The Villa
Our house is surrounded by family garden plots, tended by locals who live in nearby villages. It was in the process of being renovated when we purchased it in 2018. The original tiny farmhouse had been replaced with a modern three bedroom home with three large bathrooms. Although new, the house was bare bones with no kitchen, a thick layer of dust and piles of construction debris. A local craftsman built our custom kitchen and we worked hard to clean and furnish the house for ourselves and future guests. My husband and I occupy one of the rooms and rent the other two on Airbnb. Click here for a detailed description and pictures of each room. The house also features a ground level terrace with a wood-fired pizza oven which is perfect for dining and a huge rooftop terrace equipped with water and electricity, patio furniture and a fire pit. The gravel driveway is rather steep and recommended only for very small vehicles. However, there is additional parking on a flat surface just a short walk away, as well as a paved side entrance that is nearly level.
The area around our villa is lush & green. You can enjoy the peaceful surroundings and go for a hike on the old railway bridge.
Our villa at night lit up at night while entertaining on the roof terrace.
Our villa is surrounded by gardens
Front entrance to our house and stairs leading up to rooftop terrace
Rooftop terrace with firepit, ping pong table, lounges for sunbathing, kitchen for cooking, and plenty of places to relax in the shade
Ground level terrace with pizza oven - where you homemade breakfast is served while you listen to birds chirping and water rushing through the aqueduct
The Farm
Our small piece of land lies within the Alcantara Valley that was originally settled sometime between 400 and 700 BC. Behind the house is a hillside with dry-stacked stone terraces built by the Greeks and later modified by the Romans. The land had been neglected for 20 years and was completely covered with brambles when we purchased it. After clearing the land we discovered trails, td old barns, and a variety of olive, lemon, orange and fig trees. We continued to clear and improve the land, creating room for vegetable gardens and putting in a paved pathway. We also repaired the dirt driveway and washed-out road leading to our house. Further improvements include new barns for the miniature donkeys and goats, a chicken coop, bocce ball court and outside pizza oven. We have turned it into our little piece of Italian country heaven.
Picking lemons
The animal pens. Click photo above to watch video.
Olive harvest
Our farm is a unique combination of new and old. Lower left is our new barn and upper right is the remnants of an old barn. Also shown are ancient dry-stacked terrace walls.
A second old barn next to a giant eucalyptus tree at the edge of our property.
Garden shed and bridge over ancient aqueduct to barn-level terrace.
The Aqueduct
An ancient aqueduct runs through our property, also originally constructed by the Greeks. It has been reinforced with concrete and is still used today to provide water for irrigation to farms in the valley, as well as municipal water for a nearby village. The aqueduct splits into three different channels very close to our house. Long ago, when our villa was a tiny farmhouse, it served as the gatekeeper's home. Because access was difficult, he had to live on-site to control the metal gates to direct the flow of water. Today the aqueduct is maintained by a local consortium that regulates the flow. We use a solar pump to use water from the canal to irrigate our fruit trees and gardens.
We are Eco-Conscious
We strive to be as ecologically friendly as possible on the farm. We have an energy system made up of 30 solar panels generating 9.75 kilowatts of clean solar energy with two 5 kilowatt inverters and a 14 kilowatt Tesla Power Wall 2 battery on-site, so you can run the air conditioner or heater in your room guilt- free. The kitchen has an under-the-sink water filtration system that provides guests with an unlimited supply of purified water to fill your containers with so there's no need to purchase disposable plastic bottles. Food and garden scraps are either fed to our animals or composted on-site and we participate in a program that recycles glass, cardboard, paper, plastic and metal. Our livestock provide natural fertilizer for the gardens.
