When my friend Toni asked me to join her sailing trip around the Aeolian Islands, I was practically packed and ready to go within the hour. I'd always wanted to go sailing but, let's face it, it's not a realistic holiday goal for most, and Sicily seemed like the perfect place to explore, learn some Italian for my ab initio course this year, and work on my non-existent tan.
For anyone not familiar with the Aeolian Islands, they're a collection of tiny but beautiful volcanic islands just off the coast of Sicily. Toni's family had planned a route around the majority of these islands (excluding the less interesting and downright miniscule ones) for after our journey from Palermo to Sant'Agata. From there we promptly climbed aboard the catamaran and sunbathed until it was ready to be sailed to the first island of Volcano - inspiration for the word 'volcano' in Italian.
Volcano features a black sand beach, natural mud baths, an active though not particularly energetic volcano and a gorgeously inviting bay chock full of jellyfish. After Volcano, which was stunning and made us feel like we had been transported to Jurassic Park, we made our way around Lipari, Salina, Panarea and Stromboli.
Lipari is known as the 'capital city' of the islands. Its bustling market town by the beach boasts a huge variety of restaurants and shops and is a hotspot for day trips from the mainland. Outside the pretty cobbled streets of the town, Lipari was gorgeous with a typically Mediterranean landscape of windswept highlands, precipitous cliffs and dreamy blue waters.
Salina's landscape was shockingly lush and vibrant compared to the other islands. This is due to its being the only one to have fresh water springs and to showcase the typical Aeolian diet with plenty of fresh seafood and their famous Malvasia wine (produced here in Salina) which is drunk after a meal.
We nicknamed the next island (Panarea) 'expensive island’, owing to its chic restaurants and upmarket boutiques, as well as their being a villa there owned by Dolce & Gabbana. Panarea's party atmosphere is created by luxury super yachts crowding the island in the summer, before practically closing down as tourist season ends.
The final and definitely most eagerly awaited island we visited was Stromboli. This island is dominated by its huge and active volcano, which erupts with dramatic smoke every fifteen to twenty minutes sending huge boulders cascading down into the sea. For this reason, sailing or swimming within four hundred metres of one side of the island is prohibited, but it remains a stunning sight and extremely popular for tourists. There is even the option of night-time boat trips which run specifically so that one can witness the lava spewing up like fireworks. Unfortunately, no lava was seen on our day time trip. Nonetheless, it was still my personal favourite of the islands all thanks to the volcano's dramatic eruptions and command of the island below; the perfect finale to the perfect trip.
Plain Sailing
viaggi