Cycling through the Salt Pans of Western Sicily

Are you a cycling enthusiast? Here is a beautiful itinerary for cycling that will lead you to discover the fascinating salt pans of western Sicily. We advise you, as Riccardo Cocciante’s song intones, to “ride your bike, pedalling unhurriedly”, taking your time to admire the picturesque landscape, dotted with ancient windmills and large basins where seawater evaporates from the sun. The salt from these salt pans is considered the best in Italy.

We start in Trapani, the city of the sea, wind and salt. Just outside the centre begins a cycle path (about 10 kilometres long) that will take you into the heart of the Trapani and Paceco Salt Pans Nature Reserve, a protected area, established in 1995 and managed by WWF Italy, that stretches for about a thousand hectares, from the port of Trapani to the town of Salina Grande. Besides being one of the most important coastal wetlands in western Sicily, it is also a treasure trove of biodiversity. Hundreds of bird species use the salt pans as a resting, feeding, wintering and breeding site, including flamingos, storks, cranes and herons. As for flora, among the characteristic species, the endemic Calendula maritima is one of the most valuable.

Along the way, you will come across the Maria Stella Mill (located in Nubia, a hamlet of Paceco), one of many that dominated the landscape. Externally restored but not in working order, it houses the Visitor Centre of the Trapani and Paceco Salt Pans Nature Reserve, from which guided tours allow visitors to observe the fauna, flora and salt cultivation techniques. A few kilometres from the Maria Stella Mill is the Salt Museum, which is definitely worth a visit. Housed in a baglio (an old 17th century farm-fortress used for milling salt, with a large windmill attached), it offers a magnificent insight into Trapani’s salt production industry. There are ancient tools of the salt workers’ trade and many old black and white photographs immortalising how work was done in the past.

The route then continues to the spectacular Stagnone Islands Oriented Nature Reserve (located in the municipality of Marsala), one of the first to be established in Sicily. After travelling along a section of provincial road, a cycle path, just over 7 kilometres long, begins in contrada Birgi, ending at the end of the Saline Genna canal. The reserve, which takes its name from the ‘Stagnone’ (the largest lagoon in the region), covers an area of about 2,000 hectares and presents an environment of enormous naturalistic interest and great scenic beauty. In the area, which is characterised by shallow and very salty waters and the presence of four islands (one of which hosts the famous archaeological site of Mozia), numerous salt pans have been established since Phoenician times.

Several restored and still working windmills can be admired here, such as those in the beautiful Ettore and Infersa Salt Pans. Of the three mills (made functional), the largest is a 16th-century star or Dutch mill and is a true masterpiece of industrial archaeology. Housed in the Infersa warehouse, it represents the heart of the salt-pan tour. In the adjoining visitors’ centre, there is a cinema room where you can watch a film on the production and harvesting of salt and a sales outlet called the Bottega del Sale, where you can buy valuable, hand-picked, whole salts and salt products (as well as salt shakers, high quality salt mills, ceramics, Sicilian majolica and beauty products).