Salt air drifts up from the coast below and settles over a quiet stone piazza, where a flag flutters above the comune (town hall) and the Mediterranean stretches out in the distance like a sheet of hammered silver. You are standing on a private porch, coffee in hand, and the only sound is the occasional scooter puttering through the medieval streets of Reitano. This is not a fantasy you have to build from scratch. This is a house you could move into next month.
We get emails every single week from people who love the idea of an Italian fixer-upper until they actually picture themselves doing the fixing. We get it. Not everyone wants to spend two years managing contractors from another continent. So when a fully restored, tastefully done stone home came up for sale just five minutes above Santo Stefano di Camastra, with sea views baked right into the deal, we knew we had to bring you inside.
Meet Leonardo and Monica, the Craftspeople Behind This Restoration
Casa Leonardo is named for our friend Leonardo, a retired engineer from Rome, and his wife Monica, who is from Florence. They bought this ancient stone house in Reitano planning to keep it for themselves and use it as a vacation rental, not to flip it for a quick profit.
That distinction matters more than you might think. When people restore a home to sell fast, corners get cut. When people restore a home because they intend to live in it, every detail gets attention.
Leonardo’s engineering background shows up everywhere in this house, from the insulated subfloor to the way the old stone walls were treated so they could still breathe. We have toured a lot of restoration projects in Sicily, and we can tell you honestly that this one was done right.
Stepping Inside Casa Leonardo
The Porch, Framing the Piazza and the Sea Beyond
You enter by walking off a beautiful stone porch that looks straight out over the piazza (town square), with the comune visible just across the way. From certain points on this porch and from the windows upstairs, the view opens up toward the Mediterranean Sea, the kind of sight line that makes you stop mid-sentence.
It is the sort of detail that photos never quite capture. You really have to stand there.
The Great Room, Where Shabby Chic Meets Ancient Stone
Inside, one large open space does double duty as living and dining area. The floors are done in a shabby chic plank style, and the original built-in hutch was treated to match, so the whole room feels intentional rather than patched together.
The baseboards, window sills, and several light fixtures were custom made and hand painted in nearby Santo Stefano di Camastra, then fired in kilns there. The result is warm, artisanal, and distinctly Sicilian.
A Kitchen Built Around Local Craft
The kitchen island top is made from lava rock sourced from Mount Etna, hand painted with a crackle finish and fired at extremely high temperatures overnight. You can even see the artist’s signature worked into the surface.
The island houses an integrated oven, and the counters hold a gas cooktop, dishwasher, and a nice sink setup. A deep stone niche beside the kitchen, with walls about a foot and a half thick, is begging for a few wood shelves to display dishes or décor.
There is also an old wood burning oven that Leonardo restored not as a working oven, but as a striking art niche, one of several small touches that let the house’s history show through.
The Master Suite, Downstairs and Ground Level
Downstairs you will find a very large master bedroom suite, finished with the same hand painted tile from Santo Stefano di Camastra on the baseboards and window sills. The floor here was built up properly, with insulating blocks, fiberglass netting, and a mortar bed underneath, specifically so the cold and damp from the ground never creep in.
That might sound like a small thing until you see the house across the street, where a renovation skipped this step and the walls are now bubbling with efflorescence and trapped moisture. Leonardo’s attention to detail means you likely will not be dealing with that headache here.
The current closet is simple, but the space would easily accept a closet system or even a basic set of mirrored sliding doors as an inexpensive upgrade.
The Bathroom and the Cantina Below
The bathroom is brand new, with floor to ceiling tile, a toilet and bidet, an independent vanity, and a genuinely large two square meter shower.
Beneath the main living space, a small cantina (cellar) currently holds the water pump and heating equipment, along with a nice stone archway. It is purely functional right now, but it has character to spare if you ever wanted to finish it out.
The Garden and Stone Ruin Next Door
From the porch, look left and you will notice a garden that does not currently belong to the property, but very well could. The neighboring owner has indicated a willingness to sell that parcel.
There is also a stone structure attached to that garden that we are actively working to make available as well. Between the garden and the ruin, you would have room to build out an outdoor dining area under an old stone archway, or simply expand your footprint in the historic center, which is genuinely rare to find.
Property Highlights of Casa Leonardo
- Fully restored ancient stone house, move-in ready with no renovation needed
- Approximately 90 square meters (about 969 square feet) across two levels
- Located in the historic center of Reitano, a medieval hilltop town of about 900 people
- Just 5 minutes above Santo Stefano di Camastra with sea views of the Mediterranean
- Custom hand painted, fired tile and light fixtures made locally in Santo Stefano di Camastra
- Kitchen island topped with hand painted Etna lava rock
- Insulated, moisture-protected flooring in the master suite
- Large master bathroom with a two square meter shower
- Small cantina for equipment storage with an original stone archway
- Adjacent garden and attached stone ruin potentially available as an add-on purchase
- Some furniture may be included in the sale
- Watch the full property tour
- Featured in Episode 53
- Asking price: €75,000
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.
In Conclusion, a Move-In Ready Stone Home Above the Sea
We tour a lot of properties that come with a project list attached, and there is nothing wrong with that if renovation is part of your dream. But Casa Leonardo is proof of what those projects can become when they are handled with real care.
Every detail here, from the fired tile to the insulated flooring to the way the old wood oven was turned into an art niche, shows a couple who restored this house to live in it themselves. That kind of intention is hard to fake and even harder to find at this price.
Add in the sea view stretching out from the porch and upper windows, the walkable historic center, and the real possibility of expanding into the neighboring garden and stone ruin, and you have a rare combination in Sicily right now.
At €75,000, this one is priced barely above what it cost to produce. If it speaks to you even a little, do not wait too long to reach out, because homes like this do not sit on the market for long.
