TrapaniPantelleria.
Although the sea around the island abounds in fish, few of the inhabitants work as fishermen. The fish are caught by the great fleets from Mazara del Vallo. The inhabitants of Pantelleria love to cultivate their island, so much so they have stripped it of trees. Most of the grapes produced by the vines are used for wine-making. The local capers, which are grown in hundreds of tons, have become world-famous and provide a considerable source of income. The quality of the agricultural produce is due to the island's volcanic nature - it was in fact formed by two explosive eruptions from the abysses of the sea (the first in the Triassic) at a depth of about 2000 m, in the area between Sicily and Africa. Montagna Grande, 826 m, was one of the oldest eruptions and itself provided volcanic material completing the island. Monte Gibele’, 700 m, has kept its crater-shaped peak. Monte Cuddia Attalora, 560 m, has created an extraordinary lava landscape. There is still some minor volcanic activity on the island at thefavare (hot springs). Pantelleria was already inhabited in the Neolithic period: at Mursia there are traces of a boundary wall and a village; there were also some mysterious constructions, called Sesi, in dry stone and circular in fonn, probably used as burial grounds. Just one remains. In the early historical period, its position in the Mediterranean certainly led to its being used first by Phoenician and then by Carthaginian merchants, until it was first taken by the Romans in 254 BC and again in 217 BC. The Romans called the island Cossyra. Remains of buildings and mosaic floors testify to the presence of the Romans until the late Imperial age. The attribution to the Carthaginian period of some walls in the San Marco and Santa Teresa localities seems unjustified; there are however other items (a small female head, jewels, necklaces, coins and an aryballus -in the Palermo Archaeological Museurn), which indicate a long period of settlement by the Phoenicians, al be it not in great number. After the Romans, the island was conquered by the Vandals, the Byzantines, the Arabs and finally the Normans, who annexed it to Sicily in 1113. The Arabs called it Bent el rion ("daughter of the wind", an apt name). For centuries the island was a corsairs' paradise and it was repeatedy sacked; it was also pillaged, very savagely, by the Turks in 1550 and again in 1553.

Our visit to Pantelleria begins immediately if we arrive by sea. The town spreads out around its port (there is another port at Scàuri). To the left is the castle Barbacane powerful in appearance and of uncertain origin, several times destroyed and rebuilt (by those who had destroyedi t); it is extremely likely that Frederick II of Swabia had something to do with the castle -his passion for fortifications is well known, and we should be grate- ful to him. The town of Pantelleria that we see today is completely new and not very attractive, unlike the beautiful old town which was destroyed by Allied bombs in World War II. By car (to be hired on the island) or on foot (but in several stages), we can go around the island in clockwise direction. We shall see, in order, the legendary Lago or Specchio di Venere (Lake or Pool of Venus), 1800 m in circumference, 615 m long, 425 m wide, and the villages of Tràcino and Khamma, where there is a church built in the 18th c. in the shape of a dammuso (the local style of house, with its characteristic flattened dome root); at Tràcino the rows of houses are all dammusi that can be rented. Stretching from Tràcino out to the sea, is the arco con la proboscide di elefante (elephant trunk arch). Looking left, at Cala Levante and Cala Tramontana, we see the most beautiful sea of the whole island. This is where various names in show business, entertainment and fashion have their villas. At this point, map in hand, you can proceed as you like in your exploration of the island. Sooner or later, however, you must visit, Sese, between Punta Fram and Mursia, in a beautiful landscape of black, green, ochre and blue. The Seses, built by a mysterious unknown people, used to be very numerous but the stones have been taken away for other constructions, as has happened to many temples and castles (even the Colosseum!). Walking here and there you may come upon not only volcanic stones and rocks (quartz, opal, resinites) but also items dating from various ages - fragments of amphoras, parts of pillar- capitals, cistems, etc.