{"id":618,"date":"2013-06-18T15:23:07","date_gmt":"2013-06-18T14:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/merrington.net\/?p=618"},"modified":"2013-06-18T15:23:07","modified_gmt":"2013-06-18T14:23:07","slug":"sicily-favignana-and-san-vito-lo-capo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/?p=618","title":{"rendered":"Sicily: Favignana and San Vito lo Capo"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first thing we noticed about Favignana, an island 7 kilometres off the coast of Trapani, is the crystal clear water. We look at the plotter, which tells us we are in nine metres of water and we can see the bottom. The clarity is beautiful. We are in Italy’s largest marine reserve.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The beach in the harbour at Favignana<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many of you will say that you have never heard of Favignana, but if you read Homer’s Odyssey, in a bid to extract yourself from high school, you will know it as Goat Island. This island was the last stop before the Cyclop’s island and was full of goats, which fed the big O’s crew for awhile.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/a>
View of the tuna cannery & township of Favignana<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From the 15th Century, the island was famous for it’s tuna catches and fishermen. In the 19th Century, a wealthy industrialist, Florio built a major tuna cannery on the island, bringing prosperity to the small island and its inhabitants.<\/p>\n

\"Painting<\/a>
Painting of tuna fishing of the past<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Arabs were here in the early Middle Ages and they brought the ancient fishing technique called Mattanza, trapping scores of bluefish tuna. \u00a0They seemed to be on very long flat boats and they had enormous anchors to hold them fast. \u00a0When they switched to long line boats, many of these anchors came onto the beach – a veritable anchor’s graveyard. \u00a0Behemoth anchors rusting in silvered wood on the beach near the marina.<\/p>\n

\"Anchor<\/a>
Anchor graveyard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We were here on a Sunday, so we weren’t surprised at the number of people riding bikes, scooters and eating gelato even before passeggiata. \u00a0 Just before sunset, a ferry \u00a0came in and engorged a large number of tourists, back to Trapani, home and work on Monday.<\/p>\n

\"Isola<\/a>
Isola Formica, we passed this on the way to San Vito Lo Capo – it is part of the Isole Egadi, and was also the site of a tuna cannery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Monday found us on our way to San Vito lo Capo on the Costa Gaia, one of Italy’s most beautiful beaches. San Vito explodes with colour as you approach the beach before turning into the marina. \u00a0Brightly coloured umbrellas, beach towels and cossies across the light sand beach animate this patch of Sicily’s coast.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The beach at San Vito Lo Capo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unlike most of the ancient ports we visit, San Vito lo Capo seems to have been developed in the early 1950’s. \u00a0The main street reminds me of Coney Island without the rides, lots of lights, souvenir stores and Havianna stores up and down the street. We will explore a bit more today.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first thing we noticed about Favignana, an island 7 kilometres off the coast of Trapani, is the crystal clear water. We look at the plotter, which tells us we are in nine metres of water and we can see the bottom. The clarity is beautiful. We are in Italy’s largest marine reserve. Many of … Continue reading Sicily: Favignana and San Vito lo Capo<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[15,12,14,13],"class_list":["post-618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures-2","tag-beaches","tag-favignana","tag-san-vito-lo-capo","tag-sicily"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3VxXq-9Y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=618"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":635,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618\/revisions\/635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}