Experience package
Private tour between San Vito Lo Capo, Marsala and Favignana
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A private journey through western Sicily following one of the dishes that best tell of its relationship with the Mediterranean: Trapani couscous.
We will start from San Vito Lo Capo, where couscous has become a symbol of encounter between peoples and cultures. In Marsala we will put our hands in the semolina and learn the gesture of incocciatura together with those who continue to guard traditional cooking. Finally we will reach Favignana, where we will return to the origin of everything: the sea, the fishermen and the fish that gives Trapani couscous its identity.
Three territories and three different ways of entering the same dish.
First we will taste it. Then we will learn to prepare it. Finally we will go and look for the sea inside it.
Arrival in San Vito Lo Capo and check-in at the selected accommodation.
Our journey will begin in front of the sea, because before entering the kitchen we want to understand how a dish was able to cross the Mediterranean, change ingredients and become part of the identity of western Sicily.
With a local guide we will get to know San Vito Lo Capo, the town that grew up around its Sanctuary and is deeply tied to the sea.
Here couscous is not just a recipe. Over time it has also become a language through which to tell of encounters, influences and different cultures facing the same Mediterranean.
We will meet those who prepare couscous and tell its story.
We will get to know the semolina, the mafaradda, the couscoussière, the fish and the broth and begin to understand what characterises the Trapani version.
But on the first day we do not yet want to learn the whole recipe. First we want to taste it and listen to it.
We will sit down to a fish couscous prepared according to local tradition.
During lunch we will slowly enter its vocabulary: semolina, incocciatura, mafaradda, couscoussière, fish, broth.
In the afternoon we will continue the story through the territory.
Depending on the configuration chosen, we can follow the coast to discover the traces left by fishing, towers and the ancient tuna traps, or reach Macari.
Return by private vehicle. Dinner at leisure. Overnight stay in the San Vito Lo Capo area.
Breakfast and departure by private vehicle to Marsala.
Having tasted couscous, today we will discover what it really means to prepare it.
We will meet a traditional cook or a chef deeply tied to local cuisine.
In front of us we will have semolina, water and a mafaradda, the traditional terracotta vessel in which the semolina is worked.
No ready-made couscous. We will make it ourselves.
We will put our hands in the semolina and learn the movement of incocciatura.
Everyone will try rolling their own semolina, guided by the hands of those who have known this preparation for years.
We will then move on to the fish and the preparation of the broth.
We will sit down together and eat what we have helped to prepare.
In the afternoon we can choose between a visit to a historic winery devoted to Marsala wine or an experience at the Stagnone and in the salt pans.
Dinner at leisure. Overnight stay in Marsala.
Breakfast and private transfer to the port.
Boarding the sea connection to Favignana.
Having tasted couscous in San Vito Lo Capo and prepared it in Marsala, today we will take the opposite route: we will go and look for the sea that is inside it.
We will visit the Former Florio Plant of the Favignana and Formica Tuna Traps, one of the most significant places for understanding the relationship between the island, tuna and the work tied to the sea.
When it is possible to organise the experience with authorised operators and sea and weather conditions allow, we will meet those who live the sea every day or take part in a boat experience.
Alternatively, we can take a boat excursion along the island's coasts.
Lunch will be the moment when we put the whole journey back together.
The protagonist will be the local catch and, when provided for by the configuration of the experience, we may find again the fish couscous prepared according to the tradition of the home or the cook who hosts us. We will not do another cooking class. This time we want to discover another recipe and another story. In the afternoon, time to complete our knowledge of the island. Then boarding for the return to the mainland and end of services.
San Vito Lo Capo will have told us about the Mediterranean.
Marsala will have taught us the gesture.
Favignana will have brought us back to the sea.
And perhaps we will understand that inside a mafaradda there is not only semolina and broth. There are sea, families, fishermen, encounters, gestures and centuries of Mediterranean.
1 overnight stay in the San Vito Lo Capo area and 1 overnight stay in Marsala.
The activities planned in Favignana depend on sea and weather conditions. The routes of the boat excursions may vary. Experiences linked to the catch follow, as far as possible, seasonality and the actual availability of the product.
Tell us the dates of your trip and the number of travellers: we will check the availability of the experiences, the accommodation and the private services and prepare a proposal built around the needs of your trip.
Trapani Couscous