A Gem in the middle of the Sea

4-star hotel in Peschici in the Gargano ideal for holidays in Puglia

The islands were used for the internment of political prisoners during Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime. This was nothing new: two millennia earlier, Augustus had exiled his granddaughter Julia the Younger to one of these islands (then named Trimerus in Latin, maybe from Greek Trimeros, meaning "tree places" or "tree islands"). The islands are now an important tourist attraction because of the clear waters surrounding them. Up to 100,000 visitors come to the islands in the summer season.

San Domino is the most developed island for tourism and has the only sand beach in the archipelago. San Nicola is where most of the population resides. It is the site of a monastery where a monk named Nicolò was buried. Legend has it that every time someone tried to move his corpse off the island, a violent storm would break out, preventing navigation around the island.

Capraia (or Capperaia) is deserted. Cretaccio is a large block of clay and thus uninhabited. Pianosa is a small, uninhabited island. Its maximum elevation is 15 metres (49 ft). Sometimes, during storms, the waves cover it.