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Giro Tondo is a virtual discovery tour of the island and its coastlines… Lampedusa, wind of Africa…Lampedusa, pearl of the Mediterranean, divers paradise, island of excellence… It can be described in so many ways praising the beauty and wild splendour of its barren and half-desert panoramas, white and coloured with small bushes that seem to be climbing the sea. Lampedusa is located South West of Sicily, at a distance of 205 kilometres, while only 167 kilometres away from Tunisia.Limestone-dolomite like features can be found.It consists of a large and low platform on the East side, narrow and sheer to the sea with an altitude of 133 meters below sea level on its North side, where enchanting cliffs display limestone stratifications before sinking into the blue sea of Capo Ponente. Let’s try and circumnavigate the perimeter from the South side. Leaving the port, sailing West, we reach Cala Croce where a bay discloses two beaches, the largest beach, of white and most fine sand, consists of a small valley covered with green locks-like reeds; the other beach is smaller, on the left, a few tens meters away, and reachable on foot from the land as well as from the sea.Leaving the bay, we immediately approach another adjacent bay, long and narrow Cala Madonna (click on the photo) which keeps its beach hidden until the last second, then appears as a tiny strip of sand at the bottom of another valley on the top of which rests the Sanctuary, dedicated to the saint of the island, Maria of Porto Salvo. The trip towards the West continues with Cala Greca, a narrow bay and tiny beach of white sand, an excellent area for fishing.Next to it is Cala Galera where the colours of the sea are darker in comparison with the emerald blue of the other bays.Cala Galera is fascinating with its capes softly meandering down to the sea, hiding beautifully coloured small caves; eventually the beach sets on two small hills circling the banks of a dead river…On the back of the beach is a green landscape dotted with low walls sheltering blackberry bushes and fig trees. That is the last beach before reaching the place and inevitable stop for all Towards the North, the coast falls abruptly down into the sea; on the bottom, beyond 10 meters, the white sand allows a clearness of water comparable only to that of certain swimming-pools. The shades of colours vary from emerald green inland to intense blue outward. Towards the West the Isola dei Conigli (Rabbits Island) is outlined. I consider myself traditionalist, and being an islander, I am proud of it. But who would not be so, when, sailing towards the Tabaccara, they can enjoy such smoothness of the sea in July, when catching a glimpse of shoals of saraghi right underneath them, they remain stunned by so much beauty… While the sun plays with the brightness of the sea projecting millions of glimmers on the side of the boat, all is quiet… Nobody would know how to describe the colours of the stratifications on the cliffs, the seabed’s incredible transparency and the dreamy sight of the small piece of island nestled in the bay. One always leaves Tabaccara reluctantly. Going on, sailing West, with the coastline of Lampedusa on the right side of the boat… The reef of Rabbits Island is getting closer as we enter a wide area of emerald green water which turns progressively into crystal-clear as we draw nearer to the shore. Rabbits Island (the beach on the left) is a small piece of island 30 meters away from the land and shore that separates it from the actual bay from our point of entrance. This small island is most popular among visitors for the clay on the North faces while the Caribbean like panorama sets off wild enthusiasm among the thousands of tourists arriving each year Going around the small island, we brush up against two emerging rocks: at the base of the smallest rock, planted in the sand, we find the statue Madonna del Mare, a gift from the diver Roberto Merlo who survived a diving accident there. The Rabbits Island’s bay is in front of us: three small mounts, two laterals and one central, just like the confluence of two small rivers on the bed of the third bigger one. The small mounts penetrate softly the ones in the valleys of the others; rounded on the top, barren and lunar, they plunge into both valleys at the bottom of the biggest and most beautiful beach of the island. The sand of Rabbits Island is unique, the only one on the island to be that soft and thin, white and light; moreover, the entire bay has that unique colour: emerald green near the coast, turquoise towards the open sea. You can access this paradise only by foot, following a natural path on the North face, because it’s a national park where the Caretta Caretta turtle comes to reproduce; the Caretta Caretta is an endangered and protected species. Inland one can find a species of North African plants, the “Scilla Marittima in Fiore”, erected towards the sky like blossomed spears; another species in the surroundings is the “Echinops Spinosus” which looks like cotton pieces covered with thorns; and the Rabbits Island is the only place in Italy where you can see a lizard called “Psammodromus Algius”. The reserve stretches on approximately 320 hectares (circa 130 acres from Cala Greca to Vallone dell’Acqua near the lighthouse of Capo Ponente) on the Southern coast of the island and was founded in 1996 by the Region of Sicily’s Territory and Environment Assessors. There are a few rules to respect if you intend to visit the beach and have a swim in “the sea”, but it is worth it. The most beautiful sight of the beach is from up above and nothing could be set in a better way than that in which the nature did it, stroking with love each single stone in order to achieve enchantment… A delight to be caught in its whole, in a glance… a delight to make us stop an instant before going down to the beach, every time, to remember that we do not own this planet, we are only “guests”. Now let’s leave the Rabbits bay and sail to the last beach on this side of the island, Cala Pulcino. Cala Pulcino greets visitors with the same colours as the Rabbits Island’s but with the particularity that it is very difficult to access on foot, the only options are sailing or following a laborious path. The Pulcino bay is another cove with a beach set at the bottom of a valley, Vallone Pulcino. But the beach is not the same every year, its destiny is at the mercy of time; sometimes it appears as a beautiful beach and the year after disappears leaving only reefs and seaweeds. Going on, always West, we meet two semi-emerged reefs near the coast while the rocks on our right gradually rise, showing off those delightful stratified cliffs, always taller, up to Capo Ponente. We are now at the extreme Westside of the island, from there onward the coastline looks totally different; the wind-eroded steep rocks will accompany us with their colours full of mystery and history, round the coast, up to the extreme opposite Capo Grecale, on the Eastside of the island, with a succession of surprises. The first enchanting surprise is the stack of Sacramento at the entrance of a huge cave which arch skims the surface of Albero Sole 133 meters away. The inside of the cave is a spectacular scenery that only nature, with the passing of centuries, could have shaped. The inside walls remind one of a cathedral and further inside, a rock emerging from the water seems to divide the space in two rooms; on the right, one can go down on foot in order to admire the colours of the rocky faces and of the sea which, at this point, puts on an incomparable shade of bright turquoise. On the left, there’s an access to another smaller cave which ventures itself, serpent-like, in the bowels of the earth. Exiting the cave, in front of us is the stack of Sacramento, no higher than the cliff, majestic and mythical just like all the rest of it. We have reached the North side of the island and are now on our way back, sailing East. Any single place around this area is excellent for fishing or simply to have a swim. There are no beaches and the panorama is wonderful as the colours of the sea, we meet a new stack, the “Sailing Rock” (Scoglio a Vela), which from far away, confused in the mist, looks like a “praying Madonna”; and in front of this is a shore of clay that turns everything around into yellow in perfect harmony with the darker clumps scattered at random here and there. The cliff, vertical to the sea, cut out by time, entirely shows through a projection of its headland, from where we stand to Punta Alaimo, which is the “extreme edge” of this side of the island. The crossing towards Punta Alaimo first, and then Capo Grecale, allows us to discover an infinity of delightful small caves up to the extreme East end of Capo Grecale which is the transit point for shoals of dolphins before sunset. Going on South from Capo Grecale, we discover the bays of Cala Calandra, Mare Morto, Cala Creta, Cala Pisana, Cala Uccello, Punta Parrino, all are swimming points accessible by foot or otherwise. The panorama has changed again.Now, the steep reefs of the North side have given way to beautiful low spots with small white beaches (except for Cala Creta which doesn’t have a beach) and the first stone buildings of Cala Creta’s village peep out of the land. Punta Sottile is the extreme Southeast and lowest point of the island. As a rock blade, it gradually enters the sea sinking in the blue and doing so, creates small shallows and is a paradise for fishermen and divers. We change route again but this time, to go home…Southwards and before reaching the port, just after Punta Sottile, is Cala Francese. That’s a large bay where the beach isn’t really crowded because, not having a proper road, it isn’t easily accessible; the bay is charming though, with a little beach and a green oasis out of which peep some palm trees. Beyond Cala Francese, a series of caves line up among which is the most enchanting of the island: the Grottaccia. There, everything is magical: the inside walls, the thousands gurgles of the waves through the tiny winding paths of the rocks, the sea reflecting on the inside walls, the smell… and when you’ll have satisfied all your senses, gaze attentively at the sea, it’s 15 meters deep and the little coin blinking on the ground is no mirage!!! Cala Maluk, once a place for fishing sea sponges, is the last bay before reaching the port. It’s located near the airport and has three tiny beaches, but also those are at the mercy of the currents and weather which make them appear and disappear as if by magic. Now, let’s enter the natural port of Lampedusa. On the left is the main beach of the island; the Guitgia, although inside the port, has always remained a beautiful and uncontaminated beach whose sea colours are wonderful notwithstanding the circulation of boats through the port. Further inside the port are two creeks, the one on the right side of the old port next to the residential area has a beach that used to shelter the ancient sailing vessels; we are right in the urban centre. We do not want to use up all adjectives of the “Italian” language and, before ascertaining that we haven’t already done so, let’s say that in Italy, there are so many pieces of heaven like ours, and maybe even nicer, but our island has something more, deriving from its mysterious and seductive charm, from the intriguing atmosphere and sweet taste of the simple and the wild. An islander can’t describe the environmental characteristics of their land, because they would become too involved with passion and with that visceral love which confuses ideas and draws into the unavoidable banality of a “love poem”. But over the centuries, Lampedusa has been consumed and exploited, used and abused as nature always is when found uncontaminated by mankind, but she has also been a compromise to opposite religions, strategic crossroads in the Mediterranean for pirates and dealers; repudiated fief (1776) of a prince (Giuseppe Maria Tomasi di Lampedusa) who never wanted this gift from Carlo II, king of Spain, to the Tomasi family in 1630; place of birth of a fearless heart, Andrea Anfossi alias “The Vigorous” (Il Gagliardo), who escaped the island in 1602 after 40 years of slavery under the Saracens, and reached the Ligure coast to find freedom on his small fief of Costaventosa; he escaped on board a rudimentary raft driven by the “Sacred Sail” (Sacra Vela) that was actually a painting found on Lampedusa island and still kept a few kilometres away from Sanremo, in the small church erected by The Vigorous in honour of Nostra Signora di Lampedusa, in Castellaro Ligure where every year, on the Sunday following the 8th September, the famous painting is carried around on a procession. Strange stories, among popular tales and historical facts, transcribed by the first unique colonist of the island on the 22nd September 1843, Bernardo Maria Sanvisente who, paradoxically, was sent by Vittorio Emanuele II of the “Borboni”, King of the two Sicilies. Therefore, not even Sicilian!!! On a foreign land which nevertheless he colonised together with 90 men and 30 women from Sicily, of which he soon became the cherished governor; through his achievements, he managed to raise the interest of the King who came and visited the island later on 23rd June 1847. In 1860, Giuseppe Garibaldi created a turning point in Italian history but the island, for the first time since colonisation, fell in the most complete isolation from a state which ignored it until 1872; then, a penal colony was created; six years later (on 2nd June 1878), Lampedusa officially became a municipality, twinned with the island of Linosa. During the second world war, despite the militaries invite to leave, the islanders remained to defend their island, passing on to next generations that spirit of independence and tenacity of “the ones who stand alone against the rest of the world” and that faculty to revive again and again, always more convinced that this small piece of land in the middle of the Mediterranean is their sole resource. In spite of everything, we are still here and planting our roots always deeper in the rock; we bring up our children here, where history seems to be chasing the next event… a step behind our hopes, but never mind. Our children will grow up breathing the smell of the wet-with-rain land and the sunset will gratify them for living as islanders at a time that chases itself endlessly, vertiginously, as it inexorably goes by, and away, maybe too far away from the rest of the country. Nowadays, nobody on a walk through the streets of the centre would even notice the miserable statue in memory of Cavaliere Bernardo Maria Sanvisente, captain and governor of the island who wrote, on this far-off day of September 1847, the first page of our ancestors’ story. “… Lampedusa is like a marvellous and attractive woman who never unveils herself the first instant but parsimoniously reveals her graces and lets us fall madly in love with her as time goes by. Then, we will turn into slaves for ever, cherishing anything of her: the arrogant and fascinating hot sun, the colour and limpidity of the sea, the powerful wind and the mystic colours of the land. Lampedusa is in the heart of all of her lovers who stay up late every night for the sake of dedicating her a little verse, but they will never write enough; she’s missed by whoever had to leave her and has never renounced to coming back; she’s a strip of rough and sunburnt land. High sea island, island of Africa, Lampedusa, as a mother’s breast, secretes the vital sap that feeds its islanders. A sunny sea on the web! | ||||
local boats, the Tabaccara.Once upon a time this charming and broad piece of coast (left photo) that we, islanders, are pleased to call “the Swimming-pool”, partly belonged to local sailing boats which would use it as a shelter when prevented from entering the port due to bad weather.There, the sailors used to smoke one cigar after another while waiting for the weather to calm down and the name of the bay took after that custom.