Pasta with pistachio sauce, pistachio ice cream, croissants with pistachio cream, and daily kitesurfing – this is a recipe for a very successful holiday. Lo Stagnone, a spot in the west of Sicily, is a unique place. It is a huge lagoon with perfectly flat and very shallow (waist-deep in most places) water. There are about thirty kitesurfing stations run by people from every corner of the world. You can meet people from Poland, Brazil, Hungary, Thailand and New Zealand. Due to the fact that the spot is so big, despite the multitude of schools, the water is not so crowded, and everyone will find some space for themselves.
If you are a beginner kitesurfer and need a course, you can choose from a variety of stations. However, if you are an independent kitesurfer, you can go to one of the kitesurfing stations in Sicily and ask them to provide a spot so that you can set up your equipment (usually you have to pay a small fee, about 5 euros / day) or rent equipment from them.
This is a spot where it usually blows around 15 knots, sometimes there are days when the wind reaches over 20 knots speed, so when packing your quiver don’t forget about the larger kites – 12 to 15 square meters, although of course the smaller ones can also come in handy.
The wind there usually comes from the north and it is very regular. Usually it starts to gen windy around 11:00. Thanks to this, we can use the mornings to enjoy excellent Italian coffee, eat a delicious croissant, laze by the pool or simply sleep off the previous night. Thanks to the multitude of stations, you can spend every evening actively. The stations host parties with local DJs, barbecues, movie nights and other events, thanks to which people learning or teaching at different schools can integrate. Anyway, you don’t have to go to a party, to need more sleep the next day, just go to a real Italian dinner. These are feasts that last up to 4 hours, and restaurants usually open around 8:00 pm, so it is not difficult to calculate how long you sit at the table at night.
The Sicilian wind is a thermal wind, so it works best in the high season, which is from June to August. The best direction on this spot is definitely the wind blowing from the north, it is the most steady and usually the strongest.
Both water and wind on Lo Stagnone are very warm, so if you plan to come in the summer months, you won’t need a wetsuit, but it is worth remembering about liters of sunscreen, sunglasses and rashguard to protect your skin from burning. The sun in Sicily can be really strong. You can also think about taking leggings, as there are spots on the spot with seaweed that sting the skin, but usually only the hairless and tanned skin, which is why women are a little worse off and more likely to get burned. They are harmless (they are red spots on the skin that usually disappear overnight), but if you want to avoid them and you are still at a stage where you often sit in the water, avoid wearing a wetsuit that is heavily cut and instead put on leggings to protect your legs.
Lo Stagnone is a place created for people who just want to start their adventure with kitesurfing, but also for those who want to develop towards unhooked freestyle, and thanks to the addition of excellent Italian food, it is impossible to leave the island without falling in love with it.