We met E. Gardner Hays and members of his extended family in earlier postcard stories:
“Mother is in Greece” (Athens, 1925). “Aunt Sara Sends the Boatmen” (Joffa, circa 1918), “The Opera House for Mr. Hays” (Paris, 1937).
Gardner’s father, Raphael Smead Hays, was a prosperous industrialist in Carlisle, PA.
The family was closely connected to Dickinson College for several generations.
https://archives.dickinson.edu/encyclopedia/raphael-smead-hays-1875-1954
Other postcards address “Edward Gardner Hays” – I do not know when Gardner adopted the different usages.
Gardner received the postcard from Athens while he was a student at Yale University in New Haven, CT.
Sometime in 1919 (it may be August), Gardner received another postcard from his mother and his Aunt Sara.
The postcard was mailed with Italian postage stamps, but I cannot distinguish the place name.
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The face of the postcard is a charming drawing of the “Villa Igea Grand Hotel” in Palermo, Sicily.
(The postcard is misprinted; it is the Villa Igiea”.)
Sicily, the beautiful and craggy volcanic island in the Mediterranean was occupied by invaders throughout recorded history.
The site of ancient Greek settlements, Sicily was contested and occupied at times by Phoenicians, Romans, Macedonians, Vikings, Normans, Ottoman, and French forces.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicily
The Villa Igiea, overlooking the Bay of Palermo, was first constructed as a country house for an English Admiral in the 19th century.
In 1899, members of prominent Italian families purchased the property and remade it a Grand Hotel in the style of an Italian Art Nouveau Palazzo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Igiea
Today, this fashionable luxury resort remains a prominent fixture in Palermo.
(Special deals this year offer rooms at about $600 per night)
The postcard appears to have been printed in Italy.
There is a signature of the postcard artist.
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On the reverse, the message is addressed to “Dear Gardner” and begins with an exclamation of delight that the travelers “found mail when we arrived last night,”
I digitally removed an X from an upper floor room facing the Bay which was the made by Mother or Aunt Sara: “I have marked our room”.
The pair found “It is a lovely hotel and a beautiful view from our window.”
The message closes with “Love from your mother and Aunt Sara”.
“Aunt Sara” seems to be written more prominently, which might mean that she composed the message.
One hopes that all the travelers returned safely and that they shared more remembrances of their cruise.
