Hilary's Adventure: Aeolian Islands

Day 1: To start our adventure to the Aeolian island we first had to leave Palermo. That wasn’t too difficult as the train station was only about a 15min walk away. Once at the station we discovered we just missed our train to Milazzo (bugger). The next train wasn’t going to be for 2 hours but there was going to be a fast train in that time. It was going to be more expensive but not as much as we thought so we paid it and hoped on. It was about 2.5 hours to Milazzo, not to bad and we had a compartment all to ourselves.

Once at Milazzo we made our way down to the port and buy tickets for the Hydrofoil to our island. There was meant to be a boat at 1.15pm but it was late (we soon discovered this was normal). It didn’t arrive till about 1.30pm and on we got. It first visited Vulcano Island before going onto ours. We were staying on Lipari the biggest island and the one with the most accommodation and life. The place we were staying at said that if we gave them a call they will pick us up from the port and drive us to our apartment so we did and they were waiting when we arrived.

The place we were staying was about a 5 min walk from the Main Street and about 15 min to the port for the ferries and hydrofoils. When we arrived we discovered we had a 3 level apartment all to ourselves. It had 2 bathrooms, full kitchen, bedroom, balcony and a terrace on the roof. We thought this was fabulous.

After the lady explained everything we went exploring the town and what was there. This was a little pointless as it was about 3pm in the middle of their lunch/nap time. There wasn’t anything open, even the supermarket closed. We thought this was all a little stupid because we wanted food and a drink. After wondering for a couple of hours we went back to the flat for a nap. We thought everyone else was doing that so we may as well too. After our nap we went looking for dinner. After dinner it was home to blob and sleep.

Day 2: We got up late and headed into town. We managed to catch the supermarket while it as open so we got lunch stuff and headed back to the flat to have some lunch. We didn’t do much else for the rest of the day as we kept going out when everything was closed.

Day 3: We tried to get to another island to explore that one. We discovered that the weather was too bad for boats to go out so no exploring other islands. We didn’t think the weather was that bad just very very very windy. So we decided to do a bus of the island. There were local buses headed either clockwise or anti clock wise round the island to the different towns. We just jumped on the next bus that arrived and went to see it went. We are still don’t really know where it went but the whole journey took about 1.5 hours. We didn’t want to get off because we were not sure when the next one was going to come back. It also looked like if you jump off you go hiking to some of the beaches and towns that you can only get to if you drive or walk. I didn’t really want to go hiking to a beach that was too cold to swim in or another town that was having it nap time.

On the island nap time was from 1pm till about 5pm every day. Sun was even longer it was from about 1pm and not reopens till Monday morning. We always seem to be out when everything closed, it took us a good 4 days to be in the Italian swing of things.

For the rest of the day after the bus trip we just sat around playing cards and not really doing very much.

We did manage to find someone to wash our clothes. We thought there would be a laundry or something like that in the high street for tourist in high season but there wasn’t. We ended up asking at one of the bars if there was one around. She said there wasn’t but she uses a lady and she would be happy to organise for her to come to the bar to pick up the clothes and bring back the next day. Kyle said yes so all sorted.

Day 4: Again bad weather so no boats going to the other islands. The ticket guy was looking hopeful about tomorrow so we planned for tomorrow instead.

For the rest of the day we went and had a look at the church on the hill. We were not allowed inside either because it was nap time or because it was winter so closed for a few months. We had a nice wonder round looking at the outside and the grounds. It looked like at one point it had nuns and monks living inside but we couldn’t see any sign of this now. After wondering round for a few hours we headed back to the flat for some lunch and nap. We didn’t really do much else for the day.

Day 5: We got off the island finally! The wind had finally died down enough that boats were out moving again round the islands. So we headed for Vulcano Island. The guide book said there was a good easy walk up to the crater that was still smoking and active. We landed on the island after a 15min boats ride. The 2 islands are right next door to each other so it is no time at all for the boat ride. Once on the island we headed for the volcano. The island had an awful smell or rotten eggs. We found the walking path with no problems but at the start was a big warning sign in a few languages about toxic gas on the volcano. We headed up anyway. The walk wasn’t that hard just very steep. It took us about an hour to get to the crater and where all the smoke was coming from. The small was awful up here! As we walked round the edge of the crater I started to get light headed from the fumes so I decided to head down the volcano a bit as Kyle walked the edge. I found a nice smoothish rock to sit on and wait. It was quite warm on my rock when the sun was out but very cold when the clouds moved across. When Kyle came back we headed down the volcano back to the port. It took us about 20 – 30min to walk back to the port because it was all downhill.

At port there were some mud baths the guide book talked as being good to have a swim in. When we got there it looked like a big hole someone had dug then filled it with mud and water. If it was warmer we would have gone in but it was windy and cold so we decided not to. We were going to have lunch on the island but it was all closed either for winter or early nap time. The next boat back wasn’t too far away so we decided to head back for lunch and a nap.

Back on Lipari we went to the supermarket for lunch things to eat. We went back to the flat for lunch and to play cards. There wasn’t much else we could do till dinner. For the rest of the day we played card went out for dinner then bed. The hike took it out of us.

Day 6: Today we headed off to the Island of Salina to do some exploring. The guide book said there was a really great restaurant that was run by a guy from New York doing modern Italian food. He had won all sorts of awards for his food so we thought it was worth a shot for lunch. Alas no luck he had closed for renovations over winter.

Next we decided to walk to the next town to see what we could find. Again the book suggested a café that did really good cold coffee drinks and ice cream so we thought we would give that a go. We were not as hopeful of this place being open because it was promoting summer cold drink and things but we thought we may as well have a look. The walk wasn’t far only about 3km along a very windy road that reminded me of the great ocean road. Once we arrived at the next down it looked deserted. We were not sure if that was because of it being nap time or because it was winter. We pottered round for about an hour then headed back to the port to see if we might be able to get a boat back or some lunch. We thought if there was going to be a shop open it was going to be in port with all the boats coming and going. We managed to find a café open because a ferry had just pulled up and it was open to serve the workers on the ferry. We grabbed some lunch and contemplated what we were going to do next. We had originally come to the island to walk up a volcano but it was going to take us longer to go up and back then we had time before the last boat.

We decided it was time to head back so we went to the ticket office to see when the next boat was leaving for Lipari. Luckily that ferry that had just pulled in was heading back to our island so we jumped on it and went home.

For the rest of the day we just chilled out and did some washing. There wasn’t much to do till after nap time was over. Once nap time was over we headed out for dinner and then to bed.

Day 7: this is our last day on the island. By this point I was ready to leave. If it was summer we would have spent the day swimming and doing other things but being winter there wasn’t much to do. We had relaxed and chilled out as much as we could and we were board. So we slept in and milled around slowing using up all the left overs for lunch. Then after lunch we went for a wonder round the island to see if there were any last minute things we wanted to do or see. We couldn’t find much so we headed back to the flat and played games till dinner time. We headed down the road for dinner then back to the flat to pack and a last minute clean before leaving in an early boat the next day.

Over all the island were good but it would have been better to go when it was a little warmer.