La Casa di Montalbano
“Montalbano sono.” If you’re Italian these words will be highly familiar to you. They’re the words the sexy actor Luca Zingaretti says every time he picks up the phone, “I’m Montalbano.” The actor has brought to life writer Andrea Camilleri’s creation, Inspector Salvo Montalbano, an epicure and sleuth who has a way with beautiful women, and whose investigations see him crime solving in some of Sicily’s most beautiful locations.
Lovers of the TV series are found beyond Italian shores as the show is popular in Australia, the U.S., Germany and Denmark. Each episode has the rugged Montalbano swimming out to sea from the sandy beach by his house or grabbing an espresso on the verandah before he rushes out of the house (his stubble still carefully intact) to solve another mystery. The house has fantastic views with French windows that look out to a sea in what seems a peaceful and idyllic spot.
And having been there I can tell you it is. The house used as a location for the series exists pretty much as seen on TV and is open to the public as La Casa di Montalbano B&B when shows aren’t being filmed. The house is at Punta Secca in Ragusa on Sicily’s southern coast. It’s one of a small string of houses on a small beach flanked by a fourteenth-century Saracen tower and white, circular lighthouse in what is a truly tiny fishing village. On a tip of land jutting out into the Mediterranean this is a windy place, and probably best visited between May and September if only you want a beach holiday. The rest of the year the sand blows around and it’s a deserted place even for a die-hard Montalbano fan, although it is a suitable resting point to visit the nearby Baroque towns of Ragusa, Modica and Noto, and seaside resorts of Pozzallo and Marzamemi. The nearest airport is Catania 65 miles away.
Two floors of the three-storey house are a B&B with three double rooms and one twin room, all equipped with TV, air conditioning, mini-fridge, hair drier and central heating. Breakfast is served in a large living/dining room and guests can order meals from a nearby restaurant if they want to dine at the B&B. Guests renting for a week or more can use the kitchen.
Via A. Moro 44, Punta Secca, Italy
Contact tel: +39 0932 915 376, fax: +39 0932 916 287, e-mail:
Cost double room with en suite: £30 - £60 per night
Useful links
Introduction to Marzamemi
Introduction to Pozzallo
Introduction to Ragusa
La Casa di Montalbano website
The Baroque Pearls of the Val di Noto
Added 2008/11/11 @ 18:04:22
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