Between Trapani and Marsala, we admire the Stagnone lagoon and the sunset over the salt pans
Sicily is always rich in photographic opportunities and nature in this area of Italy gives us unique emotions, such as the sunset over the salt pans.
Along the road that leads from Trapani to Marsala, we admire the Stagnone lagoon. All in the magic of colors: the dazzling white of the salt, the blue of the water, and the sun that turns yellow from yellow before disappearing into the sea. It is sunset over the salt flats.
The Stagnone lagoon is the largest in Sicily. It is a strip of land included in the area between Punta Alga and Capo S. Teodoro, which became an Oriented Nature Reserve in 1984.
A wonderful panorama already from the road
After the Trapani-Birgi airport, the lagoon runs parallel to the salt pans. The landscape is exciting, we admire ponds divided by very thin strips of land. These are the settling tanks, from which, at the end of the cycle, the crystal that will give life to the salt will remain.
At times in the distance, you can see the outline of a windmill, this is the only tool used to pump the water to be sent to the tanks and, at the end of the production process, the force of the wind will turn the balls, which at in turn they will operate the millstones to crush the salt crystals.
But how does the production cycle work, how is salt born?
Sun and wind slowly dry the water contained in the tanks until only a white crust remains. Salt, in fact, which at sunset is tinged with the colors that accompany the arrival of night.
The wealth of the sea
The sea here has shallow and very salty waters, particularly this one, which has favored the rise of numerous salt pans, while from the murici , one of the most widespread fish species in the Mediterranean, the Phoenicians obtained the purple used to dye the fabrics. In the seabed of the Stagnone lagoon, Posidonia oceanica grows, a plant formed by a tuft of long green leaves with flowers gathered in spikes in the center. In the stretch of the coast, you can find the marigold (a species that grows only here and in Spain) and the sea lily, but also nests of larks, goldfinches, magpies, fratini, and calenders.
Above all, posidonia, a primordial element of life in the waters of the Mediterranean, plays a role very similar to that of terrestrial forests: it offers a special habitat for animal and plant species. It is also an important source of oxygen and a stabilizer of the seabed.
The visit to the Ettore and Infersa salt pans
You get here mainly to admire and photograph the sunset. While we wait we visit the Ettore and Infersa salt flats ( you pay a small entrance ticket ). It is a private structure a few kilometers from Marsala.
Inside the Ettore e Infersa salt pan, in addition to the restored and fully functional sixteenth-century mill, a video illustrates the work of man to extract the salt. We take a tour of the various settling tanks, we see piles of salt ready to be loaded on trucks to be taken to the refinery, breathing in the breeze that accompanies the arrival of sunset.
Sunset
Slowly the sun hides behind the island of Mozia giving us extraordinary moments and unique colors, to be immortalized in our photographs.
How do I get to the Ettore and Infersa salt flats
Salina Ettore e Infersa is located in Contrada Infersa , we are 30 minutes by car from Trapani and 15 from Marsala. To get there follow the SP 21 (from both locations). You can also arrive by bike from Birgi Vecchia and Marsala, a road parallel to the sea leads to the salt marshes.
