Property Description

Sea-view Villa in Sicily’s South, near Agrigento and the Scala dei Turchi. Three-bedroom Detached Home with Ample Gardens

Casa Brigitte is a two-storey detached house in the green countryside of Sicily’s south coast. It’s just 800m from the sea, and a half hour drive from the iconic Valley of the Temples in Agrigento – one of Europe’s best-preserved collections of classical architecture.

In very good condition, the sea-view villa in Sicily has been renovated by the vendors over the past five years, and needs no extra investment. It stands in a flat plot of 2,700m2, which has also been well-kept and includes a large meadow in front of the house and a concrete driveway. Separately but included in the sale, a 740m2 orchard is just up the road. This also includes more than a dozen mature olive trees.

The upper floor offers a sea view from two bedrooms, across an open balcony and a covered veranda respectively. The veranda on the ground floor is very large and offers the perfect spot for outdoor dining, directly outside the kitchen.According to the land registry, each floor has a living area of approximately 70 m². This is before balconies and external terraces. There is off-street parking for three cars and the neighbourhood, although rural and very quiet, is only ten minutes from Palma di Montechiaro, the nearest town. It would make a great holiday home but is even better suited to a permanent relocation to Sicily.

Best of all is its proximity to the sea. The crystal clear waters of the Mediterranean are showcased at their exhilarating best along this thrilling coastline of deep sandy bays and steep cliffs. Whether you want to paddle, swim, snorkel or even sail, you’ll be sure to find a plethora of scenic spots just a few moments from your front door.

The Property

The small villa has a modern design, slightly irregular in shape and with two gently sloping roofs. The precise white railings of the staircase and balconies stand out against the cream plaster and black trim.

The kitchen-diner is the only part of the ground floor which is currently inhabited. You enter across the veranda which overlooks the front garden, a lovely shady spot for a dining table. The kitchen is slightly L-shaped with a modern suite of fitted units along the far wall. There are half a dozen cupboards, a sink and worktop and a fridge freezer plus space for a free-standing oven and a washing machine. The eye-catching backsplash is in a modern greyscale majolica print. There’s ample space for another dining table and chairs, and a sofa fits nicely into the alcove on one side. Behind this is a bathroom with a shower.

The other half of the ground floor is a storeroom, perfect for keeping everything you need to maintain the garden as well as any spare furniture or similar large belongings. There is also a small outbuilding with a nicely tiled roof which serves as a garden shed.

An external staircase brings you up to the first floor. Here a central corridor leads you to three bedrooms, all of which are big enough to be doubles. There is also another bathroom with a walk-in shower.

At the far end of the passageway is the master bedroom. This is 16m2, but feels much larger thanks to French windows that lead out onto the south-facing veranda. From here you can enjoy a 180 degree view of fields and woodland with the sea in the middle-distance. Back in the bedroom, another window to the east lets in the morning sun, making this a beautiful spot to wake up.

The second bedroom also has a double exposition, with a south-facing balcony and a window to the west. Opposite this is a slightly smaller guest room which overlooks the driveway and terrace. Along with the corridor, this latter pair of rooms have traditional patterned floor tiles. The ceilings are a little under three metres.

The windows are in aluminium with iron shutters to keep the light out in the mornings and the temperature cool in the summer. There are two air conditioning units – one in the master bedroom and one in the second. The property enjoys the use of a drinking water fountain, and has a 30,000 litre cistern to guarantee a steady supply in all weather.

Two other little pieces of land are also included in the sale. The first is the lemon orchard we mentioned previously, and the second is a smaller plot of about 250m², which doesn’t have any particular vegetation.

Surroundings

A two kilometre walk or drive brings you to the beach at Marina di Palma, the coastal district of Palma di Montechiaro. You’ll love the mix of fine sand and pebbles, and in summer the district really comes to life, with bars and restaurants serving refreshing drinks and excellent, locally caught seafood. In this period part of the seafront is closed completely to vehicles and becomes a real social and cultural hub. Despite the proximity to Agrigento, it’s mostly popular with Sicilians and other Italians, meaning that it keeps a strong local character, and it’s very family-friendly. What really sets this area apart, though, is undoubtedly the crystal-clear water.

Along the nearby coast you’ll also want to investigate the irresistibly named “Bay of the Sirens” and the superb Casa Vincenzina, one of Sicily’s finest sandy beaches. The ruins of the imposing castle of Chiaramontano overlook the water’s edge just a kilometre up the road.
The town of Palma di Montechiaro is a ten minute drive north. Home to about 20,000 residents, life here is obviously much more year-round. This is where you’ll come across the nearest supermarkets, medical facilities and leisure infrastructure.

Agrigento is the nearest city, half an hour away. From here you can reach the whole of Sicily by road and rail. The Valley of the Temples and the dramatic cliffs of the Scala dei Turchi make it a tourist magnet, and boats leave from the harbour of Porto Empedocle for the exotic islands of Linosa and Lampedusa, closer to Africa than Sicily but still Italian territory.

The nearest airport is two hours away, in the region’s second city, Catania.

Potential

There is no need for any investment in this sea-view villa in Sicily – it has everything you need and it’s all in very good condition. If you wanted to add air conditioning on the ground floor this could be done very cheaply for less than a thousand Euros.

It wouldn’t be possible to build anything permanent on either of the extra bits of land up the road, but you could park a camper van there if you wanted.

The olives will give you a respectable annual harvest. This year, the vendors produced around 100 litres of top quality olive oil. What you don’t use yourself makes a fabulous gift for friends back home, or can be sold, either locally or overseas.