It is known that Sicily is located exactly in the center of the Mediterranean Sea: according to the great historian Fernand Braudel, in fact, it is right to speak of a Mediterranean to the west of Sicily and another to the east of the island: two areas with different cultures and traditions. Fifth largest city in Sicily, for its geographical position Trapani has always been the one most closely linked to the Western Mediterranean: in ancient times connected with the Punic civilization, from the Middle Ages with the Arab world of the Maghreb and then with Catalonia/Spain. In the contemporary era, it has been a rich agro-food center and still today it is a fertile region where the three main Mediterranean crops have always coexisted perfectly – vines, wine, wheat -, not to mention the sea products – above all tuna, red shrimp and the… sea salt that gives flavor to everything! This is the background in which the legend of the Florios took place, the Sicilian family which was the first great Italian industrial dynasty in the 19th century and which had many of its businesses in the Trapani area.

Today Trapani is the main tourist hub for visiting western Sicily, which has a historical and cultural heritage rich not only in Punic influences (Mozia, the city-state in the Stagnone lagoon), Arab (Mazara del Vallo with its Casbah) and Iberians (Trapani itself, capital of the province), but also of ancient Rome (Marsala, Sicilian wine capital) and of Magna Graecia (Selinunte, the largest archaeological site in Europe) and of indigenous civilizations such as the Elymians (Erice , Segesta).

Those who visit Trapani obviously cannot fail to visit naturalistic sites such as the Egadi Islands, the Zingaro reserve, the salt pans of Trapani and Paceco. Those who have more time should not miss the extraordinary volcanic island of Pantelleria, one of the most beautiful in the Mediterranean.