Property for Sale in Sicily

Given its location at the crossroads of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, an island so large that it’s hard not to bump into when sailing laterally across the Mediterranean, it’s no wonder that Sicily has an important place in antiquity. Sicily is an Italian island but with a distinctly Greek feel to it. Indeed, when the Greek mathematician Archimedes left out of his bath yelling “Eureka!”, he was in Syracuse, on Sicily’s east coast.

So let’s start there. Syracuse, and its island Ortygia, is one of Sicily’s baroque cities. Sicilian Baroque is a luscious, curvaceous style of architecture developed in the early 18th century in Sicily after an earthquake in 1693 levelled much of the existing architecture. Baroque-style properties for sale in Sicily will tend to be pricier, but there are plenty of affordable older properties down the alleyways of Ortygia, Palermo, Noto, Ragusa and other baroque beauties.

Palermo is the capital of the island home to one of Sicily’s two airports with year-round direct flights from the UK and other countries. Other options for arrival include the train, which after a beautiful route from Naples along the coast is loaded onto a ferry for the 20-minute crossing of the Straits of Messina. It all takes around 48 hours from London to your home in Sicily.

You can’t talk about property for sale in Sicily without mentioning one-euro homes in Sicily. The story so far… the authorities in small towns and villages in central Sicily were so worried about losing younger families to the cities and mainland that they came up with the idea of selling older properties for just one euro, so long as the buyer committed to spending thousands doing them up. Cue an influx of energetic, wealthy overseas buyers and new jobs in construction. Film crews followed! The best of the one-euro Sicilian homes have now gone, but there are plenty of together for only a few thousand more.

Most people looking for a suitable property for sale in Sicily will choose the more well know areas, either along the northern coast either side of Palermo or the east coast around Catania and Syracuse.

Taking the north first, the popular resorts of Trapani in the far west, Cefalú in the centre and Milazzo in the east are historic cities that have adapted well to tourism. Prices tend to rise the further west you go, but you’ll find a nice home for sale in Sicily’s northern coast from €100,000.

On the east coast, the glorious resort town of Taormina has long attracted the British and Americans – the latter in particular since featuring in The White Lotus TV drama.

In the east, Syracuse jostles with Catania for position as most attractive city. The honey-coloured baroque buildings, resplendent with carved figures and water features, just invite you to sit down with a local wine from Mount Etna, or a gelato, and watch the world go by. There are plenty of villages too, with property for sale in Sicily. One of the most attractive is Castiglione di Sicilia, with country properties for sale in the Sicilian countryside from just €200,000, all with Mount Etna puffing away gently (usually) in the distance. Weird though it may seem, you can ski on Mount Etna too.

Perhaps the best thing about Sicily is its people. Forget the cliches, Sicilians tend to be kind, calm and friendly.