Page 463 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

Italian troops were mobilized and Sicily was on a virtual war-footing for three days,

though in the event the missiles dropped into the sea short of the island. In recent
years, the island has been the site of detention centres for enormous numbers of
immigrants from Africa, either dumped here by unscrupulous people-traffickers, or
intercepted at sea by naval vessels. Often they stay for months on end – kept firmly out
of sight of tourists – until the legal processes for their inevitable repatriation are

completed.

GETTING TO THE PELAGIE ISLANDS

The quickest way to Lampedusa is to fly from Palermo or Catania with Darwin
Airline ( darwinairline.it). Tickets cost from €60 one-way, and are cheapest

booked online. Otherwise, there are ferries and hydrofoils from Porto Empedocle
(6km southwest of Agrigento and connected to it by frequent buses). Siremar (
siremar.it) ferries leave Porto Empedocle year-round at midnight daily except
Friday, calling at Linosa (5hr 45min) and Lampedusa (8hr 15min). You can buy

tickets online or at the port, with one-way tickets starting at around €40 to Linosa, or
€50 to Lampedusa, including use of a poltrona (reclining chair); shared and
exclusive-use cabins are also available. Ustica Lines ( usticalines.it) operates
hydrofoils six times a week (not Tues) from May to October, departing Porto
Empedocle at 3pm and arriving in Linosa three hours later and Lampedusa about
four hours later; one-way tickets are around €40 to Linosa, €60 to Lampedusa.

Lampedusa

LAMPEDUSA is the largest of the Pelagie Islands (23 square kilometres), and is
inhabited by around 5000 people, most based in the town of the same name. Many still
earn a living from fishing, but most depend on the influx of tourists who swell the

population to around 20,000 every August. This is a comparatively recent
phenomenon, since Lampedusa has either been largely uninhabited or long-neglected
by Sicily’s rulers. In 1667 it passed into the hands of the Tomasi family (as in
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, of The Leopard fame), one of whose descendants
attempted to sell the island to Queen Victoria in 1839, when it still had only twenty or
so inhabitants. The queen lost out on the sale (at a cost of twelve million ducats) to

Ferdinand II, the Neapolitan king, who was finally stirred into action at the prospect of
losing such a scraggy but strategically important island.

Lampedusa is long, thin, flat and very dry, though the pristine waters offer some of
the best swimming, snorkelling and diving in the Mediterranean. There are excellent
beaches, almost all found on the south coast, and some fantastic swimming coves and

grottoes. Dolphins are often seen, there’s a sperm whale migration in March, and an