Property Description

Three-bedroom Holiday Home in Sicily’s Palermo Region, Surrounded by the Sea on the Capo Zafferano Peninsula

Appartamento Anya is a lovely spacious apartment, almost directly on the sea. Despite being just twelve kilometres east of the vast city of Palermo, it is found in a beautiful natural setting, right underneath the spectacular Monte Catalfano park on the Capo Zafferano peninsula.

Offering about 105m2 of internal space, it is a three-bedroom home with a kitchen-diner, living room and a superb wrap-around balcony that covers the whole of the western side of the building. The sunsets in this part of the world are really fantastic, and all the colours of the sky are lit up over the gulf of Palermo. There is no sea view, but with the water just 150m away on both sides of the property you can smell the salt water and hear the waves over the minimal noise in this quiet little neighbourhood.

The building is a mid-sized condominium on four floors, with plenty of green communal spaces and secure, covered off-street parking. Appartamento Anya’s first floor position gives you a nice garden view. The other residents of the building are discrete and the shared expenses are minimal, only around €10 a month.

Renovated in the recent past, the holiday home in Sicily’s fashionable Palermo region is very nicely presented and in good overall condition. The location and that long sunny balcony are the best features of the bright and airy family home.

The Property

From a well-lit communal staircase you enter directly into the kitchen-diner. About 14m2, this opens through a French window onto a spacious north-eastern balcony that catches a little sun while you’re making breakfast. All of the other rooms in the house open onto the long wraparound balcony.

The first of these is a small passageway with a handy storage closet that connects to the cosy living room. The flat’s three double bedrooms all open off this or a small passageway that also takes you to the bathroom. The building has been designed to maximise the flow of light and air, and besides the balcony there are windows overlooking the shared courtyard of the condominium.

The balcony is two metres deep and 25 metres long. As well as giving you a second way to enter and exit all of the property’s living and sleeping spaces, it’s also more than big enough to accommodate outdoor furniture, whether you want to eat al fresco, relax with a good book on a lounger or simply dry your clothes in the afternoon sun.

The kitchen is modern and finished with a beautiful Sicilian majolica pattern backsplash. The bathroom is simpler, fully tiled in a smooth modern grey. There is a tub with a shower attachment. Underfoot, the floors are in a black and white scaglietta tile throughout, save for the bathroom which has a warmer parquet. A marble skirting board offers a lovely reddish accent.

The internal doors are wooden, as are the windows, which are not new, but in good condition. All of the indoor spaces can be completely blacked out by roll-down shutters.

Surroundings

Just two minutes’ walk downhill will take you to the sea in three different directions, thanks to the fabulous position on the very end of the peninsula. The picturesque Baia dei Francesi is a rocky cove right around the corner, and the Ippocampo is a beautiful and well-kept staircase down to the water which is great for a morning swim. Three kilometres along the coast are the Tre Piscine, a trio of small coves with outstandingly clear water. Continuing a little further on the road to Porticello you come to gorgeous sandy beaches like the Lido del Carabiniere and Kafara.

A stone’s throw from your new holiday home in Sicily, the Arco Azzuro geosite is a rocky archway over the sea that became very famous in Italy after the chocolate brand Baci Perugina used it as the backdrop for a legendary advert.

It’s a twenty minute walk into Aspra, the nearest town, and you will certainly find it easier to get around if you have either a car or bike. Aspra is a welcoming little community with great views of Palermo and the mountains that surround this ‘golden basin’ as the vast gulf is known to the locals. This is where you’ll find the nearest supermarket, as well as a range of restaurants and bars that remain open throughout the year.

We are in the province of Bagheria, a much larger town that is full of history and culture because of its many villas. You’ll also find some great life nightlife, including craft beer pubs, wine bars, one of Italy’s best pizzerias and a pair of sensational Michelin-starred restaurants.

An easy twenty minute drive away, we could speak for hours about the limitless charms and attractions of Palermo, Sicily’s ever-changing capital. Check out our full guide to the city to discover much more about its rich heritage and vibrant culture. It’s recently renovated airport can be reached in 50 minutes.

Potential

The apartment is ready to be used immediately, with no urgent need to invest any extra money. The only thing that we would flag up is that there are a couple of areas where there are damp spots, which will need to be addressed one way or another at some point in the near future.

There is no heating or air conditioning in place, and while the exposed location does catch a fresh sea breeze that you wouldn’t find in the middle of a city, installing some two-way heat pumps would certainly make the space more comfortable. You could put one in each room for an outlay of under €5,000.

In similar vein, the floors are a little dated, and a similar expenditure would allow you to put down a floating floor in wood, like the one in the bathroom, that would be easier to keep clean and a little warmer underfoot. However, this is not urgent.

The most ambitious project we can think of would be to create a second bathroom, which depending on how many people are likely to be in the house at once might make life significantly more comfortable. To get an exact quote for a project like this we would need to put you in touch with a number of specialist professionals. Remember that we don’t just help our clients purchase houses, we do also offer a comprehensive project management service for all forms of home improvement if that would be of assistance.
If you’re not planning to move full-time, to your holiday home in Sicily, it would make good financial sense to rent it out when you can’t use it yourself. Here, too, we can offer help, through our sister company Solemar Sicilia. They have many years’ experience with the marketing and operation of properties in the area, including the Mer et Soleil resort just around the corner.