Behind an austere facade on Piazza Croce dei Vespri, in the old Kalsa quarter of Palermo, hides one of Sicily’s most breathtaking interiors. The Palazzo Valguarnera-Gangi is a private aristocratic residence whose great ballroom—a shimmering hall of mirrors, gilt and frescoed ceilings—has become world-famous as the setting of the ball that closes Luchino Visconti’s film masterpiece.
Unlike the palaces that have become museums, the Gangi remains a living family home, which is part of its mystique: to step inside is to enter a world of Sicilian nobility that has changed remarkably little in two and a half centuries.