Aeolian Islands
About Aeolian Islands
The Aeolian Islands are the 7 pearls of the Mediterranean. Volcanic islands, with a cobalt-colored sea, among the scents of plants, citrus fruits and vineyards, offer the sensation of not being in Italy but in a place halfway between Europe and Africa (as indeed happens when visiting Sicily). The Aeolian Islands (Vulcano, Lipari, Salina, Panarea, Stromboli, Filicudi and Alicudi) are part of the UNESCO heritage.
All the islands are different from each other, they offer fascinating Sicilian contrasts between food and lifestyle and each island has something different to offer:
Stromboli is an active volcano with a literally prehistoric appearance, generating lava eruptions every 20 minutes for thousands of years. The village of Stromboli is very beautiful with a natural, simple style and certainly the most sensitive people can feel the energy of the volcano under the skin. A small town that deserves to be visited is the small Ginostra with the primacy of the smallest port in the whole Mediterranean where at most two small fishing boats enter. Ginostra is a unique place outside classic tourism.
Panarea is a small island, the most sophisticated of the archipelago with a luxury hotel, restaurants and shops. There is even Panarea fashion. Panarea offers beautiful satellite islands to see only by boat.
In Salina, one of the largest and with excellent connections between the 5 municipalities, you can sip Malvasia (an excellent liqueur) visit the vineyards and taste capers and sun-dried tomatoes of which it has a long tradition. In Salina it is possible to make long excursions of medium-easy level between the two mountains (nature reserves).
Lipari is the main island with a very active local life all year round, Vulcano is another island with an active volcano (without eruptions), you can take mud baths that are good for your skin or climb the crater where you will see a panorama breathtaking on all the Aeolian islands.
Filicudi the so-called island of artists, thanks to the beautiful villas with bold architecture and the wonderful village of Pecorini a Mare.
Alicudi is the smallest and the least visited, very charming for lovers of less traveled places. Even the donkey is still used as baggage transport for the hotel as it is all sloping around the extinct volcano. Consider that there is only one school with a single elementary class that unites all 15 students of all ages and one teacher.
Our recommended yacht cruises in Aeolian Islands
Sailing in the Aeolian Islands is one of the most beautiful experiences one can experience in Sicily and the Mediterranean in general. Since there are countless enchanted places that can be reached by sea. Although numerous motor boats leave from Lipari for short, very crowded day trips, we certainly recommend that you embark for several days or even a week to truly discover some places in this archipelago. As waking up directly in the protected bays of the islands is one of the most beautiful experiences. You will have the chance to see the Stromboli eruptions directly from the sea, to snorkel at the Strombolicchio islet, to land in isolated villages or to disembark on beaches with black sand reachable only by sea! In short, a memorable journey that cannot be compared to visiting the Aeolian Islands with ferries. The recommended boats range from classic sailboats for sailing lovers to schooners that offer ample space.
History
The history of the Aeolian Islands is practically identified with that of Lipari. The first men came there in the middle Neolithic (from the beginning of the fourth millennium BC) coming from Sicily, aboard rudimentary and fragile boats. They were farmers, shepherds, traders. On the islands they had found obsidian, the most precious mineral of those times. in the first centuries of the fourth millennium BC, the first inhabited nucleus was built on the castle of Lipari. At the end of the 3rd millennium BC, with the beginning of the Bronze Age, new ethnic groups arrived in Lipari and the Aeolian Islands, arriving also from Mycenaean Greece, which, with daring navigations, explored western seas. From these wind power the islands drew the name they still retain. To these are reported the legends of the mythical king Aeolus, lord of the winds, mentioned in Homer's Odyssey.
Depopulated at the end of the 10th century BC, perhaps due to rivalry between different peoples for the maritime supremacy of the lower Tyrrhenian, the islands remained almost deserted for some centuries.
The new settlers found themselves first of all in the need to defend themselves against Etruscan raids (Tirenni). They then had to set up a powerful fleet, with which they brought back great victories against them, securing supremacy over the Tyrrhenian Sea.
We have no information on Lipari throughout the Roman imperial age (I-IV century AD)
In the centuries of the high Middle Ages, Lipari was therefore a destination for pilgrims, who settled here from neighboring and distant countries. Around the Aeolian Islands, particularly in Lipari and Vulcano, a rich and colorful harvest of traditions flourished in the early Middle Ages. The Vulcano crater was then considered as the mouth of Hell.
In 839, Lipari was attacked and destroyed by an incursion of Muslims who massacred and deported the population and profaned the relics of St. Bartholomew.
Lipari remained for some centuries almost completely deserted, until the Normans reconquered Sicily, which in 1083 installed the abbot Ambrogio with a nucleus of Benedictine monks on Lipari. Around the monastery, of which vestiges remain beside the cathedral, an urban nucleus returned to form.
In 1131 the bishopric of Lipari was reconstituted together with that of Patti. Roberto I, King of Naples, in 1340, took possession of Lipari. In 1540 the city was sacked by the ferocious pirate Ariadeno Barbarossa, who took away the unhappy inhabitants as slaves. Lipari was subsequently rebuilt and repopulated by Charles V and since then followed the fate of Sicily and the realm of Naples.
Weather in Aeolian Islands
No precipitation throughout the week.
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Events in Aeolian Islands
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