Property Description

Huge Six-bedroom Beach House in Sicily, with Sea-view Roof Terrace, Green Gardens and the Tyrrhenian Sea at the End of Your Street

Less than 100 metres from the beach of Casteldaccia, with direct access to the sea shared only with the other villas on its little private road, Villa Tiziana is a fabulous opportunity to buy a beach house in Sicily that’s more than big enough to share with family and friends.

The large semi-detached property has six bedrooms, a vast open-space living area plus a pair of bathrooms, a kitchen and a basement. The well-kept outdoor spaces include a deep first-floor terrace, a roof terrace with a sea view, covered porticoes and a second kitchen. The design of the twin homes is very intelligent, and you would hardly notice the other half of the building. It has the space and brightness of a detached home.

Although the villa dates back to the 1980s, the condition in which it has been kept is excellent, with the floors, walls, doors and fixtures all still as good as new. There’s no need to renovate or change anything in the charming, sturdily built home unless you want to do some redecoration. The current owners only use it in the summer months, so although it is well maintained it avoids the wear and tear of being a full-time home.

Helpfully, the villa is sold furnished, as you can see it in our virtual tour and photography, save for personal effects and a few smaller pieces of furniture. No international house move is without challenges, but this should be as smooth as you could ever hope.

The Property

Villa Tiziana is a lovely example of luxury Mediterranean architecture, exactly what you’d imagine of a beach house in Sicily. Tall arches frame long porticoes and a huge flat roof offers you sea views. Red brick around the foundations makes an unusual accent and reflects the deep terracotta hue of the tiled driveway. Hardwood doors, windows and shutters match the roof of the verandas and the garden to the rear has a wild natural simplicity, with tall palm trees and large irregular slabs framing small beds of earth.

The front entrance brings you straight into the large living room – dining room, with 45m2 of space giving a real variety of options for socialising, hosting, or simply spending time alone together. It’s furnished with some lovely hardwood pieces, especially the dining suite and the pair of tall dressers overlooking it. The floor is in a classic tile pattern, and the lighting makes a statement, coming from a matching pair of wrought iron chandeliers that are almost evoke a medieval banquet hall. At the far end is a long thin extension containing a kitchen, with a wooden ceiling and a garden view.

A trio of guest bedrooms, currently furnished as a single and two doubles, open off the central space. Each has a slightly different but equally welcoming feel with one evoking a log cabin, another built under the sloping staircase and the third especially bright thanks to a pair of large arched windows. There is also a washroom with a WC, bidet and sink.

Upstairs, a long corridor is kept warm and sunny by south-facing windows, and connects to three huge double bedrooms. Each one opens onto the deep first floor terrace, meaning that they are all fabulously bright and airy. Two have traditional decorative tiles underfoot, while the third has a noticeably more modern feel, with white floors and a feature wall in a contemporary black and white take on the famous Sicilian Majolica designs.

The terrace outside offers a glimpse of the sea between neighbouring houses, but an open staircase leads you up to the flat roof, from where you can enjoy a fabulous panorama that takes in the hills to the south as well as the water to the north.

Completing the house is a huge basement that can be reached by a curving external staircase. There is a huge amount of storage space in this flexible open space, which follows the entire footprint of the building above, save for the extensions.Back up at ground level, the garden is elegantly framed by an exposed stone wall and neat box hedge.  An automatic gate lets you onto the driveway, where there is space for up to four cars to park off-street. In the south-western corner of the property is a wooden canopy, covering an outdoor dining area and kitchen. There is a fixed oven and grill as well as a sink, storage and worktop. A variety of garden furniture is present, including comfy armchairs and a hanging basket seat.

The window frames are made of wood, as are the external shutters. Air conditioning is present in all of the bedrooms except the wooden one at the rear.

The villa has a water cistern of about 20,000 litres, at the moment, the owners have been able to save some money by disconnecting from the municipal supply and having the reservoir filled by tanker in the summer months. It would be very simple to reconnect if you see Villa Tiziana as your full-time home. Waste water flows into a septic tank for which all necessary legal paperwork is in order.

Surroundings

As you would expect in such desirable location, development has been reasonably intensive, and while the villas in this little area of the coast are spacious, the gaps between them aren’t what you would find inland. However, the road on which this lovely beach house in Sicily stands is private, and can only be accessed through an automatic gate. The road is managed by owners of the villas on either side, in an informal manner which speaks to the good neighbourly relations you’ll find here. A contribution of around €150 per year, will be used to keep the road clean, pay the electricity bills for lighting it and maintain the plants in public spaces.

Only the owners of the villas on the private road can access the small bay near the villas, which, other than by sea, is accessed through a padlocked gate to which the villa owners all have keys.

If you want to venture further afield, the golden sands of Cefalù can be reached in 40 minutes, the headland of Monte Catalfano and Capo Zafferano in about half that, and the great city of Palermo in only half an hour. A train station at nearby Altavilla Milicia is only 1500m up the road and can be reached on foot or by bike when you feel like exploring the coastline without having to drive. The nearest airport, Falcone-Borsellino outside Palermo, is a 45 minute trip by car.

Potential

As we said before, the property is in great condition, fully habitable. The windows have single glazing, but personally, we would keep them for their lovely character. Similarly, the bathrooms are original 1980s and while the green one upstairs in particular might not be your taste we really like the distinctive look!

Only the stucco and plaster on a couple of exterior walls show a couple of small cracks, but nothing dramatic or difficult to remedy. Despite its age, the villa shows no signs of water infiltration, damp patches or unpleasant odours, nor are there any structural fissures whatsoever.

The basement is a little different. There are a small bedroom and bathroom down here, but these would need work to be used again. As storage, however, it is a great resource. If we were buying the villa, we would first invest in the outdoor kitchen, which could be made into a really lovely family hub for the whole of the long Sicilian summer.

Worried about the logistics of moving to a new country? Don’t be! Our hugely popular Welcome to Sicily package offers round-the-clock support to buyers in the months both before and after the sale is completed, helping your new beach house in Sicily feel like a true home with no stress or complications.