Smouldering
volcanoes, bubbling mud baths and steaming fumaroles make these tiny
islands north of Sicily a truly hot destination.
Astonishingly beautiful and extremely varied, the seven islands and
various uninhabited islets of the Aeolian archipelago were designated a
Unesco World Heritage Site in 2000. Their volcanic origins left a
dramatic legacy of black-sand beaches, smouldering craters and
splintered, rocky coastlines. Island-hoppers can discover their
individual charms: from the spartan conical Alicudi, where donkeys are
the only form of land transport, to the international jet-set playground
of Panarea.
North of Sicily in the Tyrrhenian Sea, the
archipelago was named after Aeolus, god of the winds, by Greek settlers.
This has been a volatile part of the world ever since Filicudi, the
first land mass, emerged from the sea 600,000 years ago. There are two
active volcanoes, Stromboli and Vulcano, and volcanic activity of some
kind, whether steaming fumaroles or thermal waters waiting to be tapped,
on most of the other islands. Winter storms see the islands cut off for
days.
Like many coastal communities, the islands, with a total
population of 10,000, have very different characters depending on the
season. The head count swells to 200,000 in summer: ports fill with
yachts; bars and beaches overflow with the very beautiful and the very
wealthy. In August, the rich and famous sail in to Panarea on their
multi-million-euro yachts to occupy villas or €500-a-night hotel rooms,
and they don't do it quietly. This is easily the most fashionable and
expensive of the islands, but there is more variety in the Aeolians than
a quick jaunt around Panarea's shores in peak season might lead you to
believe.
Lipari
The largest of the Aeolian Islands,
Lipari is also the only one with a sizeable town, a substantial
year-round population and much in the way of industry. Pumice quarries
have taken huge bites out of the mountains, though mining has recently
been banned and there are plans to create a 'geo-park' with an
eco-museum and thermal baths. Although the town has its attractions (the
fortified acropolis, some flower-hung alleys, the pretty harbour of
Marina Corta), it's not a very sophisticated place. Gaudy sarongs,
mass-produced jewellery and overpriced tourist menus compete for
visitors' attention with hardware stores, chandleries and the
archipelago's main supermarket.
The coast around here is wild,
rocky and, best of all, undeveloped, with splintered rocks offshore and
extraordinary views. It's inaccessible by car, but you can reach it on
foot at Valle Muria, where there's a beach (and, in season, boats to and
from the port), or at Punta delle Fontanelle.
The coastal
highlight is the footpath along the coast between the Terme di San
Calogero and the kaolin quarry at Bagnosecco, where the surface of the
creamy white kaolin has been stained indigo, violet, orange, mustard,
blue and verdigris by emissions from steaming sulphurous fumaroles.
Vulcano
Although
awash with eminently marketable novelties (a constantly smouldering
volcano, the chance to wallow in warm mud baths and swim above bubbling
mid-sea fumaroles), Vulcano has been developed in careless fashion. The
little town has the unfinished look of a Western film set, and the
promontory of Vulcanello is studded with bland luxury hotels. There's
also nowhere decent to eat, though this isn't necessarily a bad thing:
the pervading rotten-egg stink of sulphur may already have killed your
appetite.
The path up to the crater begins about a kilometre out
of town on the road to Gelso, marked by a sign warning of the dangers of
inhaling volcanic gases. The climb (access €3) takes less than an hour,
though you'll need hiking boots to cope with the slitheriness of the
ashy track.
The Fanghi di Vulcano (mud baths) and offshore
fumaroles are a couple of minutes' walk from the port. Don't wear
contact lenses, don't let kids play in the mud - and don't be surprised
if you stink of sulphur for a couple of days afterwards. Alternatively,
you could head to the rather more genteel Oasi della Salute spa, which
has three thermal hydromassage pools and a beauty centre (00 39 090 985
2093, closed October to March).
Salina
Twin-peaked Salina
is the greenest of the islands, famous for its starring role in the 1994
film Il Postino. Santa Marina Salina, the main port, is notable for its
long, traffic-free main street, where chic boutiques and down-to-earth
food shops occupy the ground floors of the substantial 19th-century
houses built by those who made their fortune selling sweet Malvasia wine
to the British. Most of these entrepreneurs lost their fortunes in 1890
when phylloxera destroyed 90 per cent of the vines and prompted a mass
exodus to Australia (and the start of that country's wine industry), but
viticulture in the area has been revitalised. Local wines can be tasted
at vineyards such as Fenech at Malfa (00 39 090 984 4041;
fenech.it), Caravaglio at Capofaro (00 39 090 9843420) and D'Amico at Leni (00 39 090 980 9123).
The
story of the island and of the emigration are vividly evoked in two
tiny folk museums, the Museum of Emigration in Malfa (00 39 090 984
4008) and the Ethnographic Museum in Lingua (090 984 3128). However, you
are more likely to want to spend your time in Lingua lying on the stony
beach or lingering over a granita at the famous Da Alfredo bar.
Spring
and autumn are the best times to climb Monte Fossa delle Felci, the
highest peak in the archipelago (summer being too hot and winter prone
to sudden storms). The best way to see the south of the island is to
take a bus to the village of Leni then follow a series of mule tracks
down the mountain to Rinella, where there's good swimming from a
black-sand beach.
If you can, try to be at Pollara, the setting
for Il Postino, at sunset. A simple trattoria, Il Cappero, and a hotel,
La Locanda del Postino (00 39 090 984 3958; www.
lalocandadelpostino.it), have recently opened here, but there are no shops or bars out of season.
Panarea
If
you aren't a member of the rich and famous posse who hang out at
painfully cool Hotel Raya or take their sunset aperitivi at the Bridge
Sushi Bar in the port, Panarea in August is probably best avoided. But
if you want to swim, walk or take boat trips around what is probably the
most beautiful of the Aeolian Islands, come in spring or autumn. The
hotels are generally pretty expensive, but Pippo and Maria (00 39 090
983060) have perfectly nice rooms to rent in a quiet part of the
village.
Be sure to take the 40-minute walk to the dark gold
sandy beach of Zammarà and the magnificent bay of Cala Junca beyond, at
the foot of a promontory topped by the foundations of Bronze Age huts. A
20-minute walk to the other side of the village brings you to the beach
of Calcara, where fumaroles steaming through sulphur-stained rocks led
ancient Panareans to believe it was an entrance to the Underworld. A
boat trip out to the offshore islets is another must. The formation and
colours of the rock on each are unique. Below tiny Basiluzzo, when the
sea is calm and clear, you can see the remains of a Roman port and
clamber up to the ruins of a Roman villa; nearby Lisca Bianca has
submarine fumaroles bubbling at the surface of the sea, little sandy
beaches and cliffs that have been stained yellow.
Stromboli
When
Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman arrived on Stromboli in 1949 to
shoot Stromboli, Terra di Dio, there was no hotel. A local teacher,
Domenico Russo, provided Bergman with a house and secured the house next
door for Rossellini, so the two could meet without compromising their
reputations. After the film was released and tourists began to visit
Stromboli, Russo opened the island's first hotel.
These days, it's
the volcano that attracts most of Stromboli's visitors. The vast
majority arrive brandishing alpenstocks and looking like hopefuls for
the Foreign Legion. But if you're in reasonable shape, all you need to
reach the top is trekking boots, a torch, a warm jacket, some water and
€30 for your a place on a guided walk, which takes two hours and is
timed so that you arrive on the summit at sunset.
The best
beaches on Stromboli are the little coves of black sand tucked into lava
crags along the coast at Piscità, from which there are fine views of
the islet of Strombolicchio.
Filicudi & Alicudi
The
tarmac road that connects the small settlements on Filicudi gives a
false impression of the island. Villages that seem far apart are just a
few minutes' walk from one another along the old mule tracks that cut
through the terraces, and the island as a whole is best seen on foot or
by boat. With a seabed that's home to scores of ancient shipwrecks,
Filicudi offers some interesting diving. If you don't dive, take a boat
trip around the island to see the hidden sea grotto, scene of a
candlelit festival every year on 15 September.
The port is the
least attractive part of the island. Head instead for the tiny fishing
port of Pecorini a Mare, where there's little to do except eat good
food, beachcomb (Filicudi has some of the best shells in the
archipelago), and walk up to the clifftop belvedere to watch the sun set
over the rock known as La Canna. Alicudi, by contrast, is an
uncompromising cone rising from the sea, and can be scaled only by
heaving yourself up steps a giant's stride high. Most visitors love it
or hate it. There are just 80 year-round inhabitants and, it's said,
most of them loathe the sight of each other. Rumour, superstition and
ghost sightings abound, as does the conviction that some Alicudari are
blessed with the power to divert cyclones.
