La vita dell'isole

Milazzo, whence we would depart for the Aeolian Islands, is on the north coast of Sicily. I thought we were driving straight there from Giardini-Naxos, but it seems there are no good roads across the interior of the island at that point. Our coach took us up the coast, past Messina, and back around to Milazzo.

Fisher folk at work

We had time for a short walk along the lovely waterfront, and then we were off to our destination in Lipari. Taormina blew us away, but in the seaside island town of Lipari (the main town) we were quietly charmed. There was a small amount of tourist business, but the waterfront was dominated by the fishing trade.

The beautiful Arciduca Grand Hotel is just a short walk up the hill from the piers. We settled in, had lunch at the hotel (decent as I recall — the one with the huge, delicious cannoli?), and set off on a walking tour, down narrow lanes, into the Basilica Concattedrale di San Bartolomeo (St. Bartholemew is patron of fisherpeople, and apparently there are two cathedrals), and then across the Piazza Municipio.

Lipari Castle above the village

We climbed up a street past rather nice shops (noted), and up to Lipari Castle, site of excellent views and an archaeological museum. Sadly for us, museum visits weren't part of this tour, unless we managed to do them on our own during free time. Reviews say this is a good one. Nearby is the Lipari Amphitheatre with another spectacular view. Of course, there was also a church, Santa Lucia del Mela, an ornate baroque church with fancy decor and artwork.

The relentless way up

We saw walls. Historical walls. One was from what had been a tower built by Greeks in the 4th century CE. One was the wall of a 16th-century (Habsburg) Spanish fort. And finally a tower and gate of a 13th century fort. As always, Sicily comes in layers.

A group granita treat was promised from a shop at the foot of the street. We weren't in the mood, so we stopped in at previously noted shops. We bought rather nice cotton scarves (actually Indian prints) from a pleasant scarf-selling woman. They came in handy during the rest of the tour. When we ran into our peeps at the granita café, it turned out that an espresso granita, sort of like affogato, had been ordered but abandoned untouched! I remedied that situation, happily.

The reward

Back at the ranch, it was sunny and mild and a little breezy, and our room had a really nice bright covered balcony with chairs and a table. Our second hand-washing of socks and underwear and a few other things went better than our first in Siracusa, mostly because the balcony was superb for drying stuff quickly.

We had hardly used our room TVs up to this point, but at the Arciduca we had to turn on the TV to get wi-fi. I'd never seen that before. We got engrossed for a while in what we could understand of an Italian broadcast about a woman who claimed to have stigmata and was accused of defrauding people out of molti Euros. When Italian TV no longer sparked joy, we turned on BBC World to watch pre-coronation hoohah (with the sound low).

Model of folkloric Lipari village

We were served dinner at the hotel. I think one course was grilled prawns (mine: one a bit off, one good, one fresh and sweet). The moon was full, rising over the harbour, and Sweetie and I went to the rooftop balcony for the best view.

I think it was the next morning, after too much breakfast (of course), that we had a bit of free time, so we strolled down to the waterfront early, and on the way bought an obsidian necklace from the craftsman himself (in passable Italian, since he spoke little English).

We visited a church right on the pier called the Chiesa delle Anime del Purgatorio. It was a lovely small church built in the 16th century after pirates attacked in 1544, devastated the town, and deported most of the population. Apparently, the dedication is related to those people and their suffering. The church contains an extraordinary model of the past of the town of Lipari.

Apse of the Chiesa di San Pietro

We returned to our wi-fi linked TV just short of coronation time. Then we met up with our group and we were off on a ferry to have lunch in Panarea, a pretty island not far from Lipari. We were told Panarea is known mostly for being a favourite haunt of young people, and we saw evidence of that later after another ferry had arrived. We had an excellent lunch that was not cucina tipica siciliana — penne with pesto, a Ligurian dish — in a sheltered outdoor patio, then had some free time.

We stopped for (sadly) just-OK gelato. We walked up a narrow road to the Chiesa di San Pietro, a simple but lovely church. It featured drawings by school children with an antiwar theme (without mentioning, of course the precondition for peace that is Russia leaving all of Ukraine).

Then came the ferry that took us to Stromboli, the town and island and volcano of the same name. I disliked this waterfront, despite the authentic fishing presence. The facilities were the tackiest tourist places I'd seen in our travels. Up the street, however, things were nicer and much less touristy. We walked up, took a photo of Ritrovo Ingrid, a bar named for the fact that Ingrid Bergman had lived for a time on the island. The Chiesa de San Vincenzio was very white and not particularly fancy, but then something magical happened. Some women started praying and singing in a private service to the Virgin Mary. It was beautiful and moving.

Blogger balked at video of flame

Dinner at Ristorante Bar Pizzeria Da Luciano was pizza! Wood-fired-oven thin-crust Neapolitan pizza, much to the delight of those jonesing for pizza. "Individual" pizzas were huge, but that's how they came. My alla Norma (beautiful sweet eggplant) was delicious, and somehow I ate the whole thing, with a beer. Sweetie did some respectable damage to her Margarita pizza. There was good cheer all around.

We straggled back down the hill. A bunch of us suddenly realized we'd missed a cutoff and found ourselves at a dead end. We backtracked just enough to be able to cut through to the beach, far away from where we had gone up.

The tour boat took us (and many others) off Stromboli and around the island to the best spot from which to view the active volcano. We were already seeing smoke before the sun set, and when it started to get dark, that's when we saw a few spouts of flame and lava. It was great fun!

Moon was orangier than this

Then the boat headed back to Lipari at high speed on its hydrofoil blades. It was chilly above so I went below for a while, but it was too crowded and warm and full of coughing people, so I went back above deck. I hunkered down behind some tanks to cut the wind and enjoyed the rest of the ride facing aft — the just-past-full moon rising on my right, Venus unusually high in the western sky on my left, the north star just left of the stern, and stars all around. I was never cold. It was pretty magical.

We made our way back to the hotel in the dark for one more night before our brief return to the mainland of Sicily before crossing into the mainland of Italy.

Pancho loved Lipari and wants to come back