Hiera, sacred island, so they called the Greeks. Really, today again, Marettimo you hear something that ancient sacredness along the quiet streets of the pretty village, peering into the faces of the island people who dedicate their lives to the sea and the sea is waiting for the answer to every question.
E’ the second island of Egadi for greatness, after Favignana and before Levanzo, but has a Dolomite mountains and this makes it unique ! It arrives by public transport the Scalo Nuovo and immediately gives the impression of being overwhelmed by the mountain, and looming majestically.
But it is the Scalo Vecchio, on the opposite side, the true harbor of Marettimo fishermen. From here, focusing his gaze northward, It can see Punta Troia who proudly juts out into the sea with its castle built by the Spaniards in the seventeenth century.
Leaving the country, following a trail that climbs up the side of the mountain, one reaches the Romanian Case where are the remains of a Roman building and a small temple dating, probably, to the first centuries of the Christian era to testify that Marettimo was the seat of a Roman garrison.
Returning in the southern part of the country begins the discovery and exploration of the mountain through a road in the first stretch along the sea and then begins to rise at Punta Spinone (m. 320). It has to stop to look towards the sea and enjoy the splendor of Cala Marino. Continue on to the green and silent paths immersed in the beauty of the vegetation incurring a landscape that gradually becomes more rugged and wild, to finally arrive, back down, the Lighthouse of Punta Libeccio.
It will be hard to forget the beautiful vistas, the charm of the place!
HE, on one side, hiking in the mountains, possibly with the help of local people given the sometimes rough and steep paths, allow to know and experience the island in harmony with nature, to discover the peculiarities of the flora of Marettimo which presents numerous species of plants some of which are absent in the rest of Sicily, on the other hand the approach to the island from the sea is stunning beauty.
Starting from the port and sailing towards North, please observe the high cliffs and the rock of the Camel place close to the shore, almost at the entrance of Cave of the Camel where you can enter by boat and reach the pebble beach at the bottom of the cave.
Continuing Punta Troia and passed the promontory, another stop at the Cave of Thunder, in the northern coast ending in Punta Mugnone.
From here it begins the fantastic scenery of the west coast: high rocks, dolomitiche, to peak on a clear water of a deep turquoise, splendid cave, Color intense time now blurred especially at sunset as the light effects created by sunlight against the rocky walls and the water surface.
Cala Bianca dominated by Capo Bianco (m. 400), Grotta Perciata, Cala Bomb and just south of the eponymous cave, and still the Cave of the Nativity within which the rocks, eroded by the sea and wind, They have taken on forms resembling a statue of stalactites and stalagmites that popular imagination has reported a crib figures.
In Cala Spalmatore opens a small beach close to the wind grecale. After Punta Libeccio begins the southern part of the island. The coast always at sea, however, becomes green and proceeds between small coves and ledges until the end of Punta Bassana.
Now it goes back to the harbor, with eyes full of beauty and wonder, with equanimity and, Marettimo, wild and lonely, small sacred island has, unavoidably, established in the minds and hearts.
