Property Description

Beautiful Countryside Villa with olive grove near Trapani on Sicily’s Underappreciated North-west Coast

This villa has everything that you have dreamed of. Seating on the beautiful hills of Valderice and overlooking the flat basin below, its wide sweep of countryside views takes in wheat fields, olive groves and vineyards. A perfect backdrop for a new life in an underappreciated area of western Sicily.

Just two minutes’ from the town of Valderice, and a short drive from historic Trapani, this beautiful villa is perfectly located to give you the best of the island’s peace and tranquillity while also keeping you connected to local culture and amenities.

Extremely spacious inside and out, the four-bedroom, three-bathroom property offers more than 200m2 of internal space and stands on a plot measuring nearly two acres. Flanked immediately by a shady terrace and beyond that reaching down into an olive grove, a small orchard, and some rolling meadows, it is the perfect place to lose yourself in the warm Sicilian sunshine and be inspired by nature and stillness.

With construction completed as recently as 2012, and great care paid to its maintenance since then, Villa Lara is in excellent condition, with top quality wood doors on the interior and quality aluminium windows and French doors with insulated double glass panels and shutters on the exterior.

The property can be acquired fully furnished, save for personal effects, with practically everything shown in our photography and videos, this is a superb opportunity to buy a countryside villa near Trapani without any of the hassle and expense of a full house move or refitting a property from scratch.

The Property

From the outside it is clear to see that Villa Lara has been sturdily built and taken good care of. With neatly plastered walls painted in a warm Sedona red, it stands out against the greens and ambers of the landscape and the deep blue skies of western Sicily.

The front entrance leads you directly into a huge main living area which dominates the ground floor of the property. With a formal dining area away to one side, and a lounge furnished with a pair of deep, comfortable sofas seating five in total, there is still plenty of additional floor space in this long, broad room. A brick-finished open fireplace stands to one end by the dining table, and at the other end of the room a wrought iron and wood staircase curves upstairs. Light pours in from the twin pair of French windows which overlook the covered veranda.

Passing by the staircase through a doorway to your left, you come to a massive open kitchen with a dining table and lounge area. Many cupboards mean that you will never be short of storage space, and a dual sink, a dual cooktop and huge extractor fan will make all kinds of food preparation a straightforward proposition. A fixed oven, fridge freezer and a simple white tiled backsplash almost complete the picture, but perhaps the room’s most distinctive feature is the traditional wood burning oven which has been built in the corner of the room. Connected directly to a broad chimney, it is the perfect place to try your hand at some authentic Italian cooking, perfectly designed for pizzas and grilling.

The rest of the room is divided between a more informal dining or breakfast table, in dark wood, and a large, handsome dresser which matches these perfectly. Lastly, on the side of the large window and French doors onto the patio, another open fireplace provides a focal point for a couple of sofas in a more informal family space.

This level is completed by a good size downstairs bathroom, with a walk-in shower and a little anteroom with a sink just before it.

The open staircase leads to a short landing corridor, off which the bedrooms and remaining bathrooms open. A large master bedroom is lit by a wide window overlooking the veranda outside. This is served by a small en-suite shower room and furnished with a beautiful iron bedstead and fabulous full-wall wardrobe.

Another of the bedrooms is currently furnished with a single bed, although there is enough space to squeeze in a double if needed. The next has recently been used as a study – its huge advantage is direct access onto the wide roof terrace built over the kitchen, from which you can enjoy a rustic panorama of at least 270 degrees. Jutting out to the east of the property, this fabulous space catches uninterrupted sunshine from the first light of dawn right through until the early evening.

The final bedroom of the quartet is an internal single, which still receives natural light through a skylight.  A family bathroom has a large tub under the window, and a finish in soft pink tiles.

Outside, a large veranda is covered with a permanent wooden awning and has been furnished with an all-weather dining table and chairs.

Beyond this, there is a wide driveway connecting to a secondary entry gate on the back of the property and a parking area comfortable enough for at least three cars. The gardens are low maintenance, with a simple array of local plants which have adapted perfectly to the climate and soil of the region.

The floors throughout are in a porcelain tile, easy to maintain and clean. The villa is served by a municipal connection for electricity and wastewater and all the infrastructure is in good working order. There is also a drain system deviate rainwater away from the house. Two huge concrete reservoirs of 10k litres each serve the property’s water needs. Additionally, a 150-year-old rain collector well is also on hand.

Toward the rear, the house is connected to an adjacent structure used for storage, currently owned by a local farmer. There is a favourable opportunity to potentially purchase this additional building as well.

Outbuildings sold with this countryside villa near Trapani include a garage, tool shed and stable, although these have been built without the requisite planning permission, and you will want to read our note below for advice on how to proceed in this regard.

Surroundings

Valderice is a community of about 10,000 residents on the eastern side of the hill which overlooks Trapani on Sicily’s western tip. At the top of this 750m outcrop is the medieval town of Erice, a spectacular tourist attraction famed for its beautiful sea views and castle.

Valderice, just four kilometres from the beaches of Bonagia and Custonaci to the north, is a typical Sicilian town but with a varied population which includes some recent arrivals from overseas. Many of the villas in the province are large, detached properties which make use of the cool sea breezes to escape the humidity found in Trapani in the summer. It is big enough to contain various supermarkets, some restaurants, bars and trattorias, as well as pharmacies and surgeries of various kinds.

Downhill, Trapani is a small city of around seventy thousand people, where you will find a hospital, cinema, theatre and beautiful old town. It is the gateway to the Egadi islands, the largest of which, Favignana, can be reached in an hour by regular ferries from the town’s port. To the south lie the beautiful salt flats of the Saline, and this windy stretch of coast is a haven for kite- and wind-surfers.

Further up the coast, the immaculate beach of San Vito Lo Capo was recently named by the British Guardian newspaper as one of Sicily’s best beaches, and the nature reserve of Lo Zingaro, just 14km to the east, also made their list. With the spectacular archaeological site of Segesta and the famous vineyards of Marsala also within an hour by car, there is something to fire the imagination of all of your visitors just around the corner.

The area is served by two airports, Trapani-Birgi, just half an hour away, and Palermo Falcone-Borsellino, 50 minutes to the east. From here you can disconnect completely from the day-to-day grind of the continental north, but reach the centre of Europe in a matter of hours.

Potential

The large tranche of countryside land sold with Villa Lara is perfect for small scale agriculture, and if you have ever dreamt of moving towards a self-sufficient lifestyle this countryside villa near Trapani could be the base you’ve been looking for.

On that note, one obvious way to increase your independence and reduce your bills would be to install solar panels on the roof. The slope of the land away to the south means that you have sunshine all day long, and with Sicily offering over three hundred sunny days a year, this is a real no-brainer. The golden days of the Ecobonus may have passed, but the Italian government is still motivated to subsidise this kind of sustainable home improvement – keep an eye on our guide to the bonus system to stay abreast of the latest developments.

With the stable, if you choose to address the planning issues and keep it, already in place the land is perfect for keeping a horse, and a chicken coop is already in place. The vendors have a tractor and some land tilling tools available for sale and there is even a two-wheel carriage to be pulled by horse available for a good offer. There is enough here to sustain a small-scale agricultural business venture.

There is almost nothing in the way of repair work to be done on the property. It has been built with incredibly strong foundations and will certainly age well from a structural point of view. Any maintenance is minor – things like changing the motor on the electric gate if you want to control it by remote or from within the house.

One area which could definitely be improved is the roof terrace. With the addition of some awning, and an investment in some high quality furniture, it could become one of the standout features of the entire villa. The views which you can take in from this level really do deserve a comfortable setup from which to enjoy them.

The legal status of outbuildings which we mentioned earlier will need to be addressed, and we’d be more than happy to talk through your options here. The good news is that the issues relate to outbuildings which are on separate ‘parcels’ of land, and the main house itself is free of any concerns.