Italy
Marettimo
No cars, no hotels, just fishermen's paths above the sea on the farthest Egadi island.
The ferry leaves the other Egadi Islands behind and pushes west into open water. Marettimo appears as a single dark ridge, steep and treeless on its seaward face. The harbour is a crescent of blue and white boats, the village a cluster of flat-roofed houses with no road connecting them to anywhere else.
Marettimo is the most remote of the Egadi Islands, lying roughly 30 kilometres off Sicily's western coast. There are no cars on the island and no hotels — accommodation is in rented fishermen's houses. A network of footpaths, once used by shepherds and smugglers, threads the island's limestone spine from sea level to the 686-metre peak of Monte Falcone, passing the ruins of a Norman castle and a Roman-period structure. The surrounding waters are part of the Egadi Marine Protected Area, one of the largest in the Mediterranean, and the sea caves along the western coast — Grotta del Cammello, Grotta della Pipa — are accessible only by boat. The island's permanent population numbers fewer than 300.
Solo
Marettimo is the island for those who want to disappear. No cars, no crowds, just walking paths above the sea and evenings at the harbour with fish couscous and a book.
Couple
The isolation is the point. Renting a fisherman's house, hiking to empty coves, and eating whatever the boats brought in that morning creates a stripped-back intimacy impossible to replicate on more developed islands.
- The island has 30km of hiking paths connecting ancient settlements — no cars, minimal signage in places, the routes requiring map reading on the longer sections.
- The waters around Marettimo are part of a marine protected area — snorkelling over posidonia meadows with grouper, moray, and sea bream from the rocks at the village.
- The Castello di Punta Troia, an Arab-Norman fortress on the northeast headland, is reached by a two-hour coastal path with sea views on both sides throughout.
- The village has a single harbour, a handful of restaurants, and boat-to-cave excursions — the quietest of the three Egadi islands by significant margin.
Fish couscous at the harbour, the broth ladled from a communal pot.
Freshly caught grouper grilled whole, served with capers and wild fennel from the hillside.
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