Isole Egadi e Pantelleria
From the port of Trapani you can see the Egadi Islands of Favignana, Levanzo and Marettimo, which are destinations for many tourists in summer, as they can be reached within a few minutes.
Favignana with its 2000 residents is the largest island of the Egadi. The current name of Favignana comes from the Favonio wind, which is a warm, westerly wind, which determines the very mild climate. For centuries, along with fishing and agriculture, the extraction of Tuff stone was very profitable. The Florio family, an ancient family who owned the island for centuries, certainly gave a strong stimulus to this activity untilafter the Second World War.
Today the tuff quarries are abandoned and they are now an open-air museum. However, they deserve to be even more valorised from a tourist point of view. Among the things to see on Favignana is the ancient rite of tuna fishing, which attracts many visitors every year during the month of May for the famous 'mattanza' (massacre). Today, the massacre is a folklore activity, which takes place only in order to entertain tourists. We would like to mention a sailing centre on the island with, where it is possible to use the boats for therapy sailing programs with highly qualified staff, particularly aimed at people with disabilities.
In front of the northern coast of Favignana is the smallest of the Egadi Islands, Levanzo, which is a town hamlet of Favignana. A small community of people lives on the island, where there are no roads suitable for vehicles, except for a small stretch of road leading to the Faraglione beach.
Marettimo is the farthest island of the Egadi Islands. The small number of residents, the caves and the mountain paths make it the wildest island.
Every year on March 19th the entire community together with many tourists meets for the feast of S. Giuseppe (St. Joseph), which on Marettimo is deeply felt.
Formica, which is located between the island of Levanzo and the coast of Trapani is not to be considered an island, but rather, a big rock. Florio I built another tuna fishery there, which is now restored and is also home to a therapeutic community for drug addicts.
The island of Pantelleria is the largest of Trapani's islands. The territory is volcanic and the volcano makes its presence felt from time to time with jets of water vapour with extremely high temperatures, which are used for therapeutic purposes. The last major eruption was in 1891. There are many things to see on this island such as the large Pantel leria gardens and the 'dammusi' - typical rural buildings in the shape of a cube. Most of these buildings have been restored and turned into accommodation facilities.
Pantelleria is also famous for the production of the Muscat of Alexandria grape, capers and Moscato wine.