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Visit Ustica
Ustica is located about 70 km northwest of Palermo and about 100 km northwest of Alicudi, and it is the last of the Aeolian Islands. It occupies an area of about 9 square kilometers.
Ustica is best known as a 'paradise for skin-divers', and indeed it is. However, in recent years the discoveries made (thanks to the work of Professor R. Ross Holloway) have taught us a great deal about the island from the cultural point of view. In this sense, the discovery of several prehistoric villages was a real historic event.
Hence a visit to Ustica can start with the prehistoric village of the “Faraglioni”, a big village characterized by reinforced fortress walls about one metre high and six meters thick. The wall enclosed a village of circular or quadrilateral huts, grouped side by side and rich with ceramics such as jars, cups, trays, tanks, grinders and tools - with clear references to the Mycenaean culture. This village, together with that of "Omo Morto", shows that during the Bronze Age, around 1450-1250 BC, Ustica benefited from its location along the routes of obsidian and other trades. The mighty walls, built following the construction techniques of Mycenae and dating back to the Middle Bronze Age constitute the tangible proof of the new state of insecurity in which Sicily found itself follwing the arrival of the Mycenaeans.
Another important site created by the ancient inhabitants of Ustica is a village built on the Falconiera rock, lying near the Roman tombs. The ancient fortress, later strengthened under the Bourbons, was built on a site dating from the 3rd century BC. The ancient founders, adapting to a clear need for security, leveled the top of the mountain, gaining three terraces on which they built troglodytic houses, connecting the various different levels with steps carved into the rock which came down to the sea. All the facilities needed for the life of the settlement were dug into the rock, such as tanks for water storage, and in which various tools made of bronze and fragments of pottery of the Roman imperial age have been found, attesting to a human presence from the IV-III century BC to the first century AD. A votive pit contained hundreds of clay objects relating to the Punic period has also been found.
Underwater archeology has also been fundamental to the discovery of the ancient settlements of Ustica, which was a major site for ancient maritime trade. Particularly suggestive is the so-called "Antiquarium" of “Torre Santa Maria”, which offers visitors a vast collection of amphorae and anchor stocks from the Roman Age, prehistoric triangular stone anchors, amphorae and strains of the Punic Age, two bronze helmets of the Roman Republican age, a Byzantine iron anchor and many guns.
Also on Ustica, don't miss the medieval ruins such as the Benedictine Monastery, or "Monasterium Sancte Marie de Ustica" and the remains of the Monastery Church on the outskirts of the country. The Bourbon fortifications are also an interesting destination to visit, as is the necropolis of the fourth to sixth centuries AD with graves dating from the prehistoric period to the Phoenicians and the Greeks. Finally, there is also a Byzantine village, which became a Bourbon military emplacement in the late eighteenth century.
Ustica is also significant from a nature-lovers point of view. In addition to the Mediterranean bush, full of pine, cypress, eucalyptus, oaks, mastic, euphorbia, wild olive, broom, Ustica offers favorable conditions for varied and interesting marine species, and they are a favorite destination for scuba diving. In Ustica there are numerous caves, such as the "Grotta Azzurra" or "Water Cave", the "Grotta di San Francesco il Vecchio", "Grotta della pastizza", "Cave of the Boats", "Green Cave" and the so-called " Shrimp Cave", especially popular among sport divers.
To finish your tour of Ustica we strongly recommend a "gourmet" detour, perhaps with a taste of the famous "Ustica lentils" (with which the "lentil soup" is made), while also worthy of mention are the dishes of lobster, crab, squid and shellfish.
See also history of Ustica.
See the the Sicily travel guide for more places to visit in the same region as Ustica.