Salt air drifts through open windows here in Motta d’Affermo, carrying the sound of waves breaking on a beach most tourists will never find. Below the village, a little commuter train slips into a tunnel and disappears, so all you hear afterward is water on stone. Up on the hillside, stone houses that have stood for centuries look out over a stretch of sea dotted with the silhouettes of the Aeolian Islands, Stromboli included, smoking quietly on the horizon.
This is the kind of view that stops you mid-sentence. From a rooftop terrazzo (rooftop terrace) or a deep stone balcony, you can watch fishing boats bob in the water while the light changes over Alicudi, Filicudi, Salina, Lipari, Panarea, and Stromboli one by one. We want to walk you through three different homes here, each a private sale, each with its own personality, and each within reach of that same impossible view.
Motta d’Affermo, a Hidden Sicilian Village
Motta d’Affermo is the kind of place where the comune (town hall) sits quietly at the center of a village of roughly 650 people, town and countryside combined. This is actually where Carlo got Italian citizenship a few years back, so this square holds some personal history for us.
You will hear elderly Sicilian gentlemen chatting in the local dialect on the benches nearby most afternoons. It is quiet, it is quaint, and it is the kind of peaceful you cannot manufacture.
Casa Marina’s Three Stone Levels Above the Sea
Casa Marina is an old stone house, possibly 300 to 400 years old, built into the hillside in three habitable levels of about 30 square meters each. That comes to roughly 90 square meters total (about 970 square feet), plus a fourth lower level that holds a garage and a cantina (cellar) for storing olive oil, wine, and lemons.
The Lower Bedroom, Tucked Into the Stone
The bottom bedroom sits partly underground, so there is some moisture coming through the old stone walls. That is normal for a subterranean room like this one, and there are modern waterproof panels made specifically to go over damaged plaster in situations like this.
The original floor tile here looks to be in great shape, likely made locally. The bedroom itself is a comfortable size, even before you start thinking about what to do with the space under the stairs.
The Second Bedroom and Its Balcony
One floor up, the second bedroom is the same footprint as the one below, but noticeably brighter. That is because it opens onto its own balcony, small but real, just big enough for a couple of bistro chairs and a little table looking out over the village rooftops.
The Top-Floor Balcony, Made for Sunset Views
The top level holds the kitchen and bathroom, both needing some updating, but with plumbing already in place and walls in good condition. The kitchen could be replaced affordably through a company like Mondo Convenienza or IKEA, and there are Italian government incentives for upgrading energy efficiency on older homes like this.
Step out onto the top balcony and it is genuinely one of the best views we have seen on this stretch of coast. It faces northeast, it is twice as deep as the balcony below, and from here you can pick out Alicudi, then Filicudi, then Salina, and if you look closely, Stromboli, Lipari, Panarea, and Vulcano lined up across the water.
Honestly, if this were our home, we think we would spend most of our time right out on that balcony.
Casa Giovanni, a Brand New House Ready to Finish
If centuries-old stone is not your style, Casa Giovanni offers something completely different. It is a brand new build, about 139 square meters (roughly 1,500 square feet), with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, a garage, and a rooftop terrace that faces the sea.
The walls already have the plumbing and electrical conduit run through them, ready for plaster, which means most of the heavy lifting is already done. Building a home to this exact point from scratch would cost at least €8,000, a figure we personally verified.
The asking price is only €45,000, which is unusually low. That is because it is a distress sale, the family needs to move quickly, and we helped negotiate the price down for a fast close.
Add finishing costs on top of the purchase price and you could land a home fully personalized to your own taste for somewhere around €100,000 total, sea view included.
Nino’s Stone House and a Dream Deferred, Ready to Be Reborn
The third property has the most personal story of the three. About twelve years ago, our neighbor Nino bought this stone house, roughly 150 years old, with his wife as their retirement dream home. Not long after, she got sick, and she passed away shortly after that.
Nino has lived alone since, and the unfinished house has become a painful reminder of a dream that never got to happen. He asked us a few years ago if we could help him sell it, but at the time we did not yet have the network to make that happen. Now we do.
The Ground Floor’s Old Schoolhouse and Olive Press
The main room upstairs was once the village schoolhouse, and there is still a local resident whose grandfather attended school in that very room. Downstairs, through what would become the garage entrance, is the old frantoio (olive press) room, complete with a beautiful stone archway worth preserving.
The stone walls throughout are in genuinely good shape and need no structural repair, just finishing work like plaster, flooring, and fixtures.
The Wine Room That Could Become Your Master Bath
Our favorite room in the house was once the palmento (traditional wine-pressing room), where grapes were stomped by foot and the juice ran down a spout into a stone collection basin below. We would turn this into a striking master bath, with a self-contained spa tub set right into that same hand-chiseled stone basin.
Habitable space, once finished, comes to about 90 square meters (roughly 970 square feet), plus a rooftop terrazzo of about 37 square meters (around 400 square feet) with balcony space attached. And that terrace has, in our opinion, the best view of the three properties, looking straight out at two of the Aeolian Islands.
The Land with Its Olive Orchard, Garden, and a Secret Beach
Nino’s property sits on about 1,200 square meters (roughly 0.3 of an acre), including a working olive orchard that produces around 50 liters of extra virgin olive oil every year, plus a level sunny spot ready for a vegetable garden.
The local beach here is a pebble beach used mostly by residents rather than tourists. A small commuter train passes between the property and the water, but it disappears into a tunnel right in front of the house, so you will hear the waves before you ever hear the train.
From the front door, it is about a five or six minute walk straight to that same beach, no railroad crossing required. It is the same beach we use ourselves, and it is about as close to a private beach as you will find in Sicily.
Buying Directly and What These Private Sales Involve
None of these three properties are listed with an agency, they are private sales. If you are seriously interested, the process runs through a trusted English-speaking real estate attorney who handles all the documentation through the notaio (notary), with ancillary costs of roughly €5,000 on top of whatever purchase price you negotiate.
Nino is asking €75,000 for his property as is. Budget another €50,000 for basic finishing work, bringing you to around €125,000, or closer to €150,000 if you want a truly high-end result.
Property Highlights of Motta d’Affermo
- Casa Marina: three habitable stone levels of 30 square meters each, about 90 square meters total (roughly 970 square feet), plus a lower garage and cantina
- Casa Marina features a deep top-floor balcony facing northeast with views across multiple Aeolian Islands
- Casa Giovanni: newly built, about 139 square meters (roughly 1,500 square feet), three bedrooms, two bathrooms, garage, and a sea-facing roof terrace
- Nino’s stone house: about 90 square meters (970 square feet) habitable space once finished, on 1,200 square meters (about 0.3 acres) of land
- Nino’s property includes an olive orchard yielding about 50 liters of olive oil a year, a vegetable garden plot, and a rooftop terrace of about 37 square meters (400 square feet)
- A short five to six minute walk to a locally used pebble beach from Nino’s property
- All three homes are private sales, not listed with an agency
- Watch the full video tour of all three homes
- Featured in Episode 17
- Asking prices: Casa Giovanni €45,000, Nino’s stone house €75,000, Casa Marina price available upon request
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, Three Chances to Live Your Sicilian Dream
Three very different homes, all within a few minutes of each other, all looking out over the same stretch of impossibly blue water and the same string of Aeolian Islands on the horizon. Casa Marina gives you centuries of stone character. Casa Giovanni gives you a blank canvas ready to finish exactly to your taste.
Nino’s house gives you something harder to put a price on, a chance to finish a dream someone else never got to live out. The olive orchard, the private beach access, the rooftop terrace looking out at the islands, it all adds up to a rare kind of opportunity.
We know that when a deal is this good, the right move is to act rather than wait. If you are seriously shopping and one of these three catches your eye, we would love to talk specifics with you.
And if you are still just dreaming for now, that is perfectly fine too. There will be more homes like these to discover, and someday that dream might be closer than you think.
