Black pearl of the Med.

Abstract

Ustica is the oldest of all Sicilian islands, having emerged above the waves around one million years ago. The island is in fact the emergent part of a submarine chain of volcanoes which punctuate the Tyrrhenian Sea, especially in the stretch between Sicily and Naples. Even the island’s name reflects its inextricable relationship with fire and volcanism – in fact, ‘Ustica’ is uncannily similar to the Latin ‘ustum’, for ‘burnt’. The Greek name for the island, conversely, latches onto a more recent historical occurrence.