Salt air drifts through open shutters as the sea calls softly from just beyond the garden wall. You slip on sandals, walk maybe fifty steps down a quiet lane, and there it is, the water, waiting for your morning dip before coffee even finishes brewing.
This is the rhythm that comes with Casa Zingone, a modest one-bedroom home tucked into Villa Piana, a frazione (hamlet) of Motta d’Affermo on Sicily’s northern coast. It is not polished, and it is not pretending to be. It is a project home with good bones, a real Sicilian family history, and a location that quietly does all the selling for it.
We priced this one at €99,000, and we know that number raises eyebrows both ways. Some of you will wonder why a small fixer costs that much. Others, once you see what actually comes with it, will wonder how it is still this affordable.
Meet Casa Zingone and the Family Behind It
This house belonged to the Zingone family, and we traced their ownership of this stretch of Villa Piana back to the early 1800s.
That kind of continuity is common in these small Sicilian hamlets. Homes pass quietly through generations, sometimes sitting closed up for years, before a family finally decides to let one go.
Casa Zingone has been shut down for a number of years, but it has been protected the whole time. There is no subterranean moisture problem here, which means no water intrusion and no crumbling plaster, a detail that matters more than people realize when they are budgeting a renovation.
Touring the Home’s Sunlit Rooms
A Living Room Built for Flexible Living
You enter through the back, past a small patio shaded by grapevines, into the soggiorno (living room). It has two doorways leading off to either side, and each one can be closed off to create its own small bedroom.
Throw a sofa bed in each and you have instant guest quarters without touching a wall. It is a simple trick, but it doubles what this little house can sleep.
The Bedroom with Room to Grow
The main bedroom is a nice, sizable space, about 150 square feet on its own. Right next door is a small ripostiglio (storage room) that was being used as a child’s bedroom.
We would turn that little room into a proper en suite bathroom and closet instead. It already has its own window, so a bit of frosted glass and some plumbing is really all it needs.
Those Original Shutters Worth Saving
Every window in this house still has its original raised-panel pine shutters, closed up and preserved for years. They can be refinished beautifully, and there are not many windows total, so the cost to update them or add thermal-pane glass behind them stays modest.
The Kitchen and Bathroom Ready for a Fresh Start
The kitchen is honestly in good shape structurally. It will need a full cosmetic remodel, but nothing here is a structural problem, and it is a decent size for a home this scale.
The existing bathroom would become the guest bath once the new en suite is added off the bedroom, giving this small home two full bathrooms in the end.
The Veranda Frame Waiting for Its Second Life
Out back, a steel pergola structure already has its roof in place, and it is zincata (galvanized), so it just needs some light treatment rather than replacement. Finish the underside in wood and you have a classic Italian veranda, barbecue corner included.
A Few Steps to the Sea
There is a commuter train line just below the property, but it is electric and genuinely quiet. You barely notice it passing.
What you will notice is the walk to the water. From the house, it takes about fifty steps down a path past the neighbor’s orchard before the sea comes into view ahead of you.
Properties along this stretch are well kept, and almost nobody parks down by the water, so you get beach access that feels private even though it is shared. Waking up knowing that walk is your daily routine is, frankly, the whole pitch.
Two Gardens Waiting for Your Green Thumb
What makes Casa Zingone genuinely unusual is that it comes with two separate garden plots nearby, both once part of the same Zingone family holdings.
The first is a small patch across from the house with loquat trees, known locally as nespoli, climbing roughly 12 meters (about 39 feet) up the hillside.
The second sits just up from the first, behind an old muro a secco (dry stone wall). It is overgrown with brambles right now, but mature fruit trees are still back there, along with cactus pears, which grow everywhere in Sicily.
Clear it with a Bobcat and you have got the makings of a real fruit orchard on one side and a vegetable garden on the other, all steps from your front door.
What It Takes to Bring This Place Back to Life
We will be upfront, there is work to do here, but it is not a heavy lift. The roof is in near-perfect condition, and without a moisture problem in the walls, you are mainly looking at cosmetic updates and finish work.
We have learned the hard way that renovations in Sicily go much smoother with the right people around you. We are now on our third trusted renovation team, led by an engineer, a geometra (licensed technical surveyor), and an architect, built specifically to help our viewers avoid the mistakes that come with going in cold.
Property Highlights of Casa Zingone
- Location, Villa Piana, a frazione of Motta d’Affermo, Sicily, a short walk to the sea
- Interior size, 68 square meters (about 750 square feet)
- One bedroom, one bathroom, with a planned second en suite bathroom
- Living room with two flexible doorway spaces for extra guest sleeping
- Original raised-panel pine shutters throughout
- No subterranean water intrusion, roof in near-perfect condition
- Steel, galvanized pergola frame ready to become a veranda
- Two separate nearby gardens with loquat, mature fruit trees, and cactus pears
- Beach access roughly fifty steps from the property
- Quiet electric commuter train line just below the home
- Watch the full property tour
- Featured in Episode 88
- Asking price, €99,000
Please note: our property tours stay online long after filming, and homes like this tend to sell quickly, so this one may no longer be available. If it has already sold, we can still help you find something similar. Tell us your dream, and we’ll help make it real.
A Modest Price for a Big Sicilian Dream
Casa Zingone is not a showpiece, and we would never pretend otherwise. It is a small, honest fixer with dry walls, a sound roof, and a location that does the heavy lifting.
What you are really buying here is the walk to the water every morning, the two gardens waiting to become your orchard and your vegetable patch, and a family history that goes back two centuries.
For €99,000, you are not just buying square meters. You are buying a lifestyle you get to design yourself, starting with those original shutters and ending with your bare feet in the sand.
If this sounds like the kind of project that gets you thinking about mornings by the sea and evenings in your own garden, this could be the one worth a serious look.
