Baglio San Pietro

A great stay in central Sicily. Our room was in a 16th century hunting lodge on the grounds of a farm. The room was nice, not large but very comfortable. You are welcomed as part of the family. Meals are available on site and the owner is a top chef. The food is typical Sicily and prepared with skill and passion. Just a great overall experience. Come by car and explore the great towns like Sperlinga, Gangi and Enna.

We started our walk from the charming little town of Nicosia to Sperlinga and beyond after a night at Baglio San Pietro. The stay at the farmhouse was in lovely separate accommodation. Luigi is is a kind and generous host who explained the history of the farm to us. He is also a great cook- the food is really lovely rustic Sicilian food provided in large quantities with Sicilian wine. The children proudly showed us their ponies dogs and cats. We enjoyed this little peek into Sicilian farm life!

Baglio San Pietro is to be found just outside Nicosia in a quiet, rural setting ('baglio' is Sicilian for a courtyard house and, in former times, a fortified farm). The accomodation is simple but excellent (including en suite) with lovely outlooks onto the Sicilian countryside. The food in the large restaurant (which I believe caters for groups as well) is just superb and includes local ingredients, including from the farm itself. Best, for me, was the three generations of family who were warmly welcoming and most helpful, notwithstanding their busy lives.

My wife and I stayed here for 1 night in mid-September, ‘17. We were driving from Cefalu to Taormina and wanted a place to break up the trip instead of trying to do it all in one day. Nicosia was a good choice – a historic city with a hilltop setting overlooking a scenic valley. We chose the Baglio San Pietro because it sounded interesting – a restored farmhouse with a good restaurant that was on the outskirts of the city. The hotel turned out to be adequate for our purpose – after we found it! We had a car gps, a personal gps, an address supplied by Hotels.com, and still wound up spending over an hour driving around and through the city trying to locate the property. The address in both gps devices led us to empty fields. We stopped at another hotel and asked for directions, which the clerk printed off for us, but these turned out to be nearly impossible to follow because they relied on street names, which are useless when there are no street signs. We called the hotel for help but the person who answered didn’t speak enough English to straighten us out, and neither of us speak much Italian. Exasperated, we stopped at a grocery store and my wife asked anyone who spoke even a smattering of English if they knew where the hotel was and one kind women came to the parking lot and pointed to a small sign across the street – we had accidently stumbled across the road leading to the hotel! We strongly suggest that the hotel provide gps coordinates to booking sites, and that they contact guests in advance via email with clear directions to the hotel.||||The Baglio San Pietre is composed of several old buildings around two courtyards. Our room (#1) was on the second floor of the old farmhouse. There was no lift, and we gratefully accepted the manager/owner’s offer of help with our luggage. The room was small, simple, and had a beautiful view of the valley and mountains beyond. There was a firm but comfortable double bed, an amoire, and two night stands. Not much room for luggage, but we managed. There was also a small, non-functioning fireplace that was a nice rustic touch. The bathroom was good-sized with pedestal sink and shower.||||We opted to eat dinner in the hotel’s attractive restaurant, housed on the second floor of what was probably the old barn, and we’re glad we did. This turned out to be one of the best meals of our 3-week visit to Sicily. The resident chef is clearly talented and our dishes were delicious and beautifully presented – a linguine & pork pasta dish, a steak with pistachio cream sauce that was perfectly done, and sauteed chicory with garlic. ||||Breakfast the next morning was not included and was a striking contrast to the dinner. For 7 euro each all we got was packaged yogurt, frozen juice, mediocre croissants, and coffee (some boxed cereals were also available) – no fresh fruit, meat, cheese, or eggs. Our advice is to skip the hotel breakfast and make your own from supplies purchased from the supermarket just down road.||||All in all, we would recommend the Baglio San Pietro for an overnight stop, providing you take steps to be able to find it more easily than we did. Our accommodations were simple, comfortable, and reasonably-priced. The real star of this establishment, though, is the restaurant which we would recommend even if you choose to stay somewhere else.

Don't be put off by the approach to this place trough Nicosia - we almost turned back! But once there it is a lovely farm complex with views to one side over the mountains of the Madonie. Room was more like a suite with three rooms and a bathroom. Basic but clean and warm. They have a restaurant on site - the ambience needs some work (harsh lighting) but the food was amazing.

The major draw for us was the on-site restaurant which is nearly universally praised. As we approached the location my mouth started to water in anticipation of the gastronomic delights awaiting us and the conveninece of staggering back from the dinner table to our room. You can imagine the disappointment when we found out the the restauarnat was closed for 2 of our 3 nights of our stay! Apparently the owners and chefs were out of town for some cooking event. ||||That disappointment undoubtedly contributes to the lukewarm review that follows. First, let me praise Maria who served the breakfasts and coffee and generally ran things while the rest of the staff were away. She is a gem. ||||I can only comment on the specific room we had, room "C" that is a suite of three rooms in one of the outbuidlings (in the photo it is the right hand building). The rooms in the main (central image in photo) may be totally different. Our room was bare bones and "rustic." On the plus side the solid wood window shutters made sleeping in possible. The beds were comfy enough, but the bathroom was laughably small even by Itailian standards. Every time I turned around in the shower I bumped the water control and shut off the water. ||||Finally the third night came and we got to eat in the restaurant... but our meal was uneven. My entree was extremely over-cooked, but everthing else was excellent. ||||I'm going to give the place the benefit of the doubt and assume my entree was an outlier. Had we been able to eat there all three nights I'm confident my review would be more positive. Be sure to confirm a few days in adavnce that the kitchen will be open for the duration of your stay. Adjust your mindset to Sicilian standards of room decor and bathroom size and you will probably enjoy your stay there. BTW, there are good things to see in and around Nicosia. We highly recommend the churches in touwn, especially Santa Maria Maggiore at the top of the hill and Sperlinga castle in the nearby town of Sperlinga.

The four of us enjoyed our two nights stay and the pizza and food in general was good. The rooms are simple,clean and quite comfortable ||.some points to improve to make it five stars would be an extra pillow in each room per person and maybe a plastic glass per person in each room. But thank you for your efforts.

Located on a hill Baglio oozes history. It is hard to find. Use Via Panotto for direction. Views are stunning and there is a restaurant which is closed on wednesdays. The rooms are very basic and they could do with a makeover but at the same time this is part of the charm. There is a swimmingpool and a nice garden. Within ten minutes by car there are other restaurants.