Page 156 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

shady garden courtyard. Restaurant Mon & Wed–Sun lunch & dinner. €70

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Ustica

A turtle-shaped volcanic island, 60km northwest of Palermo, USTICA is ideal for a
few days’ rest and recreation. The island’s fertile nine square kilometres are just right
for a ramble, and what it lacks in sandy beaches it more than makes up for in the
limpid waters of a marine reserve that many consider to provide the best snorkelling

and dive-sites in the Mediterranean. If tourism has rescued isolated Ustica, it has also
been at the risk of spoiling its charms – the population of 1300 quadruples in the
summer months, and you’ll see the island at its best if you can avoid coming in August.

Brief history

Colonized originally by the Phoenicians, the island was known to the Greeks as

Osteodes, or “ossuary”, a reference to the remains of six thousand Carthaginians they
found here, abandoned to die on the island after a rebellion. Its present name is
derived from the Latin ustum – “burnt” – on account of its blackened, lava-like
appearance. Ustica had a rough time throughout the Middle Ages, its sparse population
constantly harried by pirates who used the island as a base. In the Bourbon period the

island was commandeered as a prison for political enemies, a role it continued to play
until well into the twentieth century – Antonio Gramsci, the great theorist of the Italian
Communist Party, was interned here in 1926, while Mussolini similarly exiled many
other political prisoners. Only in recent decades has Ustica shaken off its chains and
become a holiday destination.

Ustica town

USTICA TOWN is built on a steep slope, many of its low buildings covered in