Italy
Favignana
A butterfly-shaped island of abandoned tuna traps and coves carved from pale stone quarries.
The sea fills abandoned tufa quarries like natural swimming pools, their walls squared and pale, the water inside transparent to the sandy floor. From the ferry, the island's butterfly silhouette is unmistakable — two wings of rock joined by a narrow isthmus where the town sits.
Favignana is the largest of the Egadi Islands, off Sicily's western coast near Trapani. The island's landscape is shaped by centuries of tufa quarrying — the same soft limestone used to build Trapani's buildings — leaving behind geometric coves that now serve as sheltered swimming spots. Favignana was historically the centre of the Mediterranean's most important mattanza, the annual tuna hunt that operated from the island's Stabilimento Florio, a 19th-century processing factory now converted into a museum. The tonnara tradition, dating to Arab rule, ended here in 2007. Cala Rossa, a former quarry flooded by the sea, is consistently rated among Italy's finest swimming spots.
Couple
Cycling between quarry coves, swimming in water so clear it feels like floating on glass, and dining on tuna in every preparation — Favignana is an island built for two.
Friends
Rent bikes, explore the disused quarries, snorkel Cala Rossa, and end the day with bottarga pasta at the harbour. The island's compact scale keeps everything within easy reach.
Family
The sheltered quarry coves offer calm, shallow water for children, and the tuna museum tells a story of Sicilian maritime culture that engages all ages.
- The old tufa quarries on the southern coast have filled with seawater to create sheltered swimming holes — accessible by bicycle from the village centre.
- The island is flat and cyclable — the full circuit takes under 90 minutes, with several beaches requiring no facilities or infrastructure.
- The Ex Stabilimento Florio, the restored 19th-century tuna processing factory, is now a museum documenting the mattanza trap tradition with original equipment.
- The tufaceous stone quarried here was used to build many of the buildings in Trapani — the angular cut caves left behind are unlike anything else on the Mediterranean.
Bottarga di tonno, tuna roe grated over pasta, intensely savoury and sea-scented.
Fresh tuna in every form: raw, grilled, canned in the old stabilimento, a tuna island tradition.
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