Pantelleria Island Park

Access

The National Park on the island of Pantelleria can only be reached by air or sea. The island has its own airport with daily flights from Trapani and Palermo all year round; in summer there are direct connections from the main Italian cities (Milan-Malpensa, Rome-Fiumicino, Bergamo-Orio al Serio, Venice, Bologna, Turin). Maritime connections depart from the port of Trapani: the Caronte&Tourist ferry, carrying passengers and vehicles, operates all year round with one or two daily trips - the night crossing takes about 6-7 hours; the Liberty Lines hydrofoil, passenger only, takes about 2 hours and 30 minutes and operates during the summer (June to September). Pantelleria is 110km from the Sicilian coast and 65km from the Tunisian coast; on a clear day, Tunisia is visible to the naked eye. The island's main port is in the town of Pantelleria; the secondary port of Scauri serves as an alternative in the event of bad weather. The headquarters of the Park Authority is located in the municipality of Pantelleria. The main visitor centre is located near the Punta Spadillo lighthouse, from where the main excursions depart. An ASTP bus service operates on the island, connecting the port with the main centres; car or scooter hire is recommended for internal mobility.

Introduction

The National Park of the Island of Pantelleria was established by Decree of the President of the Republic of 28 July 2016, published in the Official Gazette no. 235 of 7 October 2016, and is the penultimate Italian national park in chronological order, as well as the first in Sicily. The park covers 80% of the island's surface area - some 6,762 hectares out of an island total of 8,453 hectares - and involves the sole municipality of Pantelleria, in the province of Trapani. The island is an active volcano in the Sicilian Channel, a few kilometres from the deepest oceanic trench in the western Mediterranean, with a geological origin and biodiversity marked by the meeting of European and African biogeographical domains. The park's landscape is unique among Italian parks: it is not untouched nature, but the millennial fusion of the natural environment and traditional agricultural culture, shaped by volcanic lava and the centuries-long work of the people of Pantelleria. Pantelleria's bush vine cultivation - a UNESCO Intangible World Heritage Site since 2014 - is its most emblematic expression.

Description

Pantelleria is an island of volcanic origin, which emerged through the accumulation of materials erupted over millions of years. The volcano, classified as active with residual activity (fumaroles, mofettes, thermal waters), has shaped a landscape dominated by black lava substrates, volcanic cones known as cuddies, basaltic flows, crater amphitheatres and volcanic lakes. The highest peak is Montagna Grande (836m); other significant reliefs are Monte Gibele and numerous cuddies that punctuate the landscape with their conical shapes. The coast is high and rocky almost everywhere, lacking sandy beaches, with sheer cliffs hiding coves accessible only by sea or by rocky paths; exceptions are a few short bays such as Cala Gadir, Cala Tramontana and Cala Cinque Denti. The Arch of the Elephant, a basaltic stack that forms a natural arch over the sea, is the island's landscape symbol.

Remain volcanism is manifested in the favours - powerful jets of water vapour mixed with minerals that escape from the cracks in the rock, with temperatures of up to 100°C - distributed throughout the island and particularly concentrated on the eastern slope of the Montagna Grande. The thermal waters are present both on land and on the seabed; in some coves, the volcanic heat of the seabed can be felt while bathing. The Bagno dell'Acqua Lake (or Venus Mirror) - occupying the crater of a volcano in the central part of the island, at an altitude of 72m - is a caldera of about 4 hectares with highly mineralised waters and high temperatures; around the lake are deposits of clayey mud of volcanic origin used for therapeutic purposes. The Benikuà Cave (or the Natural Sauna of Sibà) is a rock cavity from which vapours escape at around 40°C, and has been used since ancient times as a natural steam bath.

The vegetation is characteristic of Mediterranean scrub with an African imprint, with the prevalence of species that reflect the North African biogeographical affiliation of the island. From the coast up to 250m, low garrigue with Periploca laevigata and Euphorbia regis-jubae dominates; as one ascends, one encounters shrub scrub with maritime pines (Pinus pinaster), Aleppo pine (Pinus pinaster), stone pine (Pinus d'Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) and holm oak (Quercus ilex); above 500m and in the valleys there are pure ilex groves. The climactic vegetation is represented by holm oak and tree heath formation, with the presence of strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) and mastic tree (Pistacia lentiscus). 71.1% of the entire island surface is covered by agricultural terracing, even in the most inaccessible areas of each slope and on all volcanic substrates: one of the highest percentages of terracing for any Mediterranean island. The flora has endemisms that are exclusive to the island - neo-genic, i.e. recently evolved - that include species of insects, some plants and other organisms found nowhere else in the world. Capers (Capparis spinosa), both wild and cultivated throughout the territory, are one of the island's best-known products (PGI).

The fauna is marked by the island's position on the main migratory routes between Europe and Africa: 260 species of birds have been recorded, many of them in transit in spring and autumn. At Lake Bagno dell'Acqua one can observe grey and red herons (Ardea cinerea and A. purpurea), pink flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus), black-winged stilts and storks. The Queen's falcon (Falco eleonorae) - a species that nests on the Mediterranean coast and winters in Madagascar - regularly frequents the skies of the island during migration. The Algerian Quince (Cyanistes teneriffae ultramarinus) and the Iberian Beakwing (Cisticola juncidis cisticola) nest on the island: in Europe, they nest here and in very few other isolated sites. As for reptiles, the Hemorrhois hippocrepis snake is reported, an Ibero-Sardo-Maghreb species present on Pantelleria as the only Italian station. Among the arthropods, 1,096 species have been counted, with 14 endemisms exclusive to the island.

The cultural identity of Pantelleria is inseparable from its agricultural landscape. The dammuso - a traditional dwelling in lava stone with domed or terraced roofs to collect rainwater and walls up to 1.5m thick for thermal insulation - is the island's characteristic architectural form, of Arab derivation (8th-10th century AD) and still widespread in thousands of examples. Dry-stone walls in unworked lava stone, recognised in the National Register of Historic Rural Landscapes, support the terracing on all slopes. Pantelleria gardens - uncovered circular lava stone constructions designed to protect a single citrus tree from violent winds - are another characteristic architectural form. The cultivation of bush-trained vines (Vitis vinifera) in typical hollows in the ground - introduced by the Phoenicians and perfected in later centuries - enables the plants to resist strong winds and water shortages: the technique was included in the UNESCO Intangible Heritage List in 2014. The Zibibbo grape variety is used to produce Passito di Pantelleria DOC and Moscato di Pantelleria DOC, sweet wines of international renown. Historic sites include the Seses - Bronze Age (circa 1800-1200 BC) mound tombs of truncated cone shape, built of lava blocks stacked dry - found in numerous examples on the island, of which the Sese di Bugeber is the largest and best preserved.

The park's hiking network includes 21 CAI routes and three thematic routes dedicated to the alberello vine, geovolcanology and archaeology; the Cammino Pantesco is a circular route that circumnavigates the island on foot.