Property Description

Sea View House in Sicily with Twin Terraces

This hillside terraced cottage stands on the edge of the village of Pollina in the foothills of the Madonie Natural Park. With breathtaking views from all three floors, and a pair of sunny terraces, this classic Sicilian townhouse needs a little work but has a superb location.

Whether you’re looking to escape the stresses of city life for short holidays or to start a new chapter in Sicily, Casa Bianca is absolutely bursting with potential and charm.

The House

At present, as the you will see from our photos and video tour, the property is unused and will need some attention. However, the structure is sound and the roof has been re-timbered in the recent past. A new buyer will want to invest some money on the raised terrace at the back, the windows, insulation and plastering. However, the floors, colourfully decorated in local ceramic tiles, are a beautiful feature that you’ll certainly want to keep.

We have been helping clients manage restoration projects in Sicily for many years, including several recent success stories in Pollina, and can offer all the help and contacts you might need for a project of this nature. From talented architects and designers to trustworthy labourers and a helping hand through the maze of building regulations, we’re just up the road and here to help. The entire town of Pollina is under a conservation order, but we have first-rate contacts with the local authorities and are confident that you won’t find anyone who can get your work delivered faster or more reliably.

Casa Bianca’s layout is quirky but efficient, making the best of its hillside position. You enter onto the middle of three floors, to a staircase that leads both up and down. On the upper level is a landing opening onto a large bedroom with a window onto the street and a lovely little balcony at the back. The view is a completely uninterrupted, 180˚ panorama over the green hills that fall away to the deep blue sea below. Down and to the right are the roofs of the town of Finale, and beyond that the volcanic Aeolian Islands are in plain sight on a clear day. To the left, just hidden behind a small hill, lies the famous beach town of Cefalù. Even by the standards of a sea view house in Sicily, this is really special.

On the top floor you’ll also find a small bathroom and a storeroom, and another small flight of stairs leads up to a storage space in the loft.

Street level from the front of the house is the middle floor, where another bedroom would make a bright, airy living room if you preferred. Perhaps a comfy sofa-bed for maximum flexibility? Here the French windows open onto a terrace of about 8m2, with the same mesmerising view. Heading downstairs, you enter a large kitchen with tiled walls and floor. Here there is another terrace, this time covered, and with a fixed outdoor oven. You can’t get more authentically Sicilian than this!

Surroundings

We mentioned the fact that Pollina is within the Special Conservation Area of the Madonie Park, and that means you can be sure you won’t wake up one morning to find a skyscraper being built outside your window. However, don’t let that fool you into assuming that the town is a sleepy backwater, stuck in a distant past! While you do feel a bit like you’re stepping back in time as you explore its cobbled alleys and piazzas, the reality is that Pollina is a surprisingly forward-thinking and modern community!

The entire town is served by high-speed fibre-optic internet, the smart recycling technology offers automatically-calculated discounts on your tax bills and recent public infrastructure projects include an outdoor amphitheatre which hosts performances all summer and has a backdrop you’ll never forget.

The village is large enough to have a pair of small supermarkets, a pizzeria, a few bars and a bakery, plus amenities like a hairdresser’s and a GP’s surgery. All of these are within a few minutes’ walk of Casa Bianca’s front door.

Nearby Finale has a beach, a railway station, cross-country running track and everything you’d expect from a small town. Cefalù is a 20 minute drive downhill, and Sicily’s bustling capital of Palermo, with its international airport, is less than an hour on from there. Milazzo, the port from which ferries shuttle to and from the Aeolian Islands, is a similar distance to the east.

Nature lovers will adore the outdoor paradise of the Madonie park, filled with treks, trails and even ski slopes in winter! Gastronomes won’t want to miss out on local delicacies that include award-winning pannettone, the treacle-like dessert manna and wild boar from the park.

Potential

Casa Bianca needs a good freshening-up and a bit of a facelift, but its convenient location, on the end of a terrace next to the main road into town, and panoramas that simply can’t be beaten make it a hugely tempting project.

While other villages offer high-profile schemes like the famous Houses for a Euro, we think that there’s far better long-term value in spending a little more on a house that doesn’t need structural work, and this is an investment that will retain value as long as people like you dream of having their own sea view house in Sicily.

Remember that public subsidies can make renovation work incredibly cheap, and that, again, our experienced multilingual team is uniquely positioned to offer help with this.

Indeed, we’ve already helped quite a little community emerge in this lovely hilltop village. Just look at these testimonials from past customers in the province.

We think this is a great opportunity to buy a sea view house in Sicily. Ask us today for more details!