Favignana and Levanzo in view from an airliner
Favignana, that the Greeks called Aegusa and in the Middle Ages took its current name from the wind Favonius, It resembles a large butterfly coming to rest quietly on the Mediterranean waters.
Waters that still evoke history stories and myth, they hide in their depths the secrets of ancient battles, how terrible Battle of the Egadi of the 241 a. C. Cala Rossa fought between the Romans and Carthaginians, waters still freighted voices, chants, the cries of the people of the sea engaged in thousands and thousands "tuna fishing", the ancient and traditional tuna fishing learned from the Arabs.
Who reach Favignana there first notice the elegance and lightness of Palazzo Florio, built in 1876 circa.
At the Florio family the island has tied its prosperity from the second half of the 800 until the first decades of this century.
The palace is definitely a symbol of the island. From here you can start your tour of the country and, following the main road, get to the heart of island life, Piazza Madrice, where everything happens.
On the right of the square you will enter through the streets of St. Anne neighborhood, the oldest part of the village built in the mid 1600, where among the simple houses built in tuff hide beautiful gardens underground from which the scent of fruit trees and flowering plants, the smells of herbs: salvia, rosemary, Origan…
Just outside the, on the north-eastern side, throughout the area S. Nicola has to be explored to find in caves signs of prehistoric paintings and engravings of the Punic period and the remains of ancient Punic and Christian tombs.
At first glance, the island appears barren, with little vegetation and flat in the landscape, and yet, Favignana as it can be discovered by those who want to meet you, easily he reveals all its beauty, fascinates him with the clarity of its sea, catch it with the silence of its creeks, it amazes me with the colors of his campaign.
Cala Rossa, view from the sea or, suddenly, Angle of its rocks is simply an emotion, an invaluable gift of nature to man's view; Cala d'Azur, Grotta Perciata, the beautiful white Beach Ravine, Cala Stornello protected by small islands Preveto, Galera and Galeotta, Cala Rotonda friendly and collection: these are the most popular places to take invigorating sea baths.
The island's northern end is marked by Punta Faraglione. From Stack, alto 34 meters overlooking the sea, begins the northwest coast the most inaccessible part of the island, dominated by Montagna Grossa on whose side you are caves and caverns. But the only real mountain is Mount Favignana that bisects the island and the top of which stands the Fort St. Catherine, built by Roger II the Norman in the twelfth century, expanded and fortified in the seventeenth century. by the Spanish, which seems to watch over the life of Favignana and ensure, silent, on the stretch of sea enclosed by the Egadi, precious gems of the Mediterranean.
tuff He has represented in the past, along with fishing and agriculture, one of the most important economic resources for the people of Favignana. The tuff Favignana, cut into blocks or "cantuni" was in fact exported in Sicily and North Africa. Today the quarries, in the north-eastern area, contribute to a very unique and original landscape. The open quarries of the area S. Nicola still testify to the effort and the work of the quarrymen, of tuff cutters and carters; the great sinking into the ground in the district of St. Anne and the neighboring country have now become containers of gardens and orchards, and enclose a great life underground protected from tufa stone walls and hidden from the eyes of the passer that will specifically go hence looking to discover their beauty.
The incredible architecture, almost towers and mighty pillars hewn into the tufa rock in the area Horse and Cala Rossa, create an unnatural landscape of extraordinary beauty. And yet the great tunnels dug for hundreds of meters open like huge mouths, dark and silent in the cliffs that overlook the beautiful beach of Cala Rossa.
Favignana immediate impression at the sight of those who landed the royalty of Tonnara Florio. It can happen, today again, the visitor who is in the island to be woken at dawn on a fine May day by an animated shouting, the sound of the sea beaten by large oars: are the tuna fishermen who, led by Rais, out to sea for The "slaughter", tuna fishing.
They perform the same gestures, speak the same prayers, sing the same "cialome" for centuries; They have the same voltage in expectation of the fishing, They feel the same effort during the "slaughter", They feel the same joy, After hours of grueling work, back toward the trap with boats laden with grossi tonni. Aware of these men have done, Once again, as for centuries, an ancient ritual whose origin is difficult to trace in time. A ritual that has in it something sacred, that takes place every spring but that marks the life of the island and in the past has determined the wealth.
The Tonnara Florio, superb example of industrial archeology, overlooking the port of Favignana, like a cathedral on the sea to which the islanders reported all their life in the period of greatest glory, When, fishing, followed tuna processing and canning fish.
Today is a beautiful Museum of the Sicilian Region appointed its own: FORMER FACTORY OF FLORIO TONNARE FAVIGNANA AND ANT
And not far from the island great, in un’altra isoletta, Formica, another trap which occupies the entire surface, It is a testimony to the abundance of fish in the past and the importance of the activities related to it.
