Last minute package: vacation travel in Europe
Pelagie Islands in Italy: Lampedusa and Linosa, two steps away from Africa
Closer to Africa than to Sicily and Italy, they are one of the unspoiled and less beaten destinations in Italy. Lampedusa, Linosa and Lampione are a paradise for diving lovers and people looking for adventure and relax out of the world.
The small archypelago of Pelagie Islands, in the Sicily strait, is formed by Lampedusa and Linosa islands and by Lampione rock. These are the most extreme Italian lands, they lay under the Tunisi parallel and have an African taste, their astonishing beauty is sour and unique, their landscapes are no way inferior to tropical paradises.
Lampedusa is the lasgest island (20,2 square kilometers) and its Byzantine-Greek name "Lopadusa" means "rich of shellfishes". It used to be a shelter and a strategic position for pirates in their raids on Sicilian coasts. 113 km far from African coasts and 205 km from Sicilians, Lampedusa belongs to the submerged platform of African continent, with which it shares the mite climate the whole year long, the flora and the fauna that recall the Libyan and Tunisian ones. It rises up to a hundred meters then suddenly falls headlong into the sea. Therefore it has the form of a hardly eroded triangle leaning from North-West, where we see the highest peak (Albero Sole), to South-East.
It has 26 kilometers of coasts, the Northern one is characterised by high and jaggy vertical cliffs and marine caves; the Southern and Eastern coasts open in many marvellous sandy bays surrounded by white backdrops of rocks shaped by athmospherical agents and by some hard peaks stretching forward in the sea. The Southern beaches of thin golden sand are the most precious patrimony of Lampedusa: Cala Maluk, Cala Croce, the well-known Baia dei Conigli (Rabbits Bay), Cala Gutgia, Cala Galera and Cala Greca offer marvellous beaches and a sea taking on a thousand emerald reflexes. Beaches can be reached driving the asphalted street along the coast and then following the short paths taking to the sea. The "Rabbits' Island" (once tied to the mainland) emerges at the Eastern culmination of the homonymous bay and it hosts a real rarity: the Algerian Psammodromo, a small brindled lizard typical of Magreb countries and only present in Italy on this little island.
North-East from Lampedusa stands out Linosa, black and perturbing. Its waters are as transparent as crystal, so beautiful and with such visibility to find no comparison in the whole Mediterranean sea. It raises from the depth and has volcanic origins. The black and jagged coasts constantly opening in bays and banks, make it a paradise for a few chosen people. Paradises for divers are the Tramontana Banks, the Archi, the swimmingpool of the Conte and the unforgottable bank of Pietro Truccio.
Lampione is hardly more than a rock in the sea. The legend says that it was originated by a stone fallen from the hands of a Cyclop. The only sign of man is a lighthouse, it is part of the Natural Reserve, what means that no activity beside scientific research is allowed. Lampione plunges 60 meters almost vertically in the sea, thereby its depths are unspoiled, a real paradise for divers who can meet here groupers, aragosts, yellow and pink coral and even some gray sharks.
