Property Description

One of the Best-renovated Little Houses in Gratteri, Surrounded by the Spectacular Madonie Park

Casa Maurizio is one of the most modern and best-kept terraced houses in Gratteri, a gorgeous scenic village in northern Sicily’s Madonie Natural Park. It gives you a chance to escape into a timeless world that seems completely detached from the intensity of modern life, without having to sacrifice comfort or stylish design.

The vendors are a couple from the central Sicilian town of Caltanissetta who have owned it since 2006, and used it in exactly this fashion as a second home. It has some potential as a vacation rental when you’re not able to be here in person.

Recent renovation work has created a modern home whose fittings and infrastructure are in excellent condition, just as its bricks and mortar. The entire two-bedroom home is heated by an open fireplace on the ground floor through a system of ducts, and this warmth is retained thanks to the modern windows and insulated wooden roof.

Built on three floors, all above ground, it offers a total of approximately 80m2 of internal space

The Property

The front door brings you straight into a living room which makes a wonderful first impression. The warm yellow of the modern plasterwork perfectly compliments the ancient timbers of the ceiling and the exposed stone of the party wall to your right. The open fireplace is framed in brick with a wooden mantel and the floor is in a deep reddish tile which echoes the oak tones above.

Casa Maurizio is sold unfurnished, but you’ll almost certainly want to maintain the same style of furnishing that the current owners have used as the wooden dresser and dining table blends perfectly with the space to create an atmosphere that is almost reminiscent of an English country pub or a mountain farmhouse. At a little under 20m2 this is certainly not the biggest open-plan living space we’ve sold, but it is one of the best-designed and most charming.

A simple Sicilian-style kitchenette has been added on one wall, next to the street-view window which lets in a good amount of natural light. Everything that is built-in will remain, including the tiled worktop and the gas hob, and the vendors are prepared to consider leaving behind the fridge freezer.

At the foot of the stairs is a compact, tiled bathroom with a box shower, WC and bidet. It’s been fully tiled with a technique designed to reduce moisture accumulation. The staircase has a lovely patterned tile underfoot, and this continues across the small landing and into the first bedroom. This is a 16m2 square with a full-length window opening onto a Juliet balcony.

The top floor has another bedroom of identical shape and size, although here the floor is in wood. A tall ceiling slopes down following the line of the roof, and the timbers have been left exposed. Again, you can see the lovely effect created by the mahogany tones of the furniture. This bedroom has a balcony from which you can see over some of the neighbouring rooftops to the pine trees and rocky mountain tops which encircle the village.

An l-shaped bathroom with another box shower has been created above the staircase, and over this is a little loft which is not tall enough to stand in but very handy for storage.The property is in excellent shape, with the roof completely redone in the recent past. The electrical and plumbing infrastructure is up-to-date and working well, and the facade has also been restored and well maintained, with smart wooden windows and external shutters. The balcony is in good condition, too. It’s connected to municipal supplies for electricity, water and drainage.

Surroundings

The property faces south-west, on a relatively wide road with on-street parking. Some parts of Gratteri are really ancient, with cobbled alleyways which don’t allow any car to pass, so the convenience of the location is not to be underestimated.

Everything you need in the village, home to almost a thousand residents, is on hand. We’re not saying that we wouldn’t stop at one of the supermarkets found twenty minutes down the road at Lascari to do the bulk of our shopping, if we were visiting for a week or two, but on a day-to-day basis you can find everything. The small bars and local pizzeria are always good places to get to know your neighbours, and we can even make some introductions ourselves, having sold over twenty house in Gratteri since we profiled it five years ago as a top target for good value in Sicily.

The Madonie Park is a vast natural delight with small towns and ancient villages dotting its green lower slopes. It’s a haven for lovers of the great outdoors, with excellent scenic routes for trekking, hiking, cycling and driving. You can rock climb, paraglide and even ski here if you get the season right! The little communities that have populated it for many centuries each have their own festivals and traditions, meaning that you’re never short of new things to discover and experience.

The beaches around Lascari are expansive and well-kept, with a mixture of beach clubs and public seafront, depending on your taste. You’ll absolutely want to take the short drive along the coast to Cefalù, one of the island’s most iconic coastal towns. Alternatively, the E90 motorway will bring you to Sicily’s captivating capital, Palermo, in a little over an hour. This is also where you’ll find the nearest airport.

Potential

While the relatively compact little home is perhaps better suited to holiday visits than year-round use, there is nothing that would stop you making it your permanent residence if you really fell in love with the charms of the Madonie Park.

While there is no essential work to do at all, if you did plan on moving permenantly to Sicily, you might need to spend a bit on the kitchen, adding more storage space and probably an oven. Gratteri has the fibre-optic cabling in place to deliver surprisingly high speed internet, so it could make a great spot to work from home. This will also help if you’re planning on renting it out to holidaymakers.

If that is your plan, we would be happy to put you in touch with Solemar Sicilia, a sister company of ours who have been specialising in marketing and managing high quality tourist accommodation for many years.

There is no air conditioning in the house. This is, honestly, not a major issue given its good insulation and position around 700m above sea level. However, if you wanted to add state-of-the-art units which could efficiently deliver both hot and cold air, a budget of €3,000 would cover the hardware and installation.