Isola delle Correnti

“The sea of Ulysses, with sea turtles and birds of passage pausing on lighthouses waiting for the overseas leap. For here we are truly in the heel of the peninsula. Here, if after a meager ford of water you land by boat at the Isle of Currents, the few square centimeters of sand that you tread under your shoes are really, this time, the last strip of Europe.”(Gesualdo Bufalino “Il fiele ibleo”)

With these words the Sicilian author describes the southernmost strip of land in Sicily, Italy as well as Europe, where another prominent beach of Portopalo stretches, That of Isola delle Correnti. About 8 kilometers from Portopalo di Capo Passero, this beach It unfolds with its charm to the east and further to the west of a tongue of land that enters the sea just where the Ionian Sea meets the Mediterranean. The beach takes its name from the Isola delle Correnti (Island of Currents) that faces it, and which constitutes a sort of watershed between the two seas, where precisely inevitable ripples form in the water due to the currents, from which precisely the Island itself takes its name. Precisely because of the peculiarity of its location and the frequent presence of wind, this seaside resort lends itself very well to the practice of certain water sports such as surfing and windsurfing.

The shoreline offers to the eye the suggestion of a landscape in which nature unfolds in its wild and unspoiled charm, with its wide expanses of fine, golden sand dunes and allows free bathing for large areas.

There are, however, cozy bathing establishments such as the “Scialai” lido or the “Kalè” lido that provide all kinds of comfortable services. La tip with which the beach juts out toward the Island is topped by a statue of Christ the Redeemer made of marble dust on a sandstone base, two meters high, which turning its back to the Island opens its arms in a gesture of welcome to bathers, lending an aura of sacredness to the place. Plaques at the base of the statue with references to the Odyssey and the Acts of the Apostles remind us that that place, the extreme southern tip of Italy is no trivial place but that Ulysses landed there and so did St. Paul.

The Island of Currents, which fronts the beach, is a small island of only 10,000 square meters that houses a lighthouse and a military structure abandoned for years, is characterized by the presence of plants and shrubs typical of the Mediterranean maquis; it is inhabited by hedgehogs, rabbits, a few turtles, and d is flown over by seagulls and albatrosses. Since 1987 it has been included in the master plan of parks and nature reserves. It can be reached by canoe or pedal boat or, more easily at low tide, you can land there by walking along the thin tongue of stone that connects it to the mainland.