Aeolian Islands: island-hopping off the coast of Sicily

Pollara and Punta Perciato, Salina, Aeolian Islands, Sicily.

It’s nine o’clock on Saturday night and Corso Vittorio Emanuele is full of families out for their evening stroll or passeggiata as it’s known locally. 

The sounds are of laughter, a violinist playing some Vivaldi and waves washing up on a nearby beach. The warm air is scented with wild orchids and we’re just about to tuck into the paccheri with swordfish, mint and pistachio at Di Vino in Vino, a restaurant which like everywhere in Lipari takes its eating and drinking very seriously.

After three fun but frantic days in Palermo — the hyperactive Sicilian capital is not for the faint-hearted — we’ve come to the largest of the seven Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea looking for la dolce vita, and have most definitely found it.

Just over 37sq km in size, Lipari has 12,565 permanent residents and plenty of space for the visitors who double that number during the summer. We’re among the few English (and Irish!) speakers, with the majority of our fellow Di Vino in Vino diners well-heeled Italians and Germans who put the island on the tourist map in the 1950s and keep flocking there.

Earlier it was love at first sight when our high-speed hydrofoil over from Palermo docked in Marina Lunga, the island and its namesake town’s main port which, thanks to strict planning laws, is as charming as it is bustling with lots of good value hotels and pensiones lining the boardwalk.

Gazing down on it and the rest of the town is Castello di Lipari, a former Greek acropolis that was rebuilt in the 1500s by the Spanish after they’d booted out their arch seafaring rivals, the French.

A vigorous 20 minute walk from the top of Corso Vittoria Emanuele — don’t make the same schoolboy error we did and attempt it in flip-flops — the views from the castle battlements will take what’s left of your breath away.

A busy evening in the streets of Lipari, a World Heritage site, and the largest of the Aeolian Islands off Sicily's northern coast.

The other reward for all of this exertion is the post-descent Limoncello Spritz we have in another of Corso Vittorio Emanuele’s must-visits, Café La Prechhia.

Served in the biggest, frostiest glass we’ve ever seen and totally delicious, it’s impossible not to say, “Un altro, per favore,” whilst contemplating your next move.

Ours is to walk another couple of kilometres to Marina Corto, home to the local fishing fleet, a handful of the restaurants it delivers its catch of the day to, and the forbidding sounding Chiesa delle Anime del Purgatorio, which is actually a beautiful little church that 16th century pirate king Barbarossa once sought sanctuary in.

Wanting to soak up the atmosphere, and try some of that fresh fish, we snare a table at Caffe’ La Vela and praise the food gods when our grouper with tomatoes, capers and olives arrives.

If you’re in need of a cooling dip, nearby Canneto beach is pebbly but pristine with turquoise clear waters and none of the tacky tourist trappings you increasingly find on the Sicilian mainland.

Marina Corta is Lipari's little fishing port, where small boats berth.

You don’t need a car to explore the rest of Lipari with frequent Servizio Extraurbano busses circumnavigating the island and also climbing up into the hills where there’s just enough time to get off at the famous Quattrocchi viewpoint, watch the pink and red sunset and catch the same looping bus back into town.

Armed with the sight-seeing hit-list given to us by the lovely Francesca in Café La Prechhia — oh, that all bar staff were like her — we spend a glorious day visiting the Museo Archeologico Regionale Eoliano in town; the Tenuta di Castellaro winery in the tiny hamlet of Quattropani which is renowned for its volcanic Malvasia; and Pianoconte, a beauty spot on the island’s west coast that positively shimmers in the afternoon sun.

It’d be very easy to spend your entire holiday mooching round Lipari, but there are other islands to explore starting with its nearest neighbour Vulcano, which is just a 15-minute ferry hop away.

Looking like something out of a sci-fi movie, Vulcano is an active volcano which hasn’t erupted since 1890 and, according to the team of geologists stationed on it, is in no imminent danger of doing so again.

If you’re willing to take their word for it, the gas and vapour-spouting fumaroles, hot mud bath and thermal springs bubbling up through the seafloor make for a thrilling, if somewhat smelly experience due to all the sulphur in the air.

Altogether more fragrant is Salina, the second largest of the Aeolian Islands and with its deserted beaches, lush green hills, sprawling vineyards and olive groves running down to the sea, very possibly the prettiest.

The ferry docks in Santa Marina, a town nestling along the slopes of Monte Fossa delle Felci, which has its own volcanic past but is long since dormant.

If it all looks strangely familiar, it’s possibly because Salina featured in Michael Radford’s classic 1994 comedy-drama, Il Postino, which captured the island in all of its spring glory.

Now equipped with proper walking shoes, we followed the well-worn 9km footpath to Lingua, a picture postcard village with a natural lake that at various times of the year is home to egrets, night herons, black-winged stilts, common chiffchaffs and pink flamingos.

As well as being a twitcher’s paradise, Lingua is also home to the sea-facing Il Gambero (Via Garibaldi Marina 4), which serves a fritto misto di calamari e gamberi so fresh and light and succulent that we have it for dinner as well as lunch.

Sleepy for most of the year, Salina becomes Party Spot Central in July and August when the likes of Giorgio Armani, Domenico Dolce and Sting take up residence there and room rates, if you can get one, skyrocket.

During our stay on Salina, we keep on getting tantalising glimpses of Filicudi, one of the smaller Aeolian Islands which is 45 minutes away and has an all-year-round population of just 235.

Wild, wooded and tranquil except for some more of those noisy croaking egrets, its main attraction is, ahem, a phallic rock jutting out of the sea, which the locals tastefully call a ‘fertility atoll’.

Whatever term you use, it’s quite the sight.

Mount Stromboli

We’ve three more islands but just one day to see them in, so after much agonising we decide to say “arrivederci” to the Aeolians with a trip to Stromboli, another active volcano which has mini-eruptions every night.

We take a small boat trip from the foot of Mount Stromboli to see this naturally occurring fireworks display, which is a definite holiday highlight.

The only good thing about not getting to visit Alicudi, a fishing community with no cars because there are no proper roads, and Panarea, the smallest of the Aeolians that also has little in the way of infrastructure, is that we’re just going to have go back again next year for some more lazy island-hopping.

LOCAL DELICACIES 

The Aeolian Islands are renowned for their fresh seafood with swordfish, grouper, bonito, bluefin tuna, calamari, prawns, sea urchins and the wonderfully named red porgy regularly all menu staples.

Local delicacies to look out for include zuppa di San Giuseppe, a hearty soup made with pulses, short pasta, chilli and wild fennel; grouper-stuffed raviolini; Risotto nero coloured with squid ink; Pesca spada alla Ghiotti, swordfish cooked in a spicy tomato, caper and olive sauce; U pani cunzatu, a pesto made of capers, almonds, grilled aubergines, tomato and mint; Pulpiteddi In Tia’Nu, a boiled octopus dish which packs a peppery punch; and Frittata with Vulcano ricotta that’s as creamy as it is tangy.

Wild rabbit is delicious when in season and also keep your tastebuds peeled for Spaccasassi, AKA pickled sea fennel which is treated with great reverence in Filicudi.

The dry Malvasia di Lipari and sweet Malvasia delle Lipari Passito are the pick of the islands’ white wines with the juicy, full-bodied Nero Ossidiana the standout red.

You'll find many of the aforementioned at Restaurant di Filippino, which has been doing its traditional Liparesi thing since 1910 on Piazza Mazzini near the Castello. Make sure to advance book at filippino.it.

ESCAPE NOTES 

Ryanair fly direct to Palermo from Dublin. From there we took a high-speed Liberty Lines ( libertylines.it) hydrofoil, which runs from April to September and takes 3hrs 45mins to reach Lipari. There's also an all-year-round 1hr 5mins hydrofoil crossing with the same carrier from Milazzo on Sicily's northeastern coast, close to Catania.

We stayed in Hotel Borgo Eolie, which is 500 metres from Lipari's Centro Storico and has comfy doubles from €75.

Our favourite months to visit are April, May, September and October, when you're likely to get 25ºC temperatures, beaches pretty much to yourself and the chilled, friendly atmosphere which makes the Aeolians such a delight.

Travel between islands is offered by numerous companies, and is best arranged locally where you can weigh up the options.

• See the relevant visitsicily.info pages for the full Aeolian Islands lowdown.