Property Description

Beautifully Renovated Holiday Cottage in Noto Municipality, With Over 7,000m2 of Fertile Land and Beaches in Walking Distance

Villetta Arcobaleno is a gorgeous little one-bedroom holiday cottage in Noto municipality, near the south-eastern tip of Sicily. It’s a bungalow with 55m2 of indoor space, a beautifully-kept garden and a cultivated plot of land measuring over 7,000m2. It would be the perfect purchase for a couple or lone traveller who want to escape into nature, sunshine and total tranquillity for regular visits.

The fabulous outdoor spaces include a paved terrace, covered veranda and outdoor barbecue oven. You will also love the Sicilian character of the grounds, with a grove of 50 mature olive trees, the paddock once used to keep sheep and the chicken coop.

At the southern tip of a beautiful nature reserve it offers complete tranquillity, with a lovely beach just a five minute drive away. The region is one of the sunniest in all of Europe.

The villa was comprehensively renovated just three years ago and is presented in excellent condition, inside and out. It is owned by a very friendly German couple who are available to answer any questions you may have, and the lucky buyer can really look forward to taking over a home and garden which have been really loved. In the recent past it has been rented out as a holiday home, and will be a great source of passive income for the times when you can’t be there in person.

For complete convenience, it is even available to buy with all furniture, as seen in our photos. All you will need to do is book your flights!

The Property

The bones of the old cottage that was renovated to create this little villa are still evident beneath the neat, fine-grained plastering and the small modern extension. The chunky walls offer great natural insulation as well as lending it character. Indoors, the house is effectively a single open space with a large bedroom-cum living room connected to a kitchen-diner through an open archway. There is also a bathroom with box shower and a washing machine, and a little storeroom.

The wooden ceiling beams are exposed, giving the interior a rustic charm, but the 3.30m height makes sure you never feel cramped. Despite appearances, the roof is in fact recently redone and well insulated. Underfoot, the floor is tiled in terracotta ceramics and easy to keep clean. The windows are double-glazed, with new external blackout shutters in aluminium. There is an air conditioning system to keep you cool in the long Sicilian summer and a pellet stove heats the whole home efficiently in winter.

The furnishing is simple but cosy, with armchairs, a small writing desk and a couple of small bookshelves alongside the lovely pair of contrasting wooden dressers, table and chairs in the kitchen. This has been installed in the traditional Sicilian style, with the cupboards and sink made out of brick and finished with tiles, colourful green doors and a durable worktop. There is a gas hob underneath an unobtrusive but efficient extractor fan.

The fine-grained plaster was redone eight years ago, and the roof as recently as 2023. The exterior areas, including the permanent roof over the veranda, the natural stone tiles of the terrace, the driveway gate and entrance gates all date from 2022. It’s all sympathetically chosen and done to very high quality.

Outside, the large terrace extends about 200m2, of which 25m2 is covered veranda under a fabulous hardwood canopy. Here you’ll find a lovely wooden dining suite, sun loungers and patio furniture in wrought iron. A garden shed is helpful for storing all of this in winter, as well as your gardening equipment and supplies for the stone barbecue.

The highlight of the landscaped garden are two beautiful old almond trees (Pizzuta d’Avola) which have stood here for over 150 years. They still bear plentiful nuts, which can be harvested in August and September. So, too can several young citrus trees, a carob, two figs, a pomegranate and several prickly pears. There is a bed of cacti and succulents, with ficus, rubber tree, cypresses, aloe vera, agaves, a small mulberry tree and ornamental plants. The chefs amongst you will love the herb bed with rosemary, oregano, sage and lavender. Wild fennel grows abundantly all over the property

Water supply is guaranteed and free, thanks to a nine-metre deep ancient stone well, complete with an antique laundry stone, and also the more modern 60-metre deep borehole in the garden. There is a good quality irrigation system in place to make sure what is extracted is used right across the estate.

The property is protected by video surveillance, and served by a reliable WLAN connection.

Surroundings

The house is located in the area of San Lorenzo, the centre of which is only two minutes away by car. A seafront district populated by holiday homes, it really comes to life in the summer months. In season a convenient little grocery shop opens up. The train station operates all year round.

10 minutes away is the town of Marzamemi, a fashionable fishing village on the Ionian Sea, just 4 km away.  A little further is Pachino – a lively market town that offers everything you need on a day-to-day basis. You’ll find all kind of food shops, clothes, supermarkets, hardware shops and pharmacies.

To the south is the promontory of Portopalo di Capo Passero, a coastline so glamorous that even Mick Jagger bought a house here a few years ago. Inland, the baroque pearl of Noto is only 18 km away, and Siracusa is 30km to the north.

Nature lovers will adore this region. You can walk to the beach, with beaches that don’t have heavy tourism only 15 minutes away on foot. The natural park of the Oasi Faunistica di Vendicari stretches from the end of the lane on which Villa Arcobaleno stands, up ten kilometres of beautiful coastline to the town of Lido di Noto. Along the way it takes in 3,700 acres of diverse unspoilt habitats, including the beautiful beach of Calamosche, one of Sicily’s greatest.

It is a very quiet, flat area with light all day long, and the trees provide a pleasant breeze even during the hottest hours. The only noise you’ll hear will be rustle of leaves and the singing of the birds.

When you need to travel internationally, the nearest airport Catania Fontanarossa is only an hour’s drive away.

Potential

You won’t need to invest anything beyond the purchase price – remember that even the furniture is included.

On the contrary, this property actually generates income. It has the CIR and CIN numbers which are necessary for vacation leasing, and these correspond to the building, not the owners – so you won’t need to apply for anything new. It scored a hugely impressive 9.6 rating on Booking.com and strong performance on other portals, as you would expect from a holiday cottage in Noto, close to so many other attractions. The accounts show a profit of around €10,000 last year. The owners have even been delighted to see that many guests return for a second visit, and would be delighted to share all of the relevant information and give you the benefit of their experience on request.

Part of the estate is a meadow of about 3,500m2, which is currently leased to a German woman who lives locally. The price is a very generous €500 per year, but there is no long-term agreement if you would like to move on from this.

In late summer the owners have invited friends to help with their olive harvest, which in 2024 produced 100 litres of premium quality olive oil. They sell it back home in Germany for upwards of €20 euro/litre, although of course there is also a local market, and you may find that holidaymakers are keen to buy souvenirs to take home too. Although the land is already very productive, in our opinion it could support even more trees and consequently an even higher yield.