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Wine Exploration from Pantelleria to Marsala

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Tracy and I woke up in our little stone house on the property of the Donnafugata Winery on the island of Pantelleria. We would be traveling again this day, but first we were able to tour this beautiful property and see a bit more of this Sicilian Island. Antonio Ralla, one of the owners of Donnafugata, and Marta, from the marketing department, met us at the cellar to talk about Moscato de Alexandria and the vineyard built on volcanic soil, with sand and light pumice stones. We also discussed the Arab influence on the island (Tunisia is only 20 miles away). The vineyard was filled with Moscato grapes drying on the vines. Marta took us through and along the way we picked some to eat and they were juicy and sweet. She then showed us the Giardino Pantesco  (a fortress for a tree) Donnafugata. It is one of the most unusual gardens in the world, with an orange tree growing inside a stone wall. The original concept goes back 3,000 years and the winery has kept it going.

The Wonders of Pantelleria

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I don’t often see the words “free day” on my schedule, but that’s what Tracy and I had for our first full day in Pantelleria . Unfortunately, a power failure the night before had us to bed very late and oversleeping, but once we got going we were ready to see what this magnificent island had to offer. The original plan was to have lunch with the vineyard workers at the Donnafugata Winery where we were staying, but when we didn’t wake up until 12:30, we decided to head straight out to explore, enjoying some coffee and biscotti first. We took off in our little yellow Fiat Panda to try to find Grotta di Benikula Sauna, a natural sauna within a cave. We drove for about an hour and couldn’t find it, but did manage to see some interesting vineyards, a monastery and ancient ruins. I couldn’t believe all this existed on the Mediterranean Sea, just 20 miles from the African nation of Tanzania . From that area we drove down to Scauri to look for someplace to eat along th