Pantelleria

Pantelleria lies about seventy kilometres from Tunisia and a hundred from Sicily, a volcanic island of black rock with no rivers and little rain, where agriculture depends on structures: dammusi, thick-walled stone houses with domed roofs that collect rainwater, and giardini panteschi, circular dry-stone walls built around a single citrus tree to shelter it from the wind and condense moisture. Zibibbo vines are grown in hollows scooped into the ground, and the practice of head-training them this way was listed by UNESCO as intangible heritage in 2014. The Specchio di Venere is a crater lake with hot springs and mud along its edge.

History

Neolithic visitors came to the island to quarry obsidian, and the first permanent settlement, at Mursia, began in the Bronze Age, when the megalithic Sesi tombs were also built. The Carthaginians probably took the island, a station on the way to Sicily, around the beginning of the 7th century BC, with their acropolis on the twin hill of San Marco and Santa Teresa, 2 km south of the present town (Wikipedia, Pantelleria).

Highlights

• The dammusi - domed stone houses built to collect rainwater.
• The giardini panteschi - circular walls sheltering a single citrus tree.
• The sunken vines - Zibibbo grown in hollows, UNESCO-listed practice.
• The Specchio di Venere - a crater lake with hot springs and mud.

When to go

May to October; the wind, which gives the island its character, blows hard and can cancel flights and ferries. August is busy and expensive.

Things to know

Transport is weather dependent and cancellations are common. There are no sand beaches, only black rock entries. The wind is constant and strong.

Nearby

Sicily lies northeast; the island stands alone in open sea.