Tremiti Islands: a true natural paradise ...
In the crystal water bathing the Gargano Promontory you can find five natural jewels: San Nicola, San Domino, Capraia and the rocks of Cretaccio and Pianosa, forming the picturesque archipelago of the Tremiti Islands.
The Tremiti Islands are also called Diomedee. As the legend tells, Diomedes, after the long trip on the way back from the Trojan war, stopped there to gain back his strength.
San Nicola is the smallest one and is considered the administrative and historical-religious centre. It is particularly known for the beautiful Sanctuary of Santa Maria a Mare, which stands upon a thousand-year rock. This imposing fortress-monastery captures everyone's gaze leaving totally amazed those who walk beneath its walls. These retain one of the most precious treasures of the island: the great Christ, a unique piece of art. It is a cross 3.44 meters high and 2.58 meters wide, on which the crucified Christ is painted. It is very suggestive.
San Domino, unlike San Nicola, is the biggest island of the archipelago and is famous for its green nickname: "Garden of Paradise". The biggest treasure of this island is its natural beauty and landscape. Here there are lush pine forests, a ragged coast, overhanging rocks, intimate sand beaches, imposing caves and clear and crystal water.
San Domino is also the place where to find numerous fragments of coarse pottery and weapons proving the presence of man from the Neolithic age. Among the natural beauties rising up from sand and sea stand out the following famous names: Cala delle Arene, Cala Matano, Cala degli Inglesi, Cala Tamariello and Cala Tonda, up to the extreme southern tip of Uncle Caesar. As well as practising the usual water sports, you can not miss the opportunity to visit the beautiful sea caves, such as the Grotta del Sale, Grotta delle Viole and Grotta del Bue Marino .
Capraia is surely the most interesting island; here you will find caper and lentiscus plants, and rock arches on the coast. That is how the only uninhabited island of the archipelago looks like
These islands are also remembered for having hosted famous historical figures and politicians to pay for their sins since the times of ancient Romans; for this reason, you can see some tombs in the Greek-Roman style, where tombstones bear the etchings of Diomene and Julia, Augustus nephew. is called lake, but is more precisely defined lagoon.