Capo Passero Island
The island of Capo Passero overlooks the town of Portopalo di Capopassero , is surrounded by amber beaches of very fine sand that go gently to degrading to the seabed and overlooking a crystalline sea.
The island, washed by the Ionian Sea, extends for 35 hectares and is separated from the mainland by a shallow strip of sea. Until the mid-eighteenth century it was connected to the mainland by a thin sandy isthmus, which connected it to the Spiaggia del Collo, located in the immediate vicinity of the center of Portopalo. In fact, in ancient maps, the current island of Capo Passero was indicated as a small rocky promontory that formed a peninsula extending towards the east. Subsequently, the currents will have determined the submersion of this strip of sand, thus forming the current channel.
From the mooring point of the boats, a path of about 800 meters leads towards the hinterland of the island. the warehouses of the old tonnara , where the tools of the Tonnara di Portopalo were kept, the ruins of a church dedicated to the Madonna del Carmelo , built in the seventeenth century, before reaching the Forte di Capo Passero , a valuable work of military architecture of the 17th century, which dominates the whole island, and to the Virgin Mary Scala del Paradiso , a bronze statue made by Mario Ferretti and erected in 1959, which overlooks the whole island, a gaze that "protects" navigators and the town of Portopalo.
The vegetation of Capo Passero is characterized by types of plants that stand out for their ability to adaptation to conditions of severe dryness. In the central part of the island we find the Gariga in Palma Nana, typical of rocky areas. In correspondence with the sandy dunes, present in the southern area of Capo Passero, there is halophilic vegetation, consisting of the Gramigna of the beaches, the Giglio marino, the Salsola, the Euphorbia and the Ravastrello marittimo.
The rocky area, the one to the north -east, is instead populated by rupicolous species such as the Limonio sinuato, the sea fennel and the Salicornia.
The island can be reached by canoe, pedal boat or with a small fishing boat that carries out transport to and from the island throughout the day at set times. In addition, the island can be reached from the submerged channel that connects it to the mainland, which can be easily explored during low tide or by swimming. To visit the rocky area and explore the many sea caves, such as the Octopus cave , which offer plays of light generated by the reflections of the sea, a boat tour of the island is recommended.
