Tuna and Tuna Traps – On the Routes of the Bluefin Tuna

Arrival in Trapani and check-in at the selected property.

In the afternoon we will start from the historic centre and the sea, slowly entering a city that for centuries has built part of its identity on its relationship with the Mediterranean.

Then it will be time to put our hands in the kitchen.

We will meet a chef or a traditional cook and take part in a cooking class dedicated to cooking tuna and the local catch. We will not just watch: together we will prepare a recipe and discover how bottarga, ventresca (tuna belly), lattume (tuna milt) and other cuts and preparations of tuna entered the food tradition of the Trapani coast.

At the table

At the end of the cooking class we will eat what we have helped to prepare, accompanied by other flavours of the area.

It will be the first step of our journey: from the sea to the hands, from the hands to the table.

Overnight in the Trapani area.

Breakfast and departure by dedicated private vehicle for Custonaci.

We will meet a local producer and enter the world of the area’s extra virgin olive oil, following its path from the olive tree to the tasting. Depending on the time of year, the experience may take different forms and bring us even closer to the gestures and rhythms of production.

We will continue towards Monte Cofano and the Mangiapane Cave, entering one of the most unusual places in western Sicily.

Inside the large natural cavity we will discover a small world of dwellings, stables and work spaces, a testimony to a community that lived in close relationship with the land, livestock and the sea.

Then we will go down to Bonagia, an old fishing village overlooking the gulf.

The Tuna Trap – The rais, the nets and the wait

Here we will enter the heart of the history of tuna fishing.

Through the spaces and testimonies tied to the tuna trap we will learn about the role of the rais, the organisation of the tonnaroti, the boats, the nets and the long wait that came before the tuna arrived.

When availability allows, we will also look for the voice of those who still keep this memory: a fisherman, a local witness or someone tied to the history of the tuna traps.

A knot, a net, a cialoma (the tonnaroti’s work song), a word of the sea may turn from simple details into fragments of a story that is still alive.

The day will continue with a food experience dedicated to the different ways tuna is processed and to local products.

Return by private vehicle.

Dinner and overnight in the Trapani/Valderice area.

Breakfast and departure by private vehicle for San Vito Lo Capo.

We will follow the coast looking for the traces left by the relationship between people and the sea: watchtowers, old sites tied to the tuna traps, small villages and landscapes where tuna fishing was part of community life for centuries.

We will reach San Vito Lo Capo, where we will stop for a lunch dedicated to the area’s seafood cuisine.

Here the story of tuna will also meet another great tradition of western Sicily: fish couscous, an expression of that Mediterranean made of fishing, encounters and cultural influences that we will have followed throughout the journey.

In the afternoon we will reach Macari.

The landscape will almost be the final point of our story. In front of us we will find Monte Cofano, the sea and that coast we will have learned to read in a different way over the three days.

At the end of the visits, private transfer to Trapani or another agreed destination and end of services.

Three days earlier we simply had tuna in front of us. Now, behind that product, we will recognise a sea, a rais, the tonnaroti, the nets, the boats, a cuisine and entire communities.