Property Description

Huge Country Villa in Sicily’s Inspiring Nebrodi Park, with Stellar Views and Hillside Olive Grove

Just outside the small town of Mistretta, 630m above sea level in the western hills of the stunning Nebrodi Natural Park, Casa Marinella is a detached villa that offers tranquillity and complete privacy.

It will need plenty of work once the purchase is complete before it reaches its full potential, but with 220m2 of living space and some of the best views you could ever dream of, that potential is enormous. The seven rooms are all large and the terrace to the back of the house on the ground floor, in particular, is a spot where you can lose yourself in the panorama of green hills, blue sky and, on a clear day, even a little bit of sea on the horizon.

The villa is built into the hillside, which drops away at a 30% gradient down a 4,000m plot which is planted with olive trees and all kinds of fruit. All the tools you need to maintain this estate are included in the sale price, including the all-important equipment for harvesting the olives. The sellers are also offering almost all of what you see in our virtual tour, save for a few personal effects, but including practically all the furniture.

Casa Marinella would make a superb holiday home, letting you and your whole family spend magical summers in your own country villa in Sicily. If you like the country life, it could also be a base for a full-time move to the island.

The Property

The partially subterranean ground floor is a space you could move into straight away, although it could use a refresh in some areas we’ll explore shortly. The main entrance brings you into a large kitchen-diner that measures 25m2. It gets natural light from the glazed door and a window facing north. We imagine you’ll probably redecorate, but you will certainly want to keep the antique bread oven that’s found in one corner and integrate it into your new design.

The ceilings and internal doors throughout the ground floor are in wood, with the floors in a nice marble tile.

A living room on your left has an impressive stone fireplace and some lovely local ceramics on the wall. A downstairs bedroom has an en-suite bathroom with a shower tucked underneath the staircase. A huge antique dresser with glass display cabinets and decorative wooden panels is a lovely old piece.

French windows open from both the bedroom and living room onto the stunning covered veranda. This large, shady patio is an incredible spot to spend time, either alone with nature or in the company of family and friends. The view of olive groves and hillsides to the east is showcased to perfection, and you will find it an inspiring spot to start any day bathed in early morning sunshine. Seven kilometres away to your left the sea is even visible on a clear day. The terrace extends around the south side of the house with an outdoor kitchen that allows you to dine al fresco in glorious style.

The upper floor is unfinished, although as you can see from our virtual tour, the current owners do actually make use of it in the summer months. The zigzag brick floor and parquet you’ll see in our footage is something of an optical illusion as it’s actually a thin linoleum over a raw concrete floor which, like everything else on this level, will need work to make it complete. There is no plaster and even some of the internal walls don’t yet reach up to the ceiling – of course, this gives you the freedom to partition the space in another way if you prefer. At present there are four rooms of about 20m2 each, and a central hallway leading to a room which was envisaged as a bathroom but has not yet been fitted.

A shallow balcony runs around the north and east of the upper floor, and a large storeroom can be accessed from both the staircase and garden.

The country villa in Sicily’s largest natural park has its own well, which was dug in 1992 to a depth of about 72 metres. Water independence is a precious asset in the region’s long dry summers, and the previous owners have gone to great lengths to guarantee it, constructing a giant underground cistern 13 metres deep with a two metre radius, capable of holding over 150,000 litres.

Hot water is produced by a small an electric boiler, waste water flows into a cesspit and electricity is from the main regional power grid. A mobile phone will give you a good internet speeds, but a fibre optic cable could be added if you plan to work from home.

The estate’s trees include around 100 olives trees, which should produce close to 200 litres of premium oil every year. We would be happy to put you in touch with the local companies who can help you turn this into a profitable little enterprise. Cherries, plums, pears, loquats, figs, apricots, persimmons, almonds, peaches and more grow on the sun-drenched slopes of this magnificent valley.

Surroundings

The road leading to the property is in excellent condition, and the state road which leads up from the coast is a joy to drive, with sweeping curves and beautiful views of the sea and countryside.

A few neighbours have houses in the immediate vicinity, but other than that Casa Marinella is fabulously isolated. The nearest town, however, Mistretta, is only ten minutes away by car. With about 4,000 residents it’s a convenient spot to access all the local shops and services. Although only just over 3km away as the crow flies, it’s already three hundred metres further up above sea level, giving you a sense of how steep the hills are in this part of the Nebrodi Park.It takes a little over 15 minutes to get down the state road to sea level. Here you’ll find both the town of Santo Stefano di Camastra and the lovely beach of Villa Margi.

The sands and historic architecture of Cefalù are only 50 minutes away to the west. Sicily’s capital city Palermo and it’s other major metropolis Catania are each almost exactly two hours away. Both give you good options for out-of-town stores, top class cuisine and busy airports with flights taking you all over Europe – and even direct to the USA in summer.

Potential

The ground floor is liveable but does needs some work: the bathroom should definitely be redone and the electrical wiring replaced, as well as the windows. Upstairs, as you will see, will have to see extensive renovation work (really, we’re talking about completing the original construction). You’ll have to plastered, raise the dividing walls to the roof or remove them, install the bathroom and perhaps a kitchenette, which would allow you to use each floor independently. The fact that there are two entrances would allow for this if you put lockable doors on the internal staircase – and there’s definitely enough space.

If you want to take things a little slower it would be possible to live downstairs while completing the first floor – and remember, the sellers have even found a way to use both!

To make Casa Marinella absolutely perfect country villa in Sicily’s northern hills, giving it all modern conveniences while retaining its rustic character might require push your budget over € 100,000. It’s important to be realistic about the size of the challenge. That said, for a superb 220m2 villa, we are talking about some of the best value you could find anywhere in Sicily, if not Europe.

At the moment there is no driveway, but as you will see on the virtual tour the ramp has already been prepared and it’s just a question of finishing the parking area and putting a gate gate in. The level of need for this obviously depends very much on the buyer.

There is enough land to add a swimming pool, but it would probably need to be above ground. The upside of this is that the costs come right down.

If you need any help planning or executing the changes you have in mind for Casa Marinella, please talk to our friendly international team about the project management services we have provided to many delighted clients over the past years.