Salt air and olive leaves drift together on the breeze here, and from the bedroom window of this Tusa property you wake up to a hundred silvery-green olive trees swaying below the hills. Beyond them, the medieval silhouette of Pettineo rises against the mountains, its old Norman castle catching the morning light. This is the kind of view that makes you want to put down your coffee cup and just sit there for a while, watching the light change over the countryside.
The beach is only five minutes away, so you get the best of both worlds. Quiet, private country living surrounded by your own land, with the Mediterranean coastline just a short drive down the hill. In the evenings, you can sit out on the terrace as the heat softens and the cicadas start up, and just breathe it all in. That is the life this property is offering, and it is a rare one to find at this price.
We call this one Casa Orolina, and it sits on a piece of land that gives you real flexibility. Part of the house is finished and move-in ready. Part of it is a blank canvas waiting for your vision. That combination is exactly what a lot of you have been asking us for.
The Story Behind Casa Orolina
This home was built by a couple with a lot of heart. The husband passed away from cancer a couple of years ago, before the project could be finished, and his wife is now the one selling it.
You can feel that this was never a speculative build. They built it as their own home, with intention, and you can see that care in the details, right down to a solid laminated beam used as a support post where it was not even structurally necessary. It reminded me of building my own home years ago in California and going a little overboard because I wanted it done right.
Everything here was also built fully legally, with permission from the comune (town hall), and it is up to code by today’s standards. That matters a lot in Sicily, where you will come across properties with murkier paperwork. This one is clean.
The Ground Floor as a Move-In Ready Retreat
The ground floor is finished and livable right now. There is a kitchen, a bedroom, and a bathroom already set up, so you could move in while you work on the rest of the property at your own pace.
The master bedroom looks straight out over the olive orchard. Waking up to that view every morning is, honestly, pure Sicilian magic.
The furniture is even staying with the house if you want it, which makes stepping into this place feel even easier.
The Upstairs as an Open Canvas Beneath Vaulted Ceilings
Upstairs is where the real opportunity lives. It is about 70 square meters (753 square feet) of open, unfinished space with vaulted ceilings, and it is completely raw for you to design however you want.
Most Sicilian homes are chopped up into lots of small rooms, room after room after room. If that is not your style, this upstairs space is a gift. We renovated our own home here in Sicily and knocked down walls to turn what was originally ten small bedrooms into just three open, comfortable ones, because we love that open feel too.
This space gives you the same kind of freedom from day one, with none of the demolition required.
The Veranda and Terrace Ready for Long Sicilian Evenings
Above, there is a generous terrazzo (rooftop terrace) that has already been waterproofed and is ready for tile. It is a wide open space made for aperitivo at sunset, looking out toward Pettineo and the mountains beyond.
Below it, a fully covered veranda gives you shaded outdoor living no matter the season. The construction quality down here genuinely surprised me, it is some of the nicest veranda framing I have seen in Sicily.
Tucked underneath is a space currently used as a garage, but it does not have to stay that way. It sits on the site of an ancient home, and the floor still has centuries-old, custom-painted and fired tiles. With a wall of glass instead of a garage door, this could become one of the most beautiful rooms on the property.
The Land With Its Olive Orchard, Wells, and Sweeping Mountain Views
The land itself is a huge part of the appeal here. There are around 100 healthy, well-maintained olive trees, enough to give you a lifetime supply of your own extra virgin olive oil.
Scattered around the property you will also find figs, plums, grapes, and other fruit trees, though these are not laid out in a formal orchard the way the olives are.
Two working wells give you real water independence, which is a big plus for anyone dreaming of a self-sufficient countryside life. And if you love history, you are about a kilometer from a world-class archaeological excavation, led by the University of Palermo and Cambridge, of a city founded by the Greeks in 405 BC. People were living on this land 2,500 years ago, so who knows what might turn up on your own property someday.
The privacy here is real too. The only neighboring structure is a villa in the distance that cannot actually see into the property, so this feels like your own private world in the hills above Tusa.
Property Highlights of Casa Orolina in Tusa, Sicily
- About 140 square meters (1,510 square feet) total, blending finished and unfinished living space
- Move-in ready ground floor with a finished kitchen, bathroom, and master bedroom overlooking the olive orchard
- About 70 square meters (753 square feet) of unfinished upstairs space with vaulted ceilings, ready for your own design
- Roughly 100 healthy olive trees plus scattered figs, plums, and grapes
- Two working wells for independent water access
- Waterproofed terrazzo terrace and a fully covered veranda downstairs
- Built fully legally with comune permits and up to current code
- Ancient painted floor tiles on-site, near a Greek archaeological excavation dating to 405 BC
- Just 5 minutes from the beach
- Mountain views and the medieval silhouette of Pettineo from the property
- Take the video tour of Casa Orolina
- Featured in Episode 31
- Asking price: €78,000
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.
Curious what it’s really like to work with us? Read this buyer’s story about our process, from first chat to closing day.
Your Olive Orchard Dream Home in Tusa
Casa Orolina is one of those rare properties that lets you move in immediately while still leaving room to build exactly the home you have been picturing. That balance of comfort and creative freedom does not come along often, especially at this price.
Between the olive orchard, the wells, the fruit trees, and the mountain views of Pettineo from your own bedroom, this is countryside living at its most Sicilian. Add in the five minute drive to the beach, and you really do get the best of both worlds here.
We can feel how much love went into building this place, and it deserves someone who will finish that story with the same heart. If this sounds like the kind of la dolce vita (the sweet life) you have been dreaming about, this could be it.
If you are seriously shopping and ready to move on a property like this, reach out to us. Homes with this much land, this much privacy, and this much potential do not stay available for long.
