Sicily's butterfly island — white pumice cliffs, transparent Aegean water, and the last tuna mattanza fishing tradition in the Mediterranean
Favignana is the largest of the Egadi Islands (15 km² off the western tip of Sicily, 30 minutes by ferry from Trapani), shaped like a butterfly in profile — its two 'wings' are the eastern flat farmland plateau and the western rocky headlands with the island's finest coves. The water colour at Favignana is genuinely exceptional — a combination of white pumice seabed, shallow depth, and Mediterranean clarity creates greens and blues more associated with the Maldives than the European coast. The island's former economy was built on two industries: pumice quarrying (the cliffs are composed of vo…
Favignana's offshore waters were the site of the Battle of the Egadi Islands (241 BCE), where the Roman fleet defeated the Carthaginians to end the First Punic War — the largest naval battle of antiquity. Roman and Carthaginian ship rams from the battle are still being recovered from the seabed and displayed in the Museo Regionale in Trapani. The island was subsequently Saracen, Norman, and Aragonese before becoming a Bourbon prison island — the Forte di Santa Caterina that dominates the hill above Favignana town housed political prisoners through the 19th century.