Dimora Cala Del Pozzo Favignana

Dimora Cala del Pozzo is an exclusive boutique hotel that preserves the identity of a Favignana’s typical rural house of mid ‘800. It is located in a fascinating position, in the wildest part of Favignana, a few meters from Cala del Pozzo, a beautiful stretch of coast with turquoise sea.

Facing west, you can admire one of the most beautiful views of the island; It overlooks the sea with the silhouettes of Levanzo and Marettimo islands as a background. Our desire is to offer our genuine Sicilian hospitality, in a discreet, elegant and charming environment, in full harmony with the surroundings.

It’s a typical Sicilian construction, “mannara”, a small farmhouse with a courtyard where one of the island’s first agricultural activity started and that still now dominates on one of the most beautiful bays, in the northwestern coast of Favignana island.

It’s the place that first inspired our dream. The dream quickly became a project and led to the birth of our first boutique hotel Dimora dell’Olivastro and of the organic farm Terre del Favonio. Our wish has always been to give new life to this abandoned place, keeping its identity and preserving its magical atmosphere in an environment of natural beauty.

The history of this place has been preserved by keeping the original architectural structure with the courtyard, recovering, where possible, the original materials, and choosing typical ones: local stone, tuff, facing bricks; recovered flagstone; majolica; Marsala tiles.

The typical vegetation of the coastal area, consisting of a low Mediterranean shrub, has been carefully preserved and enriched with distinctive plants of this area, agaves, low palm trees, prickly pears and olive trees.

THE BOUGANVILLE
Romantic and suggestive suite, elegantly furnished. The bedroom features a large bathtub and overlooks a private Mediterranean garden with an outdoor shower, furnished with a four-poster bed.

THE HIBISCUS
Romantic and suggestive suite, elegantly furnished; the bedroom has a large bathroom area with bathtub. It overlooks a private garden with an outdoor shower, furnished with a four-poster bed.

BREAKFAST
Guests, since awakening, will live the unique atmosphere of the Dimora Cala del Pozzo. The breakfast, served in the shade of the porch overlooking the splendid view, will be a pleasure for the palate and for the sight.

The homemade cakes, brioches, the typical Sicilian pastries, homemade bread, the scent of coffee, the aroma of tea, the colors of fresh fruits, our honey, the eggs of our farm yard chickens, the many local organic products, from cheese to jams, will delight our guests.

THE APERITIF
When in the sky the sunset begins the guests who wish, may enjoy a good Sicilian wine selected from our wine cellar, accompanied by specialties of our kitchen, in a magical atmosphere created by soft lighting, candles and a discreet background music. According to our philosophy we are committed to provide our guests with high quality products, during breakfast, the aperitif and dinner.

Many products (honey, vegetables, fruit, olive oil, aromatic herbs, eggs, flour, whole wheat pasta) come from our organic farm Terre del Favonio. Those coming from outside, always handmade, organic and Sicilian, are selected by us with great care.

THE ORGANIC FARM
We love and respect the nature and the territory of Favignana which is essentially an agricultural landscape. We would like it to be protected and enhanced. The idea of an organic farm in contrast to the state of abandon of the lands, started from this desire.

Even if actually born in 2012, the basic idea and project of our organic farm Terre del Favonio has always been inside us. The estate covers an area of about 32 ha. The olive grove occupies an area of 7ha with typical plants of Trapani area: Biancolilla, Cerasuola and Nocellara.

This year (2015) our olive grove has given us the first harvest. The olives are picked by hand, placed in boxes and immediately taken to the mill to be cold pressed. This attentive procedure enabled us to produce an excellent fruity and delicate extra virgin olive oil.

In the cultivated land (about 6 ha) we grow some old varieties of Sicilian durum wheat, Tumminia and Bidi’, with which we produce typical of Trapani pasta called Busiate. Since the grain is stone ground it keeps all its nutritional properties.

The grapevines, the figs and the almond trees are planted in terraces, between the old carob and the olive trees. Our land gives us a great variety of vegetables and fruit : tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, zucchini, red onions, potatoes, salad, green beans, yellow melons, watermelons, figs, prickly pears and grapes.

The aromatic corner smells of oregano, mint, sage, thyme, rosemary. Our hens, free to scratch about outdoors, give us fresh eggs daily. Our bees produce an excellent wildflower honey, thyme and thistle scented according to the season.

Our goal is not only the production of honey, but also to reintroduce the Sicilian black bee (Apis Mellifera Sicula), a native variety which unfortunately is disappearing from Sicily. The respect for nature and the territory, the dedication in working the land and the care for the estate and its agricultural production , represent the soul of Terre del Favonio.

For us it’s a great joy and satisfaction to share with the guests of the Dimora dell’Olivastro and Cala del Pozzo , our products , the result of passion and love that we have for our land.

We are Sicilians proud of our tradition and of what our land can produce: hence our commitment to support the many small Sicilian companies by choosing handmade and organic “Made in Sicily” products, from jams to honey, from cheeses to wines, from beers to sweets, extra virgin olive oil and natural soaps. Promote and share them with our guests, is a small mission based on the profound love for our island.

THE WINE CELLAR
Natural wines: terroir, poetry and grape juice. “Wine must be alive, mutable; It must be the truest expression of the surroundings and culture of the men that produce it, so whoever drinks Sicilian wines must find Sicily in it, with its many and different local and cultural realities.” (Salvo Foti, Enologist)

The wines we offer to our guests are the result of careful research and selection among the best Sicilian wines. We have chosen some small Sicilian producers of natural wines; “Small” in terms of planted area and number of bottles produced, but “big” for the quality of their wines.

With these winegrowers we share the underlying philosophy which guides them in their wine production: Respect for nature, for the traditions and culture of the territory, the soil and the vineyards.

The decision to restore and enhance the Sicilian grapes originates from this respect: Grillo, Catarratto, Inzolia, Perricone, Nero d’Avola, Frappato, Nerello Mascalese, Zibbibo just to name the best known.

This “respect” also motivates the meticulous and patient care of the vineyards that requires a lot of manual work but also allows to obtain an excellent raw material, excluding chemicals both in the vineyard and in the winery , privileging ancient techniques such as the natural grass cove and the green manure which maintain and increase soil fertility and ecosystem biodiversity, using only local yeasts (those naturally found on the grapes) instead of selected ones.

The artisan dimension of these small producers allows them to carry out a manual collection which grants the “luxury” of choosing the best grapes, reducing at the minimum the process in the cellar. All this allows the wine to express the best characteristics of the vine variety and its specific area, what the French call “terroir”.

Our wine cellar offers the best wines of the area, to complement the dishes of our cuisine or just to sip in total relax. Among our wines you will find mostly indigenous vine varieties of important local producers such as Marco De Bartoli, Arianna Occhipinti, the Wind Gate, Benanti, Tenuta delle Terre Nere and others. We also propose bitter liquor and dessert wines such as Malvasia delle Lipari Passito di Pantelleria, Marsala Superiore or Vecchio Samperi.

ECO FRIENDLY PHILOSOPHY
To clean the facility we use eco-friendly products, free of toxic substances and pollutants, completely biodegradable and not tested on animals. Our amenity kit products are also eco-friendly, made with vegetable raw materials, natural and not tested on animals.

We are committed to reduce garbage, avoiding waists and making sorted waste collection. In order to drastically reduce the consumption of plastic, we have installed a purifier that produces very good potable water available for our guests. For the other beverages we choose glass.

Hot water is obtained thanks to the solar panels. We use eco-save light bulbs. All the paper products we use are made from raw material obtained from recycled materials of the cellulose fibers of the beverage cartons.

In Our farm Terre del Favonio we practice organic agriculture: we don’t use synthetic chemicals, manure is done with field bean and wild plants , we minimize the soil processing, we try to preserve and increase the balance and biodiversity of the ecosystem.

During Breakfast, aperitifs and dinners we commit to offer our guests products which are fresh, genuine and respectful of the territory. They come from our farm or small organic local companies, preferring a short supply chain.

THE ISLAND OF FAVIGNANA
Our idea of Favignana, as we live it and love it, might be more than one could find in any other tourist guide. It is impossible to describe what makes it so magical for our eyes and sense, that ”bare rock one of those rocks that so abound the sea between Sicily and the flow of Africa” (Teodoro Monticelli, “Treaty on Bees in Favignana”, 1840).

Perhaps the colors of the sea, iridescent colors throughout all the nuances and shades of azure, turquoise, green, grey and silvery blue as soon as the clouds start to thicken in the sky. In Favignana the sea accompanies you wherever you go, an infinite horizon of sea. Even when a dry stone wall or a maquis shrub is blocking the sight, it’s present in the algae and salt perfumed air.

Perhaps the colors of the sky, at times tinted in such turquoise that the gaze gets lost, nearly surreal at sunset, with Marettimo’s unmistakable outline and the ribbon of breaking light from the light house of Punta Sottile that make up the background.

Maybe the fields left for pasture, where sheep graze, divided by the dry stone walls, pinged by maquis shrubs and by old carob trees with twisted trunks; fields that in summer grow yellow, dry, arid, but soon get covered with green grass and sudden seasonal blossom as the first drops of the autumn rain touch the ground.

Perhaps the outlines of the prickly pears, the lilac clumps of thyme, the euphorbia’s red in the summers, the caper bushes that emerge from the bare rock and give ethereal flowers, flower buds and delicious fruits handpicked daily during the month of May, treated with salt in the typical sauce bottles and later sold by elderly people from doorways in the alleys of the village.

Perhaps St. Caterina mount profile and its fort, the saddle mountain and the cross that stands on the top, and the slops covered with low Mediterranean maquis marked with paths that offer unforgettable glimpses and landscapes. It could be the rock that makes the island, the tuff stone, yellow, soft, dug by men, modeled by the wind and sea into true sculptures.

The tuff mines render the view on the Favinian plain one of the most beautiful and unique coast stretches, from the lighthouse of Punta Marsala to Bue Marino, where the ancient slipways used to load blocks of stones onto boats,eventually arriving at the enchanting Cala Rossa where the intense turquoise of the sea alludes through the columns and walls of tuff from which caper waterfalls hang low.

Maybe it’s the fascination of the orchards cultivated in caves, sheltered from winds; some lands have been abandoned, leaving ground to native vegetation to spring, while others are still being nurtured and taken care of, allowing the growth of ancient varieties which had been nearly forgotten: pomegranates, sweet figs, local peaches (Saturn and Sberge peaches), almonds and vines.

Perhaps the tanned faces of fishermen tiding up nets with calloused hands on small white and turquoise boats. They are usually docked at the harbor or the quaint little port of Punta Lunga.

Maybe it’s the view of the old Florio Tuna Factory by the harbor that tells the story of a prosperous past and makes Favignana a unique town. It could be the appeal of this island during off-season when all the tourists have returned to their homes and life goes back to its slow pace.

It is possibly the faces of the local people that you meet all along; Gioacchino the Giant, the last head fisherman of bluefin tuna, Clemente the most famous tuna fisherman with his unmistakable long golden hair, Maria Guccione and her sister Giovanna that hold the secrets of the precious Favinian cusine, the deaf-mute riding his bike along the town, Uncle Sarino, that passed away but whose memory lives forever in his tuff sculptures and many more that have contributed in creating the true identity of the island.

It is still a genuine island with its many contradictions, where slow living is the essence of the land and the people.

Rooms: 8

Price: from 180 EUR per night

Source: www.dimoracaladelpozzo.it