Villa Giovanna – Campofelice

€ 250.000

Campofelice di Roccella - 90010 - Contrada Piana Calzata

#87053745

5 Rooms
1 Bathroom
76 m²
Ground floor

Enormously Charming Lemon Grove Villa near Cefalù, on One-Hectare Estate with Panoramic Sea Views and Covered Terrace

Midway along Sicily’s north coast, on the road that leads from Sicily's bustling capital city Palermo to the iconic beach town of Cefalù, Villa Giovanna is a beautiful two-bedroom home set in a fabulous lemon-filled estate overlooking the Gulf of Termini Imerese.

With around 300 mature lemon trees, thirty olives and a variety of other fruit spread across a full hectare of productive land, the property feels deeply rural. Around 100m above sea level its views are matches by the comfort of a cooling sea breeze. More than just a bricks and mortar sale, it teases a beautiful opportunity to start a completely new kind of life in in the best of the Sicilian countryside.

This is something of a project purchase, and a lot of the interiors would benefit from a remodelling. However, the exteriors are in great condition and a very big draw here. It has recently been re-rendered in white plaster with orange accents, dark wooden shutters and a stone frieze at the base for damp-proofing, a design that is very typically Sicilian. A large covered terrace with a permanent tiled canopy faces the sea and overlooks an impressively green lawn, and a stone-built outdoor kitchen invites long evenings of cooking and eating al fresco. A spacious paved parking area at the end of the private driveway doubles as a belvedere over the coast.

Indoors, the 90m² of living space is structurally sound, with a great skeleton and some nice flooring, but to match the beauty of the setting it will be necessary for the buyer to invest a little bit beyond the purchase price and make it truly their own. The reward for such an outlay, however, will be a beautiful and practical country home on a working agricultural estate, with sea views throughout.

The Property

A manual gate opens onto a private driveway which crosses the grounds, lined on both sides by the lemon trees that give Villa Giovanna its character. This leads to a large paved area, part parking and part panoramic terrace> it's been finished in stone with some decorative brick accents, and offers enough room for five or six cars. From here the view opens northward across the Gulf.

Closer to the house, the paving changes to terracotta tile. The covered veranda is an especially attractive and generously proportioned space, shaded by a permanent wooden canopy and tiled roof, built to last and in good condition. It faces the sea, overlooking an impressively green lawn in a hardy Mediterranean grass that really pops in the Sicilian sunshine. It's easy to imagine this as a hub for daily life, with relaxed meals, evening drinks, mornings with a coffee and the coast spread out in front of you all day long.

The stone-built outdoor kitchen is well-constructed, with a proper setup for grilling and wood-fired cooking. When you need to get traditional, a wood-fired pizza oven is built into the outbuilding around the corner. The quality of these external spaces is high and they are ready to enjoy as they are. The entire lemon grove is in good condition and has been diligently cared for. It is watered by a drip irrigation system.

The front door leads you into a large open-plan living room where a sloping ceiling rises to a considerable height, giving the space an airy, generous feel. Light floods in through large windows that frame the landscape. The kitchen-diner and walk-in pantry beyond feature a checkerboard floor that adds real personality, though the fitted kitchen itself is dated and presents an opportunity to install something more in keeping with modern tastes. If you don't need the whole pantry, that space would make a great little home office.

Two double bedrooms are comfortably sized, although the emphasis in this villa is definitely on the communal living spaces rather than private quarters. The bathroom includes a tub and is in working order, but like the kitchen could use a refresh.

Surroundings

This lemon grove villa near Cefalù is positioned on Via degli Ulivi, a rural lane in the hills above the coast, where the only neighbours are local farmers working the surrounding fields. The peace and privacy is fabulous, but the centre of Campofelice di Roccella, a year-round community of around 7,500 people where you will find all the everyday shops, services, bars and restaurants you need, is only two kilometres away.

All manner of great beach options are on hand. The broad sands of Campofelice’s own bathing district are less than ten minutes by car, watched over by the sturdy tower of the historic Castello di Roccella. A little further along the coast, the coves at Settefrati and the Salinelle offer some of the clearest water in the area. Cefalù itself, with its famous stretch of golden sand and spectacular Arab-Norman cathedral, is only 11 kilometres to the east.

In the opposite direction, Palermo is 45 minutes along the motorway, with Falcone-Borsellino international airport roughly an hour's drive.

Inland, the villages of the Madonie Natural Park begin just to the south, with Collesano and its thriving international community only ten kilometres away. The surrounding countryside of the park is a favourite with walkers and cyclists and well worth exploring. Paragliders descend overhead in the summer months, and the region's gastronomical traditions are legendary.

Campofelice has its own railway station, from which you can reach Cefalù in about ten minutes and Palermo Centrale in under an hour.

Potential

As you will have gathered, the interiors of this lemon grove villa near Cefalù are habitable but really need to be updated. The kitchen and bathroom fittings are functional but have seen their best days, and the electrical and plumbing systems should be renewed to bring them in line with current standards. These are straightforward requirements for a rural Sicilian property, well within the scope of a standard renovation. Our project management service has overseen this kind of work for a long list of satisfied international clients.

An existing chimney flue in the living room is ready for the installation of a modern wood-burning stove, which would add warmth and atmosphere during the brief Sicilian winter. The sloping roof is well-suited to photovoltaic panels, and the size of the estate leaves room for a swimming pool, subject to the necessary permissions.

As often happens with rural properties in Sicily, there are a couple of minor building irregularities: a storage structure above the 20,000-litre water cistern and a canopy extension. These are the kind of discrepancies that experienced local professionals can resolve through a straightforward regularisation process, and we will put you in touch with the right people to handle this efficiently.

If the property appeals as a potential source of holiday rental income, the combination of the estate’s privacy, its sea views and the lemon grove setting would be very attractive to guests looking for an authentic Sicilian experience. Our sister company Solemar Sicilia offers a full rental management service and can take care of everything from licensing to guest check-ins.

For anyone considering a permanent relocation, our “Welcome to Sicily” relocation management service can help with all of the practical steps involved in making the island your new home.

Video

Details

Category:: Sale

Type:: House / Villa

Condition:: Good condition

Availability:: Free

Services:: Air-conditioning, Furnished, Double glazing, Barbecue, Outdoor lighting, Fence