{"id":4576,"date":"2010-08-23T17:09:02","date_gmt":"2010-08-23T15:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.martinvarsavsky.net\/?p=4576"},"modified":"2012-12-12T18:22:32","modified_gmt":"2012-12-12T17:22:32","slug":"the-sicilian-islands-aeolian-aegadian-and-pantelleria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.martinvarsavsky.net\/?p=4576","title":{"rendered":"The Sicilian Islands: Aeolian, Aegadian and Pantelleria"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have had Aphrodite for 10 years now. \u00a0During those years I have been able to combine my life as an entrepreneur and my life as a sailor getting around 20 to 40 days on board per year. \u00a0Aphrodite spends summers in the Mediterranean and winters in the Caribbean, so she has many Atlantic crossings under her belly. \u00a0She is a 92 feet Ketch built by Vitters<\/a> in the Netherlands and designed by Andre Hoek<\/a> with one purpose in mind, safe and fast cruising. \u00a0With its flashed deck Aphrodite is the perfect explorer sailboat.<\/p>\n

\"Aphrodite<\/p>\n

And this summer we once more put Aphrodite to the test together with Nina my wife and Isa, Tom and Leo. For close to two weeks we sailed the islands around Sicily and what follows is a review of them that can serve others as a guide of what to do and what to avoid in the Sicilian Islands.<\/p>\n

Aeolian Islands
\n<\/strong>
\nMy short take on them is that you should only use Capo Milazzo as the port of embarcation for sailing the Aeolians but waste no time there. \u00a0Avoid Lipari and Vulcano in August because they are the most popular of the Aeolian Islands and if you are on a sailboat you can do better than that, and focus on the rest which are absolutely phenomenal. \u00a0Sail directly from Milazzo to Stromboli.<\/p>\n

Stromboli<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"stromboli\"<\/strong>Stromboli is one of the jewels of the Med but there are caveats. \u00a0The island has two towns, Stromboli itself and Ginastra. \u00a0Stromboli is charming but quite touristy and just not as elegant as say Panarea or Ginastra itself in the same island. \u00a0So while most people spend time in Stromboli, I recommend making Ginastra the center of your exploration. \u00a0For example, while going up to the volcano<\/a> is organized with guides and many tourists on the Stromboli side, if you are like me and prefer to open your own path and be alone, put on a pair of jeans (as the path that goes up from Ginastra to Stromboli is barely used and has many thorny plants) and go up on your own. \u00a0In Stromboli we mostly ate on board so I have no restaurants to recommend. \u00a0After seven the Guardia Costiera leaves the area where the volcano spits lava ever 15 minutes or so and you can get as close to the volcano as you want.<\/p>\n

Panarea<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Panarea\"When you sail from Stromboli to Panarea there are three tiny islands that are worth a stop. \u00a0They are all beautiful and the middle island has a sulphur gas that comes up from the bottom of the sea around 10 meters deep and you can go snorkling around there surrounded by shiny bubbles. \u00a0Warning: \u00a0my wedding band, normally silver, turned brown as a result of that swim but metal cleaning products normally used on sailboats worked and fixed the problem. \u00a0So after spending a day or so you can get to Panarea at night.<\/p>\n

Panarea is the only Aeolian with true night life in the sense of large choice of elegant restaurants and a couple of chill out bars. We only ate in one, Quartara<\/a>, and both the food and atmosphere were great. \u00a0The town of Panarea deserves a 3 hour walk in both directions. \u00a0I also recommend a hike to the heliport from where you have a great view of Stromboli. \u00a0If you have 800\u20ac to spare go for a helicopter ride of Stromboli with Air Panarea<\/a>, the owner of that helicopter airline is a particularly nice guy and my 3 year old had a good time pretending to be a helicopter pilot together with his 4 year old.<\/p>\n

Salinas<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"salina<\/p>\n

Salinas is the most complete of the Aeolians, by that I mean that if you have a weekend to spend in one Aeolian Island I would recommend Panarea, but for a whole week, it would be Salinas. \u00a0Salinas has roads, cars, scooters, towns, and yet it is not as crowded as Lipari. \u00a0Friends of ours spent their honeymoon there and I can understand why. \u00a0The best town is Malfa, by far. \u00a0The 4 other towns can’t compare. \u00a0The place to eat is the Signum Hotel<\/a>. \u00a0Rent a scooter, go around, hike, go to la Caldera (sailing and over land different, complementary experiences). \u00a0Salinas must have much more to explore than what we saw. \u00a0I would go back there.<\/p>\n

Filicudi<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Filicudi and Alicudi are the lesser Aelioans. \u00a0But lesser in the sense that they are smaller, yet in terms of beauty per square meter they hold their own. \u00a0Filicudi is all focused on one side, the one protected from Mistrals. \u00a0It is interesting how Mistrals<\/a> the strong NW winds that go through\u00a0the Western Med 2 or 3 times a month, have shaped development, both humans and naturals around the region.<\/p>\n

\"filicudi<\/p>\n

In the Aeolians, Mistrals have created a situation in which lava flows face the Mistrals and nature and people avoid them. \u00a0Stromboli, Alicudi volcanos flow towards the Mistrals. \u00a0I don’t know why but I have a sense that erosion help decide the path of least resistance for lava flows. \u00a0Filicudi has these amazing phallic \u00a0rock formation sticking out 70m off the water that are worth sailing around, quite a few times.<\/p>\n

Alicudi<\/strong> <\/strong>
\nAlicudi is the smallest of the Aeolian and yet incredibly steep. \u00a0What is unique about it is that the 100 homes or so that have been built there can only be inhabited by athletes who, as Tom said, are willing to go up and down the equivalent of the Empire State by staircase, every time they need milk. \u00a0And they are inhabited by athletes, I have never seen fitter people and animals as in those islands. \u00a0The mules work non stop bringing such essentials as drinking water to the homes on the side of the extinguished volcano. \u00a0We went up to the last home and it took us over an hour of the steepest hike of our lives to get to it, at 488m over sea level.<\/p>\n

The Aegadian Islands<\/strong>
\n<\/strong> <\/strong>
\nFrom the Aeolian Islands we sailed to the Aegadian and my general comment is that they are not worth your time for anything other than a passage stop from the Aeolians to Pantelleria. \u00a0On that passage what you may want to do is to stop in San Vito lo Capo, a quiet nice town in the North West corner of Sicily and in Trapani. \u00a0Trapani is kind of run down but it has a decadent beauty that I liked. \u00a0It reminded me of Essaouira in Morocco. \u00a0If you go to Trapani get a car or some means of transportation and go to Erice<\/a>, a beautiful medieval town up the mountain.<\/p>\n

\"Pantelleria\"<\/p>\n

Now back to the Aegadians, we were so poorly impressed by Trapani that we did not even try to go to Levanzo. \u00a0But Favignana was slightly better. \u00a0At this point let me grade the islands so you get an idea of what I mean about the Egadi. \u00a0Vulcano B+, Lipari B+, Stromboli A+, Panarea A+, Salinas A+, Filcudi A-, Alicudi A- but Trapani C, Favignana B. \u00a0You get my\u00a0point.\u00a0Favignana does have a town that has its moments, it is quite busy so if you miss seeing people out\u00a0and about you may like Favignana more.<\/p>\n

But in Favignana the markets are not local fruits and vegetables but Chinese goods sold by sad looking African emigrants desperate to make a living. Still we managed to find a charming restaurant in the Augusta hotel, a garden restaurant where we ate well. \u00a0In general I would say that we still have to find one restaurant in which we ate poorly. \u00a0All of them are great Southern Italian food for 20 to 40 euros a person. \u00a0We only got ripped off once and that was at the\u00a0restaurant Al Tramonto in Pantelleria where they charged us \u20ac96 euros for a mediocre fish or \u20ac50 euros per person for a meal that anywhere else would be half of that. \u00a0Otherwise eating in the Sicilian Islands is generally a phenomenally predicable experience.<\/p>\n

And in Favignana we did have a special moment and that was when we coincided with a local, religious celebration in which a Madonna was brought into the church by men in uniform. \u00a0The light was perfect, the church attractively small and while religion is to blame for a lot of unnecessary killings among humans when properly practiced it can be especially picturesque.<\/p>\n

\"Pantelleria\"Pantelleria<\/strong>
\n<\/strong> <\/strong>
\nIs Pantelleria worth a day of sailing to get there and another one to get back? \u00a0I am not 100% sure but we did enjoy it. \u00a0Pantelleria, like the Aeolians, is a volcanic island. \u00a0The volcano is not active but there’s “fresh” lava all over the place. \u00a0As other volcanic Islands, \u00a0Pantelleria is very steep, with poor anchorages as sandy bottoms are rare. \u00a0We only found one in Scauri and that’s where we stayed. \u00a0Avoid Pantelleria town, it is depressing and after a long sail to get to Pantelleria Island if that is the first thing you see, as it happens to us, you will question the whole trip, and if you haven’t slept well, your whole life after seeing that dump of a place. \u00a0But Scauri for example is Aelian level material. \u00a0So Pantelleria gets a B+ in my blog because of Scauri, because of the South, because of the hikes and local lava based architecture.<\/p>\n

Conclusion
\n<\/strong>
\nUnless you are one of those sailors, like me who likes to see everything and come to his\/her own conclusions, just go to the Aeolian Islands. \u00a0You can avoid the Egadi and regarding Pantelleria, if it was say 3 hours of sailing from Stromboli I would say go for it. \u00a0But to sail 2 days from the Aeolians to go to Pantelleria is not worth it.<\/p>\n

<\/div>
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I have had Aphrodite for 10 years now. \u00a0During those years I have been able to combine my life as an entrepreneur and my life as a sailor getting around 20 to 40 days on board per year. \u00a0Aphrodite spends summers in the Mediterranean and winters in the Caribbean, so she has many Atlantic crossings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[557],"tags":[620,679,204],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.martinvarsavsky.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.martinvarsavsky.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.martinvarsavsky.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.martinvarsavsky.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.martinvarsavsky.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4576"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/english.martinvarsavsky.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6553,"href":"https:\/\/english.martinvarsavsky.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4576\/revisions\/6553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.martinvarsavsky.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.martinvarsavsky.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.martinvarsavsky.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}