Casa Talia

Sicily, Italy – Marco Giunta and Viviane Haddad

Marco: “My wife and I once organised a workshop for architects in Tuscany. We thought about place, hospitality and food. For us, it was a good opportunity to feel how nice it is outside of the big city.

Then, in 2001, we came to Sicily for a summer holiday. It was a coincidence that we came to Modica, but we ended up spending 15 days here, forgetting everything else. We were really impressed and fell in love with the city.

My father is Sicilian, from the north of the island, so when I arrived here, I felt a real connection with Sicily. My wife and I began by buying just one room, and every time we came back to visit, we purchased another. After eight months, we had bought 12 different properties.”

“Every single room at Casa Talìa used to be a (full) family home. We renovated them to have one single property, with all of them connected through the garden. It’s like a circle. Imagine a house in a circle and in the middle is a garden. From the outside, it still looks the same. We just restored the original wall and the interior.

During the restoration, we only used natural and local materials. The terraces use a mix of natural and decorated tiles, something you can’t find anywhere else.”

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