Coffee tastes different when you’re sipping it a hundred feet above a medieval street, looking out over rooftops toward a strip of blue that stretches all the way to the horizon. That is exactly what waits for you on the top floor balcony of this house in Pettineo, a hilltop town on the northern coast of Sicily where the sea and the mountains seem to compete for your attention every single morning.
We have walked a lot of cheap houses in Italy over the years, and most of them make you choose. You get the price or you get the view or you get the craftsmanship, rarely all three. This one, called Casa Nuccia, hands you a roof terrace with a sea and mountain view, a private garage, hand carved chestnut doors, and Carrara marble stairs, all for a number that still stops people mid sentence when we say it out loud.
A House That Has Belonged to One Family for Seventy Years
Casa Nuccia sits deep in the historic center of Pettineo and has been in the same family for more than seventy years. Nobody has actually lived in it since 2014, which is common for these old stone homes once the older generation passes on and the younger family members have already built lives elsewhere.
It shares almost the exact same floor plan as another home we featured in this same neighborhood a while back, right down to the old cantina (cellar) at street level that once housed the family mule. Every family in Pettineo kept an animal down there, and if they were doing especially well, maybe a goat too.
The Ground Floor Garage and Its Old Stalla Roots
That old stalla (animal stall) was converted about fifty years ago into a proper garage with a three piece steel door, something you would not get permission to do if you tried today. It connects directly into the interior of the house, so you never have to step outside to move between the garage and the living space.
Down here you will also find a small ripostiglio (storeroom), a cisterna (cistern) for the municipal water supply tucked under the stairs, and a lavanderia (laundry room) that already has a toilet installed. That tells you the sewer line runs right under this floor, which means adding a full bathroom or even a small kitchenette down here would not be a difficult or expensive job.
There is a beautiful stone archway in this space that we would leave exactly as it is just for how it presents. One interior wall here is non structural, so it could come down if you wanted to open the floor plan even more.
The Chestnut Doors and Carrara Marble Stairs
Walk through the double door entry and you immediately notice the level of craftsmanship someone put into this house. Every single door and shutter is custom made in solid chestnut, and the handrail leading upstairs connects to mahogany balisters that have been beautifully maintained.
The stairs themselves are done in Carrara marble, and they are gentle enough that you are not huffing and puffing to get to the next floor. On the first level up you will find a room that works as a bedroom or living room, currently fitted with an armadio (wardrobe), opening onto a small deck with more of those chestnut shutters and a view of the old stone street below.
The Second Floor Kitchen with Its Clever Serving Bar
Up another short flight of the same mahogany railed stairs, the second floor was set up as the kitchen. Because this house is sandwiched between two neighbors and backs onto another building, natural light is limited here, so a previous owner cleverly punched a window into the interior wall and turned the opening into a serving bar.
It is a smart little architectural fix that brings borrowed light into the kitchen from the front room. There is also a fully usable bathroom on this level, and frankly the layout of this house is generous enough that you could put a bathroom on every floor without a huge budget.
The Rooftop Terrace and Its Postcard Sea View
Keep climbing and you reach the top floor, which is where this house really sets itself apart from other cheap stone homes in the area. Instead of an open roof terrace that still needs a roof built over it, which is what we found in that similar house nearby, this one already has a solid metal roof system in place and is fully conditioned living space.
Huge double doors, about five feet wide, open from an airy top floor room onto a deep balcony that is really a terrace in its own right. And that is where the view hits you. Look out and you have got mountains rising up behind the town on one side, and on the other, a sea view that stretches clean to the horizon with nothing built between you and the water.
There is even an old low wall out there that somebody, for whatever reason, never got around to cutting down. Trim that wall to about waist height, top it with polished marble, add a couple of little bistro stools, and you have got a coffee spot with a sea and mountain view that most people spend a fortune trying to buy anywhere else in the world.
What the North Wall Needs Before You Move In
No honest property tour skips the problems, so here is the one real issue with Casa Nuccia. There is water intrusion coming through the north wall on one of the upper floors, and it traces back to the abandoned stone building next door that has been left exposed to the elements.
The good news is that house is not attached to this one, and there is enough room alongside it to put up scaffolding and properly repair and seal that wall. It is a fixable problem, not a structural dealbreaker, but it is one you will want to budget for early.
Property Highlights of Casa Nuccia
- 162 square meters (about 1,744 square feet) of living space across three conditioned levels, plus a fourth ground level garage that does not count toward the livable footprint
- Roof terrace balcony with panoramic sea and mountain views, already covered and fully conditioned
- Private garage converted from a historic stalla, connected directly to the interior of the house
- Original custom chestnut doors and shutters throughout
- Carrara marble staircases and mahogany balisters and handrails
- Room under the stairs already plumbed for laundry and a toilet, with easy potential to add bathrooms on multiple floors
- Located in the historic center of Pettineo, a lively hilltop town on Sicily’s north coast with about 1,200 residents and full local services
- North facing wall in need of water sealing repairs due to an adjacent abandoned property
- Watch the full property tour
- Featured in Episode 85
- Asking price: €30,000
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 Storied Stone Home Ready for Its Next Chapter
Every home we have ever featured in Pettineo has sold, and that is not an accident. This is a town that gives you the full package, the medieval charm, the sea and mountain views, real services for daily life, and prices that still feel almost unreal compared to anywhere else with this kind of view.
Casa Nuccia is a house with seventy years of family history behind it, and it is asking for someone to bring it back to life. The bones are already excellent, with hand carved chestnut, real marble stairs, and a roof terrace most people only dream about.
Fix that one north wall, decide where you want your extra bathrooms, and you have got a four level Sicilian stone home with a garage and a sea view for €30,000. We would call that a genuine wholesale opportunity, not a retail listing.
If la dolce vita (the sweet life) has been on your mind, this is exactly the kind of house that makes it feel within reach.
