Villa Capo Zafferano

Villa Capo Zafferano sits on the Mongerbino coast east of Palermo, between the Sicilian seaside towns of Santa Flavia and Sant'Elia-Porticello, looking out at the dramatic headland of Capo Zafferano rising from the sea. It's a quiet, unpolished stretch of coast, thirty metres from crystal-clear water, with the archaeological site of Solunto and the fishing town of Porticello close by, and Palermo itself only twelve kilometres away for its markets, churches and history.

The house was designed by the architect Armando Barraja at the end of the 1980s, as a summer home for his own family, and is now looked after by his son, Giacomo. Built in the spirit of European Modernism and rationalism, the house reads as a "machine for living," in Le Corbusier's phrase, its balustrades and small round windows deliberately echoing a ship's portholes, as though ready to set out toward the horizon. Large glass walls in the main living space open onto a wide terrace with unbroken sea views, and a path through the garden, thick with olive trees, palms, agave and geraniums, leads down to a private rocky cove with platforms for sunbathing. Two master bedrooms sit off the main living area, a twin bedroom is on the floor below with its own terrace, and a third master bedroom sits apart in its own annex for extra privacy. The interiors carry genuine pieces of Italian design history, including furniture by Franco Albini and Dino Gavina.