Property Description

Four Bedroom, Sea-view Villa in Cefalù’s Hills

A hillside villa immersed in greenery, 10km outside what is officially one of Italy’s most beautiful towns – Casa Carbonara offers 11,400m of sensational sea views in a superb location. Its beautiful garden will provide a picturesque backdrop to al fresco dining and long lazy afternoons in the sun.

The four-bedroom detached sea-view villa in Cefalù’s surrounding hills is in good condition, and offers great value as a destination for a full-scale move to Sicily, a holiday home in the sun or an wise investment in one of Sicily’s strongest tourist markets. Casa Carbonara is as mouth-watering prospect as its name suggests.

The Property

The two-storey, east-facing property has a usable internal area of 195m2. The ground floor centres around a long, roomy living room opening onto the terrace, off which opens an equally spacious kitchen with a utility room. Finally a little hallway leads to a huge guest bedroom, and a bathroom.

A modern, granite marbled staircase leads up to a landing that opens onto three more bedrooms and a bathroom. All three of these bedrooms offer superb sea views, although we would love to see them developed with the addition of a balcony.

The property is served by mains electricity and receives good strength 4G phone coverage. However, it is independent for both water (drawn through a pair of wells) and sewage (there is a septic tank on the estate). Both electricity and water fittings have up-to-date compliance certification. The smoothly plastered exterior of this sea-view villa in Cefalù is in good condition, including the roof.

The estate is widely planted with productive olive trees and also a range of fruits. It is served by a gravel access road. A few small tin sheds around the property do not have planning consent and will need to be removed. However, the rest of the property’s certification is in good order by Sicilian standards – there is one small issue to be resolved with an old store room which was demolished by a previous owner but not removed from the plan, but other than this, Casa Carbonara is completely above board and correctly registered.

Surroundings

Not in fact, sadly, named after the legendary pasta dish, Casa Carbonara stands in a small hillside district of Cefalù with which it shares a name. A well-maintained state road leads up from the beach town to the hilltop settlement of Gibilmanna, the ‘mountain of manna’ – a sweet sap-like local delicacy which was once said to be the choice fodder of the gods. Contrada Carbonara is a district slightly north east of this.

Around 600m above sea level, as welcome as the panoramic views are the fresh sea breezes which keep away the worst heat and humidity of the Sicilian summer. Here you will find yourself in the foothills of the Madonie national park, where picturesque medieval villages dot green hills filled with rare flora and fauna. Nor is culture lacking – hilltop Pollina boasts a neoclassical amphitheatre with a mesmeric natural backdrop, while the largest town in the mountain range, Castelbuono, is famously home to one of Italy’s most lauded producers of panettone, and an annual summer music festival that attracts an illustrious line-up of international talent.

Of course, the most famous attraction in the area is northern Sicily’s seafront jewel, the Arab-norman fishing town of Cefalu. With a beautiful old town featuring a UNESCO World Heritage Site cathedral, tourists and locals alike also flock to the 2km strip of pristine sandy beach and clear blue sea.

Palermo, Sicily’s largest city is just an hour away by car or train. This city is noted for a truly dizzying array of architecture, its famous outdoor markets and legendary street food. Out to sea, meanwhile, the volcanic Aeolian islands are a beautiful boat trip away, with unusual dark sandy beaches and landscapes which are constantly being reshaped by dramatic pyroclastic activity.

Potential

There is some renovation work to be done on the estate, and a little attention will need to be paid to the somewhat dated interiors of the house. These will need restoration and repainting as a minimum, and we think there is mileage in reconfiguring some of the spaces and increasing the rather tight bathrooms. Almost all of the internal doors are missing.

The external doors and windows will need to be replaced for reasons of energy efficiency, and if you want Casa Carbonara to be a year-round home, you will also want to add a heating system.

Outdoors, the terrace surrounding the building needs to be tiled, and the access road should to be improved – you will probably also want to add a car park. There is a sizeable wild boar population in the area, and we would strongly recommend putting up a perimeter fence to keep these off the property.

Property in Sicily’s project management division has a decades-long history of overseeing restoration and renovation projects of this kind, and our many satisfied customers will testify to the great results that they’ve seen from one of our after-sales service packages.

On that theme, it’s also worth noting that the vendor works in the technical office of the Cefalù town council – and you won’t find a better person to help applying for any permits you might need!

We think that you could achieve all of the above work on a budget of about €80,000. Once that has all been take care of, the cherry on the hilltop cake would undoubtedly be a swimming pool. With that installed, your dream of owning a sea-view villa in Cefalù will be fully realised!

Talk to our friendly international team today about whatever you have in mind for Casa Carbonara.