Pozzallo

Pozzallo is a city near the southern tip of Sicily in Italy. It's the port for ferries to Malta. Pozzallo is a major summer tourist destination, with two beaches holding a Blue Flag award, as of Apr 2023, for water quality, environmental education and information, environmental management, and safety and other services.

Understand

Very few beaches in Sicily have won the Blue Flag.

Get in

• The closest local airport is located in Comiso, near Ragusa. Catania-Fontanarossa is further but with better choice of flights across Europe, and good public transport to Syracuse.
• The fast-cat ferry to Valletta in Malta runs twice day, taking 1 hr 30. Day-trips from Pozzallo port to Malta are possible on Wednesday and Friday. The service is run by Virtu Ferries, return fare €80 low season rising to €160 mid-summer. The ferry terminal is 3 km west of town centre. The catamaran is quite stable and enjoyable during a calm summer day, but on the event of bad weather might be delayed or cancelled.
• AST bus routes are #50 Syracuse - Noto - Pozzallo - Ragusa - Gela; #56 Pozzallo - Ragusa - Palermo; #57 Pozzallo - Modica - Ragusa; and #59 to Modica. They run all week but are infrequent on Sunday. The bus stop is on Piazza della Rimenbranza along Corso Vittorio Vento, buy tickets on board.
• There are six regional trains a day M-Sa: north-west via Ragusa (1 hour) to Gela, with connections to Palermo, and north-east to Syracuse (1 hour), with connections to Palermo, Messina and mainland Italy. No trains on Sunday. The station is on the north edge of town, at the end of Via Giuseppe Mazzini about 10 min from Piazza della Rimenbranza. The station is just a platform halt and has no amenities, not even a ticket machine: buy tickets from shops, e.g. the tobacconist at foot of V Mazzini, or supermarket next to the station.
• Taxi might be your only choice on Sunday. Price from Ragusa is about €50, from Catania €160, and from Milazzo €240. Book with "Excursions in Sicily" email: info@chauffeurs-italy.com

Get around

There is a taxi rank by the bus stop on Piazza della Rimembranza. Taxis also meet the ferries from Malta and trains from Syracuse.

Chauffeurs-italy.com offer car rental with driver and taxi services. Based in Ragusa and Pozzallo port, they also run transfers and excursions in Syracuse, Noto, Modica, Ragusa, Taormina and Mount Etna. E mail: info@chauffeurs-italy.com

See

The town's main street is Corso Veneto.

Torre Cabrera

• 1 Cabrera Tower (Torre Cabrera). The tower predates the town. There's a small museum within. This watchtower for the port was built in the 15th century by Bernat Juan de Cabrera, son of Bernat II de Cabrera. The boardwalk round its seaward wall is derelict.  
• 2 Chiesa Santa Maria di Portosalvo, Via Mario Rapisardi. The church was built in 1746 on a rock spur adjacent to the sea by the first inhabitants who settled in Pozzallo, mainly fishermen and sailors. The Madonna is paraded from here on Good Friday.  
• 3 Chiesa della Madonna del Rosario (San Pietro), Piazzetta San Pietro. Built from 1876 to 1937.  
• Villa Tedeschi, Via Scaro, 79. This 19th-century palazzo hosts the town library.  
• Roadside Shrine located in Piazza Senia
• Villa comunale public's gardens
• Lungomare Raganzino, promenade
• Lungomare Pietre Nere, promenade
• Museo del Cinema
• Castello Di Martino, ruins
• Villa Tedeschi, public library

Do

• Pietre Nere Beach is a sandy but scrappy thing, stretching east for some 400 m from the Tower to the crumbling cliffs. (The banner photo is fish-eyed, elongating it into a spit.)
• The Raganzino Beach is another small beach between the west edge of town and the port, overlooked by the masonry scraps of Castello di Martino. In between is the wave-dashed promenade, with a boat slipway.
• The Festival of Saint John the Baptist is held on the Sunday before 24 June. The week before a boat flotilla lays a wreath upon the sea. Celebrations always ends with a nice fireworks show.
• The Fish Festival takes place in the city center generally held in the month of August
• Festival of Madonna del Rosario

Buy

Local products, extremely fresh fish, local cheese and fresh ricotta.

Eat

Restaurants and cafes are grouped around the Tower and east end of Via Veneto, with another group near the beach at the western edge of town.

The most popular plate is the "Ghiotta" an amazing fish soup with the local catches.

Drink

• Historical city center is full of nice places where to delight a drink enjoying some nice live music at the beautiful seafront

Sleep

• Villa Ada Hotel, 3 Corso Vittorio Veneto, ☏ +39 0932 954 022, fax: +39 0932 954 876, info@hotelvillaada.it. Centrally located three star hotel with well furnished rooms and good restaurant. €70 single, €100 double in shoulder-season. (updated Mar 2018)
• Hotel Continental, Via Strada Provinciale 97016 (2 km N of town on SP45, Via Rosario Livatino), ☏ +39 0932 958 858, fax: +39 0932 797 756, hotelcontinental@pozzallo.it. 3-star, with restaurant and pool. €60 single, €95 double. (updated Mar 2018)
• Mare Nostrum Petit Hotel, Via Enrico Giunta 12/14 (central near Town Hall), ☏ +39 0932 958 769, fax: +39 0932 798 087. Clean welcoming 3-star. €50. (updated Mar 2018)
• 1 Brezza Marina Bed and Breakfast, Via Marco Polo 2 (corner of Via Kennedy), ☏ +39 0932 955 432, info@brezzamarinapozzallo.it. 3-star Bed & Breakfast 300 m from the sea and 500 metres from the port. Rooms have aircon, balconies, TV, iron & ironing board, fridge, hair-dryer and bathroom. €30-60 per person. (updated Mar 2018)
• 2 CaseSicule (Case Vacanze a Pozzallo), via cesare cantu 5, ☏ +39 3394874369, saro@casesicule.it. Check-in: 15:00, check-out: 10:00. €50. (updated Mar 2020)

Go next

• The Baroque Towns are a series of UNESCO-listed small towns, perched on hilltops above rocky gorges. They're in much demand as period film and TV locations, and M-Sa they can easily be done as day-trips from Pozzallo by public transport. Biggest and best are Modica and Ragusa. They also include Noto, Ispica and Scicli.
• You'll need your own car to reach the nature reserves of Macchia Forest on River Irminio near Modica, or of Vendicari on the coast south of Noto.
• Malta is usually the reason people travel to Pozzallo. The capital Valletta is a possible day-trip, with lots to see and do. A longer stay should take in Mdina, the limestone coastline, and the island of Gozo.