Favignana is known as the Aegadian islands' butterfly thanks to its shape that features wings stretching on the sea.
Well-known since the oldest of ages, it owns its name to the wind Favonio, which ceaselessly blows on its coasts and has fostered the flourishing of the island's flora and the development of unique, marvelous hypogeum gardens. However, Favignana is better known for its inhabitants' entrepreneurial attitude, which has given life to tuna fishing activities and tufa-digging from many caves, giving the soil its peculiar aspect. Red tunas swim along the route that starts at Lilibeo, reaches San Vito and proceeds as far as Capo Peloro, beyond the Straits, and ends at Capo Passero. However, the tuna fish find their most congenial environment near the Aegadian Islands and along the Trapani's coastline as the Arabs, who first started the fishing activity and the tuna commerce, had understood. This occupation became part and parcel of Favignana's identity down to the 19th century, when the whole archipelago became the property of the Florio family and the tuna fishery became a very modern enterprise. Now the fishery is a shrine to what is used to be. It consists of a complex of very different buildings and expository rooms housing documents and relics of the various phases of the tuna-fishing business. The most surprising feature of this charming place is the progressive reopening of the immense Camparia, thriving again with activities, whereas for years it had been for long and unused. Our private guided tour offers the chance of visiting some wings of the complex which are still being restored to enjoy the same sea and coast views which the tonnaroti saw while working.
Favignana doesn't only mean tuna-fishing. Tufa-digging has given a peculiar identity to the island's landscapes and positively affected the inhabitants' way of living until the 20th century. During their stay in the island, visitors can have an opportunity to visit some tufa-caves, namely the ones where, strangely enough, the vegetation, was sheltered from the wind that blows incessantly. Extraordinary people, such as the naïf artist Rosario Santamaria, mixed their lives with the tufa dust, creating pieces by far more interesting that bricks. Favignana's story is a charming tale. It ranges from ancient history to contemporary struggles. It is the chronicle of an island lived by people cut out for entrepreneurial living in an unforgettable natural environment.
