san vito lo capo

A white fine sandy beach, the crystal clear water and the iridescent colours of the sea, the harmony deriving from the colours of the hibiscus, oleander and the blooming bougainvillea mixed with the perfumes of jasmine and cous-cous… this is San Vito Lo Capo! The inhabitants’ honest hospitality, their welcome, the local food, which made the cous-cous the typical dish to which is dedicated the international “cous-cous fest”, and the warmth of the tour

operators, who have invested in the relational tourism by improving their activity of accommodation, have introduced San Vito Lo Capo to the world. This little town, with its low, white houses, even if it had had a reasonable building development, over the years, has maintained its characteristics of fishers’ village as it was in the origin.Far from Trapani just 38 km and nearly 100 km from Palermo, San Vito Lo Capo extend on a bay whose waters are not very deep and quiet, between the Nature Reserve of Zingaro, to the west, and that one of Cofano, to the east.

The pearl of the Mediterranean sea, as it has been defined, San Vito Lo Capo isn’t anyway the unique wonder to discover in this uncontaminated tract of western Sicily, because Macari (little hamlet at 3 km) with the most sensational sunsets in the world, and Castelluzzo (other hamlet at 9 km) with its numerous pebbly creeks and the small beach on the Gulf of Cofano, help in making the scenery enchanting to the eyes of the tourist who’s going to spend a total-relaxing holiday in San Vito Lo Capo.

If you love living the holiday in an intense way, you can make excursions and trekking to the Reserve of Zingaro or visit the neighbouring archaeological sites of Segesta and Mozia, for instance, take a boat trip, attend sailing or diving lessons, etc.As a token of the presence of human beings in San Vito Lo Capo, there are some archaeological find dated 1000 b.C. into the numerous caverns of the falaises of the coast. Other relics of hypogeal toms witness to the life in this land in a following age.

San Vito History or Legend

The history of San Vito Lo Capo is linked to Martyr San Vito, a young patrician born in Mazara in 286 a.C, whose father was an idolater and mother was Christian. Left an orphan of his mother, Vito was brought up by the nurse Crescenza and the preceptor Modesto, who introduced the boy to the Christianism and baptized him. During the persecutions of Diocletian, Vito was forced to leave his town and to travel by sea with Crescenza and Modesto, and finally they found shelter in the bay of Capo Egitarso (now Capo San Vito).

Here, Vito started to convert the inhabitants to Christianism, but then he had to escape again together with his two tutors and went to Campania and Lucania, where he performed several miracles. Vito died very young on 15 June 299 a.C. (or 304 a.C.). The more and more numerous believers of Martyr Vito built a chapel which saw different extension works and reinforcements until turn it into the present Sanctuary-Fortress, in order to defend the pilgrims from the frequent attempts to theft of the Corsairs. In XVIII sec. the Royal Government gave some lands to anyone who wanted to drain them and imposed them the residence in San Vito Lo Capo. The jurisdiction of Erice, under which was San Vito, divided the territory in 3 hamlet: San Vito Lo Capo, Macari and Castelluzzo. San Vito Lo Capo had to wait 150 years to detach from Erice and to become an independent town, with the two hamlets of Macari and Castelluzzo, thanks to a regional law of 1952.