Zingaro, a Sicilian coastal paradise

The horizon is breathtaking; the sea a stunning blue. Dozens of bathers crowd the arch of Cala Tonnarella dell’Uzzo, a tiny beach carved out of a sublime fragment of the Sicilian coastline. There is not a parasol in sight; this is a protected area. The authorities have banned them, allowing the sun to regulate the crowds – 250,000 visitors a year, almost half of them in July and August. How many of them know to whom they owe the existence of this paradise, ranked 10th in 2023^and most beautiful beach on the continent according to the European Best Destinations website?

The Zingaro Reserve was created as a result of a battle won in 1981 against influential forces when Sicily, under the influence of the mafia, was overrun by concrete development. The unexpected victory prevented the construction of a road and made it possible to preserve seven kilometers of coastline and 1,600 hectares of scrubland.

“I have no idea how they did it, but I’m glad they did!” said 33-year-old Marta Alessi. The anesthetist followed the informal ritual that governs the place: arrive early, leave your car at the entrance, pay the obligatory €5 entrance fee, run along the access path to one of the seven coves and pray to the Madonna that there will be a small piece of pebble left to lay your towel on. Beyond the beaches, the landscape is covered with shrubs and cacti, the kingdom of a rare bird of prey, the Bonelli’s eagle. Zingaro, Italian for “gypsy”, is also home to the dwarf palm, an endemic species that can withstand summer fires.

The causes of these summer fires, exacerbated by global warming, are surrounded by rumours. Even the reserve’s director, Pietro Miceli, is not very forthcoming on the subject, or on any other subject. “I can’t explain the cause of the fires,” he said. When asked about Zingaro’s budget, which goes mainly to pay the salaries of its 50 or so employees, he replied: “About €1 million a year, but it varies.” We left his office, decorated with a portrait of the president of the republic – local boy Sergio Mattarella – with a feeling of incompleteness.

The road that ended abruptly

It is a specialty of the island: the undiscovered Sicilian (“the unfinished Sicilian”), as locals call the difficulty of finishing things – from conversations to construction. An example of this is the road, whose progress came to an abrupt end on 18 May 1980, at the edge of the Zingaro, with a march of 3,000 demonstrators. Their efforts prevented the road from connecting the neighbouring towns of Castellammare del Golfo to the south and San Vito Lo Capo to the north, where 15,000 and 5,000 inhabitants live respectively.

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