The Aeolian Islands to the north of Sicily are a volcanic archipelago of 25 islands, islets and outcrops. There are 2 things that fascinate me in this description: the words Sicily and volcanic.
Sicily. You can already imagine its arid soils and mafia, the extravagant pasta dishes in The Big Blue filmed in Taormina, Etna in its mighty supremacy, an incredible giant of fire covered with forests in the heights and magnificent vines at its base.
Volcanic, because the Aeolian Islands are an extraordinary playground for apprentice vulcanologists and professionals alike. There’s Vulcano, where you’ll find the sulphur fumes that sprinkle the summit with a yellowish hue, the underwater bubbles of Panarea and of course the temperamental Stromboli, which has been spewing lava constantly for hundreds of years.
I’d long dreamt of going to the Aeolian Islands by sea, by sailboat from the French coast, but fortunately for me, my impatience led me to take a plane, so this was my third visit, a first for Anna. It’s June 2024. A short 2-hour flight from Marseille took us to Palermo, the capital of Sicily and Cosa Nostra, although we had concentrated more on its ice creams and restaurants during a trip last summer. It’s a magnificent city, where history can be found at the bend of a street and atmosphere can be found along its narrow, lively streets. If you go there, you can try the MadoniEAT restaurant next to the port, where the food is excellent and the wine list beautiful.
Then it’s off to Lipari, the main Aeolian island, where my parents are waiting for us on their boat. We rented a car for a short 3-hour drive along the north coast, where the Tyrrhenian Sea is a sight to behold, until we saw the first islands, Alicudi and Filicudi, appear in the late afternoon mist. We soon reach Milazzo, where the main port serving the islands is located, and where we board an Aliscafo, a very fast foiling boat with an outdated engine that emits heavy plumes of black smoke.
We finally arrived in Lipari for a family reunion, as my parents live in Tunisia, so we don’t see each other every day. We boarded the boat to put away the three bits of clothing we needed on a boat in summer, then had dinner at Osteria San Bartolo, a buonissimo restaurant with an extensive wine list that made us want to try everything (they have a wine shop next door, so we’ll pick up a few bottles for the boat tomorrow morning, especially as they offer 10% to restaurant customers).
The next morning, after a cappuccino and a cornetto all’albicocca (apricot croissant), we set off for lunch in a nearby cove where the turquoise blue of the sea is hypnotic. We then head to Panarea where we spend the night, moored to a buoy (note for novices: a buoy is a concrete ballast weighing several hundred kilos on which a chain or mooring line has been attached to a buoy on the surface, so all the boat has to do is hook onto the buoy to spend the night safely. This avoids the need to go into a port and also avoids boats getting stuck anywhere with their anchors). Panarea is the island of hidden billionaires, so all we’ll be doing there is wandering around the narrow, car-free streets, drinking a spritz to celebrate the first day, and finding a bottle of Arianna Occhipinti‘s Fossa di Lupo 2021 (which we discovered and loved when we visited the estate last summer), before returning to the boat for the night.
It’s quiet all around, all that blue, and it’s good to have a rest after all those months working so hard on the launch of Jalan. That’s when you really realise how much energy we’ve expended – we’re exhausted, but what a magnificent place to relax. The next day we set off for Stromboli, the Aeolian volcano that has been spewing lava non-stop for centuries. On one of my previous visits, I climbed to its summit at an altitude of 900 metres to admire the lava sprays below (following the eruptions of 2019, excursions are now limited to 600 metres). When you consider that the base of the volcano is 2,000m below sea level, you’re looking at a mountain almost 3,000m high. It’s always impressive to sleep at the foot of an active volcano and to see the quiet little village of Stromboli, with fewer than 500 inhabitants living there, ‘not even afraid’.
The next day, we took the boat to the north-western coast of the island to see the Sciara del Fuoco (fire alley), where the incandescent projections flow down to the sea, giving us the opportunity to get out the drone and take some pictures. The week after our visit, Etna and Stromboli took a big hit and when we saw the images on the internet, we were torn between the fact that we’d missed it and the relief of not being there, but it must have been incredible! From there we return to Panarea for a short stopover to take some nice videos and photos in the underwater bubbles. Panarea is the oldest island in the Aeolian Islands and although the volcano itself appears to be extinct, there are bubbles in the sea and occasional steam fumaroles.
We spent the night in Salina, another island, before returning to Lipari, where we spent two nights and a very hectic day, as the wind changed direction, leaving the pontoon very exposed and the boat tumbling around so much that standing upright was a challenge. We took the opportunity to tour the island on a Vespa, which was a very dolce vita way of discovering the island and admiring its many viewpoints. By the way, if you like ice cream, there’s a small travelling salesman called A Carusa Eoliana who makes some incredible ones, but you have to find him on the island – the game of hide-and-seek is well worth the effort. Early the next morning, we were back in Palermo, five hours of sailing, and as soon as the boat was moored we took a taxi to the airport.
The enchanted interlude is over, and it’s done us a world of good. There’s no doubt about it, the Aeolian Islands are among the most beautiful in the Mediterranean. Our only regret on this trip was that we didn’t see any dolphins, but that’s something for another time.