★ 48 isola di Ustica (Ustica Island)

Late Bronze Age
Excavations begun in 1989 at Tramontana, also known as Faraglioni, have unearthed what was a large prehistoric village dating from the 14th to the 13th century BC. The foundations of some 300 stone-built houses were discovered, and the defensive walls of the settlement are among the strongest fortifications of any period known in Italy. It is believed that these early settlers came over from the Aeolian Islands.
Ustica contains the remains of the Bronze Age settlement of Villaggio dei Faraglioni. It showcases organized urban planning with huts and narrow roadways along its northern periphery, representing a well-preserved example of ancient Mediterranean civilization between 1400 and 1200 BC. Recent archaeological investigations unveiled a sophisticated fortification system beneath the village. Using non-invasive techniques such as ground-penetrating radar and electrical resistivity tomography, researchers identified an 820-foot-long arc-shaped stone wall, standing 13 to 16 feet tall.
In historic times, the island has been populated at least since about 1500 BC by Phoenician peoples.

Classical Age
The island named Osteodes (Ὀστεώδης; meaning "Bone Island" in Greek) because, during the wars between Carthage and Syracuse, about six thousand unpaid mercenaries rebelled against their Carthaginian commanders, threatened violence over delayed wages, and caused such unrest that the Carthaginian senate secretly ordered the generals to eliminate them, the commanders then deceived the mercenaries by placing them on ships under the pretense of a military mission, abandoned them on the isolated island without food or means of escape and left them to die of starvation, after which the island was said to have become covered with their bones.
Both Pliny the Elder…

The island has limited sources of water, and vegetation is consequently scarce. The coast has numerous rocks and grottoes.
Ustica is home to the honeybee Apis mellifera sicula.

Ustica's climate is classified as hot-summer mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa). The annual average temperature is 18.13 °C (64.6 °F), the hottest month in July is 26.58 °C (79.8 °F), and the coldest month is 11.27 °C (52.3 °F) in February. The annual precipitation is 525.72 millimetres (20.70 in), of which October is the wettest with 78.85 millimetres (3.10 in), while July is the driest with only 3.91 millimetres (0.15 in).

As of 2026, the population is 1,323, of which 50.9% are male, and 49.1% are female. Minors make up 12.8% of the population, and seniors make up 30.2%.

Immigration
As of 2025, immigrants make up 4.4% of the population. The 5 largest foreign countries of birth are Romania, Poland, Tunisia, Germany, and India.