THE WINDING ROAD TO ISNELLO

Isnello, Sicily - August 2025: On the road to Isnello, you ascend through a labyrinth of winding mountain roads, where arrival times are never certain. The pace is its own. You reach instinctively for your phone, thinking to adjust the time zone to Isnello. It does not exist, but you are already there.

Sicily today is known worldwide for its coastal beauty and seaside charm. Yet, thanks to an infamous TV series and the algorithm-driven generation of IG and TikTok travelers, it has also become a brand—one where people arrive, snap a photo, and depart. No conversations with locals. No time to wander or get lost. The Situationists would be devastated. But Isnello offers another path—an opportunity to return to something more authentic.

It was while scrolling through networks of like-minded photographers and travelers that I connected with Marta, who introduced me to Casa Conchiglia. Hidden in Isnello, a hillside village with a medieval core just 45 minutes from Palermo’s crumbling capital, Casa Conchiglia is the passion project of Elena Hawrylik. Years ago, Elena discovered Isnello and fell under its spell, much as I did during a recent visit.

Casa Conchiglia is a three-story Sicilian mountaintop house tucked into the village’s quietest alleyways. It reflects Isnello’s centuries-old character, where medieval lanes and hillside terrain have shaped architecture for generations. Built with traditional Sicilian rural materials—stone, plaster, and wood—the house carries the timeless texture of the region. Inside, you find exposed stone walls, sturdy wooden beams, and spaces that unfold across multiple levels, with terraces and balconies that mirror the layered rhythm of the town itself.

The house itself feels like a meditation on light and materiality. On the ground floor, a rustic kitchen and dining space anchors the home. The midlevel opens to a desk, a sofa, and a quiet reflection room lined with books, leading to a terrace where another sofa invites you to sink into its cushions, books at your side, the mountain air at your back. At the top, a bedroom and bathroom retreat into minimalism, where stone, plaster, and sunlight themselves become the aesthetic.

Elena has preserved this authenticity while reimagining the space as a contemporary retreat for writers and artists seeking silence and clarity—or for travelers like me, who crave a home that restores without demanding constant exploration. The interiors echo the outside aesthetic with earthy hues and terracotta tones, every wall and stairway feeling as though it were hand-molded by its original builders.

Here, Casa Conchiglia invites you to do the opposite of what travel has become: to make no plans. Watch sunlight spill across each room as the day shifts to night. Listen to neighbors chatting in the square, goats being shepherded up the hill toward the church, bells ringing more often than seems necessary. Soon the loudest sound becomes the voice in your own head. Isnello is the only place this house could exist.

This is the authenticity I sought—and found—on my recent trip to Sicily.

Bookings: casaconchigliasicilia@gmail.com or www.instagram.com/casaconchigliasicilia.