19/09/2026
Four years ago, I called my friend and real estate manager Angela Penzillo, from Agenzia Immobiliare Penzillo , a leading agency in the Racalmuto and Grotte area, with a simple request:
“Can you show me a little country house in Racalmuto?”
I was looking for a place to spend my days surrounded by nature and, maybe one day, turn into an extension of GoSicily.
Angela showed me a few properties, but they were all too small. Maybe not for me, but for my dreams.
My dreams simply wouldn’t fit inside them.
Then she showed me this place.
And it was love at first sight.
Looking at these two pictures today makes me smile (or cry). I wouldn’t call them “before and after,” though. I prefer “before and during.”
Because Donna Nnì is a work in progress project. And probably always will be.
So today, thank you, Angela, for understanding that I needed a place big enough to hold my dreams.
Thank you to myself, for not giving up when choosing something smaller, easier and already finished would have been so much simpler. I dared. I dared to dream of something that, at first, perhaps only I could see.
And the biggest thank you goes to my life partner, Ninni, who chose to support this dream and make it a little bit his own, standing beside me through every idea, project, change and new dream.
Today I look at these pictures and see how far we’ve come — and how much is still ahead.
Because that’s the beauty of Donna Nnì: never considering it finished. Bringing it back to life, little by little, rediscovering what it once was without taking away its charm or its soul. And, above all, living it. 🌿
Before. During. And still so much left to imagine.
