the most curated five-star hotels.

The atmosphere of the large apartment is moody yet calming, almost evoking a sense of nostalgia. The walls, all grey, are treated with a concrete effect that, together with various metal accents found around the property, gives the space a sense of modernity that masterfully clashes and accentuates the beautiful traditional features that have been preserved – like the floor made of the original ‘cementine’ tiles dating back to the 1900s, which are different in every room.

The apartment has been carefully renovated in 2022 by its Palermo native artist and designer owner, Giuseppe Amato. Once his father’s residence, the space still holds a lot of the family’s mementoes, like the immense book collection that occupies most of this home’s walls, or the stunning bed signed by the famous Italian architect and designer Ernesto Basile, who’s also responsible for the design of the opera house Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele and the Villino Basile, as well as the grand hotel Villa Igiea.

The attention to detail is what makes this Airbnb special. Liberty Library feels like more than a gorgeous and comfortable home away from home; it’s a design-led space that has been carefully crafted to surprise and delight.