‘The Odyssey’ Is Luring Tourists to the Sicilian Island That Stands In for Ithaca — and Could Generate $500 Million in Revenue

Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” and Italy have special ties that are generating rich returns.

The Greek epic was partly shot on the island of Favignana off the west coast of Sicily — which stood in for Ithaca, home to Penelope, her son Telemachus and its legendary, long-lost king Odysseus. The largest of the three Egadi Islands, Favignana is where Nolan and set designer Ruth De Jong found Ithaca’s perfect palace: the 15th century Castello di Santa Caterina, perched atop Monte Santa Caterina, a tall, craggy hill with a stunning view of the countryside and the Mediterranean Sea.

“It was just the most epic landscape, where you could see the water everywhere you were and the ships [used for filming] could pull up,” De Jong says in the film’s press notes.

View of Castello di Santa Caterina from below Monte Santa Caterina.

LightRocket via Getty Images