An island geography
The most important element of shared identity of the islands around Sicily is precisely the fact that they are "islands of the island".
Today, the smaller islands around Sicily offer visitors a unique mix of attractions, accessible all year round, with a varied offer of hotels (up to 5-star) and other types of accommodation. Tourists may be content with a short break, but might also consider longer vacations with time to discover the many well-preserved treasures that are freely available or enriched by guided tours, by boat or on foot, exploring the islands’ nature, vulcanology, history, food and wine.
History
There are significant differences in the stories of the different islands: some have been inhabited since Neolithic times, like Lipari others from the end of the Paleolithic era, like Levanzo, and others still remaining remote and deserted until recent times, such as the Pelagie.
Pantellera was a key staging post on the metal routes across the Sicilian Channel during the Bronze Age, while the villages of the same period in Filicudi and Ustica may have been Mycenaean outposts overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Traces of these complex histories can be found in the walls of the Sesi in Pantelleria, the Eoli di Filicudi, or the village of Colombara in Ustica; in the ramparts of the Castle in Lipari; in the fortifications of Punta Troia in Marettimo and Santa Caterina in Favignana; or secreted among the paleo-Christian tombs of Cala Palme in Lampedusa; on the tops of the columns in the Norman cloister of the Cathedral of Lipari; and in the Greek and Roman wrecks scattered along the coasts of the islands, many of which - like those sunk during the battle of Levanzo or in the shallows of Dattilo in Panarea – deserve a key place in the pages of the history of submarine archeology.
Landscapes & Traditions
The landscapes of the islands surrounding Sicily have been carved over time by the communities that inhabit them: vast systems of terraced agriculture making use of seemingly almost inaccessible slopes, most evident in Pantelleria, Linosa and many of the Aeolian islands.
Aeolian islands
Lampedusa
Linosa
Pantelleria
Egadi Islands
Ustica
Sea & Nature
The origin of the islands surrounding Sicily is either volcanic or a result of geological events that separated them from the mainland.
All anchors of a varied mosaic of biodiversity that has seen the islands around Sicily included in the European Union's Natura 2000 network, led to the establishment of numerous protected terrestrial and marine areas, and resulted in UNESCO declaring the active and extinct volcanoes of the Aeolian Islands and the sapling vines of Pantelleria "World Heritage Sites".
Food & Wine
Sea and land, farmers and fishermen, overlapping practices and trades have often given life to curious culinary mixtures
an ideal meal on the islands surrounding Sicily would bring together an extraordinary variety of local products, nowadays often prepared in accordance with Slow Food methods, where we would find the zibibbo of Pantelleria, the malvasia of Lipari, the lentils of Ustica and Linosa, the capers of Salina, serb tomatoes, the prunes and figs produced by local farmers, side by side with red tuna prepared according to the traditions of the fishermen of Favignana, the swordfish and squid of the Aeolian Islands, the blue fish and lobsters of Marettimo, and the amberjack of Lampedusa.
Today's traditional products are complemented by the results of skilled cultivation of local vineyards, in Pantelleria, Salina, Lipari, Vulcano, Panarea and Favignana.
