Isola delle Femmine
Isola delle Femmine
Isola delle Femmine is the municipality where Camping La Playa is located, 800 metres from the centre of the town.
The municipality owes its name to the small island in front of it called Isola delle Femmine.
Several legends have been fascinated by the tower, now largely ruined, that overlooks the islet. The best known legend erroneously considers the tower to be a prison for women only. In reality, the name ‘isola delle femmine’ (island of women) is the result of a long process of Italianisation. In fact, according to popular tradition, the ancient name of the island was ‘Insula Fimi’, also the result of a process of Italianisation and derived from ‘isola di Eufemio’ (island of Euphemia), from the name of the general Euphemia of Messina, Byzantine governor of Sicily.
Another presumed origin could be derived from the Latin name “Fimis”, in turn a “Latinization” of the Arabic word “fim” ( الفم، ), i.e. the mouth, the narrow channel separating the island from the coast. This interpretation is used by the official website of the Municipality of Isola delle Femmine, as transcribed here:
“From the ecclesiastical bulletin of Monreale dated 1912 we read that, with the ancient name of “isola di fimi”, dating back to 1176, we mean the island that rises at the mouth of the maritime bosom that extends westwards to Punta Raisi, in the territory of Carini; also defined “prope portum gali”, then Porto di Gallo in 1581, and today corresponding to the point of Grotta dell’Olio, between the promontory of Barcarello and Malpasso. At an unspecified date, the tonnara di fimi (tuna fishery) was built, from the Latin fimis, transcription of the Arabic word fim (mouth), a term later transformed into the dialect fimmini and Italianised into femmine. “