Secca della Colombara

The bank is a large massif with a broad tabletop, its sides either vertical and sheer or falling away in gentler steps, and the top comes up to 2.5 metres where it takes the full weight of any swell. The northwest side is the most frequented corner of the site: the 2005 wreck lies here, and above it barracuda turn in slow columns while shoals of curious amberjack come in for a look. Big grouper move between the basalt columns and blocks of marble that made up the wreck's cargo, scattered now across the bottom.

Swing west and the ground opens into a wide, deeper plateau at 25 to 30 metres that slopes gently away toward greater depth. Red gorgonians grow in numbers along the edge of the tabletop, and shoals of saddled seabream and dentex work across it alongside the ever-present grouper. To the north stands the bow of the wreck, a spectral shape in iron with a heavy line reaching up from it toward the surface.

The south wall is the colour side, dropping steeply and packed with moray eels, crustaceans and nudibranchs; at the foot of the overhang, at around 40 metres, a rocky step carries a very large cup sponge. Between the south and west walls a rocky crest rises to a pinnacle crusted with parazoanthus, astroides and coloured sponges, a good line to follow back up. Hundreds of peacock wrasse in rainbow livery see you through the safety stop.