The stunning architecture on Pantelleria is 100% unique to the southern Mediterranean island; Arab, Spanish, Norman and Moorish influences cover the terraced landscape. Modern, luxurious villas belonging to the likes of Giorgio Armani and other international celebrities dot the hills, intermingling with older, traditional homes.
Pantelleria’s pristine coastline is pocketed with scores of underwater caves and no less than four volcanic thermal points where scalding fresh water is pumped out of white hot cracks and holes under the surface.
“L’Italia era una repubblica fondata sul lavoro.”“Italy was a republic founded on work.”
Fisherman toss their lines at the graffitied pier in the small port town of Scauri.
The newly finished port of Scauri, smaller, cleaner and more picturesque than the main port on Pantelleria. Capers and grapevines grow out of the personal gardens in the small town, up into the terraced hills behind it.
Sunset from Scauri
Zibobbo grapes are grown all over the island and used to make Pantelleria’s unique wines, predominantly the famous Moscato Passito.
Pantelleria’s greatest claim to fame, the capers, are found everywhere, intentionally sprawling through gardens, squeezing through cracks in the asphalt and alongside the curving mountain roads. They’re also sold just about everywhere, either fresh (if you’re there at the right time of year), immersed olive oil or packed in salt.
Montagna Grande, the ancient volcano considered sacred by its former Arab inhabitants, towers over the island at 836m (2,743 ft). From its peak, the highest point in the Central Mediterranean, it’s possible to keep watch over the entire Sicilian canal, from Africa to Italy.
As you scale the windy roads up the mountain, it’s like you’ve entered another realm. The flora changes from cacti and palm trees to ancient oak and pine. The temperature drops from searing Mediterranean summer to chilly high altitude fall. And the low-lying clouds form swirling, drifting shrouds of mist.
Lago di Speccio di Venere, or the Lake of Venus’ Mirror, is a saltwater lake located at the foot of Montagna Grande. Its warm water and volcanic muds have numerous therapeutic properties.Caper plants stretch out in the foreground.
A faint full moon over the port of Pantelleria
Pantelleria is closer to Africa than it is to Italy and immigrants’ abandoned boats litter the port. The boat above, is named “Nahd”, meaning “wander” in Arabic.
Few places on earth does such privilege sit so close to such destitution. The boat in the foreground belonged to a group of immigrants, the one in the background a private yacht. Not pictured, but anchored next to the yacht in the background, is Giorgio Armani’s massive black streamlined yacht, which made the yacht in the photo look like a child’s toy.(Unintentionally providing a ironic contrast of interpretation, the immigrants’ boat is named Sa’aida, which means happy.)
Watching the sun ease west from the mouth of one of Pantelleria’s natural literally-inside-the-mountain saunas, at the foothills of Montagna Grande.
Pantelleria’s original name, Bent-el-Rhia, is Arabic for daughter of the wind. Even though the island is typically windblown with the hot and humid Scirocco winds from Africa in the summer, or the cold and dry Maestrale in the winter, when I left, there wasn’t even a whisper of wind and the sea was as smooth as olive oil.
