ristorazione — Marettimo · Sicilia
On Marettimo, the last island before the open sea, time is measured by the fishermen's night outings. The trattoria Il Veliero looks out over the seafront, where wild rocks plunge into the cerulean waters of the Egadi Islands: an address where the sea reaches the table with nothing in between.
The door opens onto the seafront and the landscape immediately enters the scene: the sheer rocks, the cerulean sea of the archipelago, the chance to sit outdoors almost right on the water. Il Veliero needs no decoration: the view is already the welcome, and Marettimo — reachable only by sea — does the rest.
Behind every table lies a family story. The Bevilacqua family have been fishermen for generations: they cook the catch with the same hands that pulled it from the sea during the night. No middlemen, no supply chain: family-run management is the method, and the result is a fidelity to flavour you can taste.
What lands on the stove is the night's catch: grilled saddled seabream, cooked to keep the flesh firm, lobster soup, swordfish meatballs in two versions — with tomato and fried, with a crispness reviewers call exceptional. The antipasti buffet completes the picture with fried whitebait and caponata (a Sicilian sweet-and-sour vegetable dish): a cuisine that reveals rather than adds.
In the full page: the seasonal menu, opening hours and how to reach Il Veliero on the remotest of the Egadi Islands.
