Walking in Sicily by Gillian Price

Author:Gillian Price
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: guide
ISBN: 9781783621170
Publisher: Cicerone Press
Published: 2000-10-11T22:00:00+00:00

Swimming completed, you need the ascent path heading up the wide valley at the rear of the bay to a lane due south between dry stone walls bordering fields of cultivated cereals. All but derelict 19th-century Villa Florio is passed, and through disused rambling farm premises a road of sorts is reached. Close by is the signed path for the detour to the lovely setting of curious square-based tower Torre Saracena, which occupies a 140m high hillock strategically overlooking the southern approach to the island (15min return).

Take the dirt road west now a brief way to a three-way intersection, where you need the right turn (north) across the cultivated central plain. A quarter of an hour on is the signed lane left (northwest) for the Grotta del Genovese.

(The road, on the other hand, proceeds northish along the elevated windswept ridge leading to Capo Grosso and the abandoned lighthouse – 1hr return).

At a pine copse and stone enclosure labelled Loc. Carvunere, a path breaks off in the direction of Cala Tramontana (worth a side trip), while the rocky lane climbs a little, skirting Pizzo Monaco, the highest point on the island at 278m. About 10min on, at 170m and with views over to Marettimo, the track as such terminates. There is a glimpse of a headland below west-soutwest, the site of the cave. A fairly decent path plunges down the hillside through scrubby vegetation brightened by the miniature iris known as the Barbary Nut. Old stone terracing is traversed and waymarking comes in the form of the occasional iron pole. About halfway you veer sharp left alongside the headland housing the cave. The picturesque inlet is thick with screeching seagulls, who make no bones about dive-bombing intruders who inadvertently wander in the proximity of their defenceless, flightless scruffy grey chicks camouflaged amongst the rocks. Dark green oyster plants and moisture-seeking ferns are bunched around the entrance to the Grotta del Genovese (2hr 30min). It is also overhung by dripping dissolved limestone, fortunately confined to the exterior, leaving the paintings and implements unharmed inside. The innermost cavern is accessed via a low corridor, closed off by a sturdy metal door, understandably locked at all times.

After the visit, unless you’re equipped for the tiring clamber around the rocks to where the track picks up at the Faraglione, climb back up the path to the lane and turn right (south) across the headland dotted with asphodels. There’s a gradual descent through a circumscribed wood, before a traverse of old terracing and a couple of ingenious dry stone constructions for collecting water channelled into cisterns. Some 30min along a huddle of old stone buildings and fencing are reached, beneath the Pietre Varate crest and repeater. From the lowest hut a path drops seawards (past a turn-off right for a rocky bay), curving southeast towards the Faraglione island landmark. This stretch is very pretty as it zigzags down a flank akin to a veritable rock garden, dominated by clumps of lilac-pink scabious-like blooms on woody shrubs.

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