Visualizza Isole Eolie in una mappa di dimensioni maggiori
The Aeolian
Islands (Isole Eolie) lie to the north of Sicily (Mediterranean Sea -
Southern Tyrrhenian Sea N38 29 16.3 E14 56 44.1) and are in the summer a main
tourist resort, attracting up to 200,000 visitors. The islands were colonized by the Greeks around 580 BC. They named them after the God
of the Wind Aeolus. The largest island is
Lipari, and the others include Vulcano, Salina and Stromboli Panarea, Filicudi
and Alicudi. The town of Lipari has about 11,000 inhabitants. Vulcano is famous
for its mud baths. The Aeolian Islands
have been listed by the UNESCO as World Heritage Sites Vulcano is the
southernmost island and has some hot springs, really worth visiting Lipari - the
largest island with most inhabitants and the best tourist infrastructure. But for real
adventure you should head out to Stromboli.
Seven little volcanic
islands surrounded by a warm and deep sea in an out-of-time atmosphere recalling
a history of sea-adventures going back 5000 years: that's how long man's
presence on these islands dates back. Holiday planning offers the chance of an
extraordinary range of ideas in a natural and largely untouched environment: the
main island Lipari,
the green landscapes of Salina, the
wild nature of Alicudi and Filicudi, the sophisticated Panarea and
the charming Vulcano and Stromboli. They have a strong volcanic character and on most of them some
volcanic activity can still be experienced: the Gran Cratere on the island of
Vulcano, finished off with sulphur smells and hot mud baths, of course, and the
Stromboli.
Film makers have been using the dramatic scenery as a backdrop
since the 40s, more recently the jet set moved in, but John Weich finds that the
volcanic Aeolian Islands can still lay claim to being the Mediterranean's last
remote paradise
The Aeolian
archipelago is a cluster of seven volcanic islands ranging in size from three to
37 square kilometres whimsically scattered off the northern coast of Sicily.
Lipari, Salina, Vulcano, Stromboli, Filicudi, Alicudi and Panarea are reachable
almost exclusively by boat. For spoiled point-to-point travellers there are
helicopter pads, but no airports. Cars are either banned or, when allowed,
greatly outnumbered by loud Piaggio three-wheelers and their quieter golf cart
counterparts.
Without
exception, Aeolian hotels are family affairs with home cooking and friendly
service. Many of the islands had no mains electricity until just over a decade
ago; locals stayed in touch with the outside world by wiring radios to car
batteries.
Over the last
half century, this remoteness, coupled with a dramatic backdrop of white pumice
cliffs and black volcanic sand has proven to be an effective potion for
cinematic backdrops - from Roberto Rossellini's gorgeous but depressing Stromboli, Terra Di Dio in 1949 to Michelangelo Antonioni's 1960
masterpiece L'Avventura. More recently, Michael Radford filmed his
tear-jerking Il Postino (The Postman) in the village of Pollara on the
island of Salina; so great has been the influx of cinetourists to the house
where Philippe Noiret's on-screen character, the poet Pablo Neruda laid low in
exile, that the owners have put up a sign asking to be left alone.
"The Postman" by Massimo Troisi
"L'Avventura" by M. Antonioni
"Stromboli" by Roberto Rossellini
Yet while cinema
put the Aeolians on the map, designer doyens Dolce and Gabbana, who have
a house on Stromboli, has given them status, attracting partygoers such as Naomi Campbell.
For truly
unmitigated solitude you have to visit this region in the off-season when locals
are busy retouching their homes and tending to the tiny vineyards that flourish
in the volcanic soil. And save for a few weeks each year even the popular
Panarea is comfortably empty, its stone paths hidden under hibiscus and wild
caper bushes. Only Lipari, the largest island in the group and the closest to
Sicily, intimates it is a serious year-round tourist mainstay, with its
pervasive racks of postcards and cruise ships already moored offshore.
Most recently,
tourism has reached the outermost Aeolian islands of Alicudi and Filicudi. At
Filicudi's dilapidated port, the island is largely uninhabited and delightfully
empty. There is no de facto centre, and the residences are spread across its 9.5
square kilometres of overgrown vegetation. Even the most fashionable spot, the
black-pebble hamlet of Pecorini Mare, is decidedly low-key. In the last five
years, Filicudi has become increasingly popular, but remains undeveloped due to
intentionally labyrinthine building regulations.
Nearby Alicudi is
protected from wide-scale development by its steep banks. The island, which
markets itself as "the last remote paradise" of the Aeolians, lacks not only
streetlights but streets. Regardless, forward-thinking tourists have slowly been
purchasing homes on both islands.
Pizzeria
Slow Food Music & Lounge Bar da Conti Vulcano"A Zammara"
Black Sand Beach
Vulcano -
Porto Ponente - 98050
Tel: +39 090 9852012
But the true
bastion of isolation in the Aeolian Islands is the village of Ginostra on
the south-west side of Stromboli. It has possibly the smallest natural
port in the world; there are no cars, no hotels and, until a few months ago, no
electricity. For years, it has been the private domain of Europe's most
exhaustive travellers, the Germans, who have done their best to keep this quiet
paradise all to themselves. How they found it is not recorded, but the key
probably lies in a reclusive German donkey owner who showed up 20 years ago for
some R&R and never left, preferring instead the menial business of hauling
visitors' luggage up and down the steep, zigzagging path. Unfortunately, the
German's days of solitude are probably numbered, and not just because of the
arrival of electricity. The new, artificial port currently under construction
will make the island more accessible to both hydrofoils and yachts. The German
donkey owner is dismayed: "With electricity, this place is destined to become
vulgar like the rest." Vulgar, of course,
is subjective. The Aeolian archipelago remains a fantastically preserved outpost
and one of the few remaining places in western Europe where you can truly feel
alone. It is tempting to jump in a boat and visit each island, to undertake a
modern-day odyssey as depicted in Nanni Moretti's Caro Diario (1994), but
don't. In the summer,
travelling by hydrofoil can be a congested and tedious affair, and though you
can see your destination, it often takes hours to get there. Instead, limit
yourself to one or two of the islands, and enjoy the extravagant Aeolian
cuisine, its olive oil, its capers and its Malvasia.
The Aeolian Islands Smouldering volcanoes, bubbling mud baths and steaming fumaroles make these tiny islands north of Sicily a truly hot destination. This extract from Time Out's new Italy guide reveals the best places to eat, sleep and playAstonishingly 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.
Email: info@eoliehotel.comWHY GO ( from Condé Nast Traveller) Once the haunt of ancient deities, the beautiful Aeolian Islands off Sicily are now worshipped for their glittering nightlife and smouldering volcanoes. They are a mixed bag of rough and sparkling jewels that attract an equally mixed crowd of Milanese magnates, Sicilian princes, families in search of a quiet holiday, an international fashion crowd and a few Italian northerners in the know. It was here in the 50s, that their bold colours and dramatic light caught the eye of director Roberto Rossellini, who filmed his new lover Ingrid Bergman on Stromboli, in the film of the same name. Stromboli still blows its top regularly, but not much else on the Aeolians has changed. And nowadays, you can party on Panarea and have thalasso treatments on Vulcano
Hotel Giardino sul Mare ***