Surrounding

The villa is located in an excellent position, two kilometres from the centre of the town of Marsala, the ancient Lilybeum, and a few kilometres from the sea where there are several bathing establishments but also large free and wild beaches. Moreover, Portazza is very near to the Stagnone Lagoon, transformed into an Oriented Natural Reservation in 1984 to protect the wide and precious ecosystem comprising, for example, kingfishers and plants as the sea pot marigold. You can admire several species of migrant birds (among which pink flamingos, herons, cormorants), which find here their natural habitat in their long route taking them to Africa in autumn and to Europe in spring. 

The Lagoon is characterized by wonderful salt pans, stretches of water separated by narrow stripes of land making up an irregular and multicoloured chessboard, where it is not unusual to see workers processing the salt following archaic methods even today.

 

This scenery offers the most beautiful sunsets in western Sicily which changing from red, to orange, to pink, surround in an amazing frame the ancient windmills, the Egadi islands and the small islands that are inside the Reservation (Long Island, Scuola and Mothia).

Among them, Mothia, ancient Phoenician colony, is the most important, apart from its beautiful landscape, also for its archaeological excavations which have brought to light several Phoenician remains, all kept in the Whitaker museum. In this wonderful Mediterranean garden the most picturesque places to admire are the necropolis, the mosaics, the Tophet, sacred area where human sacrifices were carried out on behalf of Baal and Astarte.

Another interesting archipelago is the Egadi comprising three main islands, Favignana, Levanzo e Marettimo. The most famous and inhabited Island in all the archipelago is Favignana, where you can admire the hilly landscape, the vegetation made up of the Mediterranean scrub and the beautiful coast. Marettimo and Levanzo are two real little uncontaminated paradises in the centre of the Mediterranean, the former rich in wonderful sea-beds, the latter is characterized by bays and grottos, as the Genovese’s one with its prehistoric engravings.

Besides, it is easy to reach several places famous for their landscape, historic and artistic value, such as Segesta, Selinunte, Erice, Agrigento temple valley and the Zingaro Natural Reservation.