For sale villa, sea Nardò Puglia

Between Nardò and its sea, the countryside stretches out into a plateau of olive trees and dry-stone walls, where houses are few and far between. Contrada Tre Pietre occupies the last rise before the land slopes down towards the coast, and from that point everything comes together: on one side the town, with its Baroque squares, its shops and everyday services; on the other the seaside villages of Santa Caterina and Santa Maria al Bagno, the coves and the flat rocks where the water stays crystal clear. The villa sits exactly in between, in a silence that surprises even at the height of summer: no through road, no neighbours pressed up against it, only the wind in the pines.

On arrival, one enters a fenced plot of 2,050 square metres, with a well-kept lawn, centuries-old olive trees, Aleppo pines and a stone fountain at the centre of the courtyard. The villa stands at its heart, with 200 square metres arranged over two levels, and its façade is screened by a deep loggia, sheltered by the volume of the upper floor, which for much of the year becomes the true living room: lunch in the shade, lingering in the evening, gazing at the garden with nothing to disturb the view.

Behind the solid wood door, one steps directly into the living room with its kitchen area, the space where the house gathers for meals and everyday life. A hallway leads to the laundry room and a bathroom, and it is through this very bathroom that one reaches the trullo, which has been transformed into a bedroom: the exposed stone vault, the niches carved into the thickness of the walls, the light falling from above. It is a room connected to the house yet set apart, the accommodation offered to guests and one that no one forgets.

It is on the first floor, however, that the house reveals its true purpose. Here the living area divides in two: the first lounge gathers around a suspended fireplace, for winter evenings; the second is enclosed by a continuous floor-to-ceiling glass wall that does not merely frame the sea: it holds it. The entire horizon enters the room and remains there all day, exactly at eye level from wherever one sits. In the morning the water takes on the pale clarity of the Ionian, in the middle of the day the blue deepens, and in the evening the sun sets straight ahead of the glass, keeping the room aglow until the very last moment. And in front there is nothing: the olive groves, the ruins of pale stone scattered across the plateau, then only open water, uninterrupted by any building. On the same floor are the two bedrooms, each with its own bathroom and with the large circular window that is the signature of this architecture.

From the glazed stairwell, one finally steps out onto the roof terrace, fitted with solar panels and paved in stone: an open level flush with the sky, furnished for dining and relaxing, with the sea ahead and no one looking on. It is the place from which one best understands where one is.

It is a location that combines the absolute tranquillity of the countryside with the proximity of everything: the town a few minutes away, the beaches just as close, and a view that no neighbour can ever take away. It is a home that can be lived in all year round, thanks to the quality of its systems and the privacy of the plot, and that at the same time lends itself to a prestigious rental. But the reason one chooses it is another, and it becomes clear in an instant: here the sea is not a view to be admired from afar, it is a presence one lives with, from every room and at every hour of the day.