Ustica: Sicily’s diving jewel

PENELOPE GRANYCOME knew Sicily but had never sampled its scuba-diving – a trip to the small island off its north coast gave her the opportunity to find out why it was so highly rated

The island of Ustica may not be well-known to UK divers but diving its waters recently was like discovering an undiscovered jewel, a seascape of shimmering blue topaz accompanied by dramatic topography, caverns, swim-throughs and an abundance of fish – the result of Ustica’s volcanic heritage and its status as the first Italian protected marine reserve since 1986.

Also read: Divers find another rare rudder – marking buried treasure wreck?

As a lover of Sicily I had often noticed the island on descent into Palermo, and was delighted when I read about its biodiversity and the diving possibilities it afforded. Sicily offers challenging wrecks, caves and underwater ruins and Ustica, with its charm, ease and warm hospitality, seemed the perfect place to start exploring its underwater world.

Flight time from London to Palermo is just under three hours, followed by a 90-minute hydrofoil crossing from its port with Liberty Lines, with only 5 euros extra charged for a large dive-bag. 

At the picturesque disembarkation point I was met by Claire, one of the owners of Orca Diving Ustica, a 5* PADI dive-centre, and Salvo, owner of the Sogni Nel Blu hotel where I was to stay.        

After a quick check-in, it was a short walk down one of many pretty flights of steps to the dive-centre for an intro and equipment prep. Co-owner Davide told me about the island’s Marine Protected Area (MPA), which covers about 15km of coastline and is divided into three zones.

The relatively small 60-hectare Zone A is the no-take zone while Zones B and C, each covering about 8,000 hectares, are a general reserve and partial reserve area respectively. 

To describe the singular tiny town as charming is an understatement. Most of the restaurants lay minutes from the hotel and trails were set out for exploring the whole island.

Grouped to dive

The next morning, after waking to a spectacular view of the port and a delicious coffee and croissant at Salvo’s café, I met the guides and other divers at Orca. Everyone was grouped for 8am and 11am dives with their guides, languages covered being English, French, German and Italian. 

The organisation was seamless, including your own cup back at base for water before and between dives, and delicious snacks. Our gear and wetsuits had been taken down to the RIBs, a short walk away, so the only job was to connect the BC and regs to the 15-litre steel tank (12-litre units are also available).

We rolled into 29°C water and crystalline visibility, and that first dive at Punta Galera did not disappoint. 

Ustica was created a million years ago from continuous underwater eruptions and a continuing series of processes (including a last major eruption 130,000 years ago as well as submersion from a polar melt) that have shaped the topography. 

Basaltic uniform rock formed by quickly cooling lava is a feature, and we swam out and back along a belt of rock to be blessed with the sight of barracuda, amberjack, a moray and a remarkable Aplysiida sea hare, a giant sea-slug that flies gracefully through the water and gets its name from its cute bunny-ear-like rhinophores.

Also fascinating are sea hares’ mating habits – being hermaphrodite, they mate in one long line or group. Davide mentioned the old Mediterranean fishers’ superstition that accidentally touching a sea hare results in baldness. The Latin name of the Aplysia depilans variety means depilatory sea hare.

After a quick tank-change and surface interval with plenty of water, iced tea and snacks, we headed to the north of the island and the site Secca della Colombara, which might well translate from Sicilian as “shallow of the doves”, where the waves crash over the shoal of Dove Rock. 

Dropping onto a pinnacle and down a sloping wall to 30m led to the Ustica Wreck, a dramatic vista of a commercial ship that sank in 2005 after hitting the shoal. Lying on its side, it provided a backdrop to some huge fish that included both a dusky grouper and a bottled grouper. Davide also spotted an umbrella slug and a scorpionfish there. 

Spectacular Astroides orange corals stood out against the blue, and the whole site proved to be a haven for species-spotters.

After such a wonderful morning and two fairly deep dives it was time for a nap, then coffee and Sicilian sweets in the square, and later I joined all the other divers and guides for sunset aperitivo.

Red gorgonians

A new day brought an early dive at Punta dell’Arpa in the south of the island. It was a beautiful site, offering the chance to catch some depth and see the gorgonians at about 34m.

Red gorgonians covering boulders and swim-throughs of stony coral madrepores were a delight. Orca takes AOWD and Deep Speciality students here for the sheltered depth and gorgeous scenery.

Sutta a Za Lisa was up next, a playground of tunnels and tight swim-throughs, one of them at 27m. Being comfortable is crucial, because no sooner have you left one than there is another to enter.

Our guide Alex took us through several swim-throughs before ascending to a canyon. The whole site is rich in biodiversity, with a cave containing madrepores and a Petrosia sponge that darkens under exposure to the sun. Slipper lobsters and moray eels could all be found there, and we saw yet another huge grouper.

Final day

The final day was as special, and a kilo dropped to fine-tune my buoyancy made for a divine early dive at Grotta della Pastizza, it’s name deriving from the pastry-shaped rock at the surface. 

This dive was initially through three of four shallow caves, surfacing in one into which dappled light trickled. Decorated with a statue of the patron saint of the island, San Bartolicchio, the calm of the chamber held us in silent awe. 

We then dropped down a wall rich in life and yet another large brown grouper to about 25m. This site is also used for night dives to see its eels and crustaceans as well as sea hares, cuttlefish, octopuses and nudis.

Last but definitely not least was an exhilarating RIB ride to Ustica’s most famous site, Scoglio del Medico, or the Rock of the Doctor. 

To cover it all would take several dives. We descended into a cavern known as Grotta della Balena, because one opening resembles a whale’s mouth, and once inside entered a smaller cavern to see four grouper lined up like a reception committee. 

This was another haven for marine life, including crabs, scorpionfish and nudibranchs, with plenty to find if you have time. 

After finning down a tunnel to about 30m it was up into the blue for a magical fish show on the pinnacle, resplendent with barracuda, amberjack, striped grouper and sea hares.

These six dives, which owe their magnificence to the protection afforded by the reserve and Ustica’s volcanic heritage, will always stay with me. After goodbyes it was back to Palermo, with that post-diving joy that needs no explaining to other divers.

Also on Divernet: ITALY’S ATLANTIS – A DIVE INTO ANCIENT HISTORY, ON THE CILENTO COAST, GRAND RESERVE, GIANTS OF THE UNDEAD MED

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