AEOLIAN ISLANDS

MONDAY, OCTOBER 7
After riding in a car, plane, train, train on a boat, (yes, they put our train on a boat) and a crazy taxi ride, we arrived in the town of Milazzo on Sicily to join Frederic and Marta on a sailing trip of a lifetime.

We flew right over Mt. Vesuvius!

We also flew right over the Amalfi Coast. If you look closely you can see the swirling current near the coastline.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8

We got up early the next morning to take a ferry ride to the island of Lipari.

Castle of Milazzo

Our ferry ride from Milazzo to Lipari was all indoor, so it was hard to get a good photo through the dirty windows. 

Marta and Fredo had been on the boat since Saturday. They greeted us at the dock on Lipari. We started off with a mission. Marta and I were to get groceries from town, and the guys were to get the boat from the dock and bring it closer to town, so we didn't have to carry all of the groceries. 

After picking up the weeks worth of groceries, Marta and I waited, and waited...and waited. Where were the guys and the boat? We walked halfway between town and the boat dock...and waited again. Marta decided to walk to the boat to see what the hold up was, and I waited with all of the groceries. 

An hour later, Fredo and Nick show up FROM TOWN without the boat. Apparently, Marta had had the keys so the guys couldn't get the boat to us. They had driven back with a stranger to town. By this point, Marta had walked back to me as well. We all had a good laugh...and then the story got better...

We all walked back to the boat. When we got closer, Fredo put his hand in his pocket....

What could possibly have been in his pocket this WHOLE TIME???

THE KEYS!!!

Fredo's moment of humility:) Marta got a lot of hand kissing as a result:)

With the keys, groceries, and family in the boat, we headed off to the island of Vulcano from Lipari.

Leaving Lipari...

Me and the island of Vulcano.

The edge of Lipari.

As we traveled around Vulcano, we searched for a small cove to swim in. We came across this beautiful cove. When we arrived, this little boat approached us with one man aboard that was yelling, "Pesce....adesso...Pesce!" He was saying, "Fish!" He was selling fresh fish from his boat. We decided we couldn't pass up this opportunity. We bought 4 kilos of fish for 25 Euro. (we're still not exactly sure what type of fish) We first gave him 15 Euro, and he looked like he was going to have a heart attack. After much debate, we gave him 10 more Euro. He still looked upset. He drove off pouting, but we enjoyed some delicious fish the rest of our trip! 

We did a little more research, and found that 25 Euro was ample for what we got, he was just being dramatic. I think it's in their Italian DNA. :)

Our pouting fisherman and his smelly boat. :)

After a quick swim and realizing that these waters are filled with jellyfish, we decided to move on to discover more of Vulcano. (Fact: a group of jellyfish is called a "smack.")

Marta had read about a grotto called Cavalli Grotto. We searched and searched around the island. The only big grotto we came across was this one, so we threw on our wetsuits and hopped on the dinghy to explore it. Again, there was a smack of jellyfish, so we decided to move away from there to swim.  

It wasn't until a few days later, that we discovered that this was the Cavalli grotto Marta had read about.  

The sun was starting to set, so we made our way toward a protected cove on Vulcano to anchor for the night.

It's hard to tell from this photo, but there's a cruise ship in the background. Marta commented, "Wow, doesn't that ship look like it's floating?" I looked at her confused. I thought that she was trying to trick me. "Don't all ships float?" I asked. Haha! The sky and water looked like the same color, so it made the ship look like it was floating in mid-air...not just floating on water. :) We all had a good laugh. :)

We hit a detour! There was a small deserted village, so we had to go explore.

The beaches were dotted with beached jellyfish and tons of sea glass. This was my pirates booty. 

The sun was setting quickly at this point, so we hopped back on the boat and actually headed to our cove for the night.

Nick happy at the helm.

This sunset was a perfect way to end our first day all together on board in the Aeolian Islands.

The cove was well protected from any waves. The only downside was that we were downwind of a really potent sulfur smell from the volcano!

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9

The next morning we had a quick breakfast, and started our hike up Vulcano. 

The sign at the start of our hike says, "Do not go near to the smoke holes extreme danger of intoxication." It's not the greatest photo, but I wanted to get the volcano with the sign in it. :)

Can you spot Fredo in the photo?

Like father like son...

When we arrived at the top, we started chatting with another tourist. She and her son were from Germany. We were asking her if she had ever been to the Sulfur Mud Baths. People come from all over the world to swim in them, but we hadn't been able to find them. She said she DID know where they were. She pointed down to the sailboats in the cove. "They're right next to the sailboats." Haha! Turned out we hadn't been smelling the volcano; we had been smelling the mud baths that were right underneath us! "Doh!"

In the foreground is the edge of Vulcano and behind it is the edge of Lipari. In the middle is Panarea and on the right is Stromboli.

Nick had to get as close to the sulfur as possible.

And of course so did Fredo...

Quite the view from the top! (And quite the smell!)

The island of Lipari was beautiful! Smelly, yes, but beautiful!

After smelling sulfur all night and then hiking up to smell more sulfur on Vulcano, none of us wanted to swim in the sulfur mud baths. (Maybe next time) :)

Off to the island of Salina...

After sailing for several hours, we arrived to this little town of Rinella on Salina. 

We put our wetsuits on and hopped on our dinghy boat in hopes that we would find warm water bubbling up from the ocean floor that we had heard about.

After swimming around for 20 minutes, we were unsuccessful. We approached the dock to see if any locals knew where the warm water was. There were 6 Italian men leaning against a wall watching us. I shouted out to them, "Dov'e l'aqua calda?" They looked at us confused....and pointed to another island. Marta and I started laughing at the thought of what we must have looked like. Here were these 4 Americans in matching black wetsuits near a fancy boat asking where the hot water was! Haha! We must have been quite the spectacle.) :)

It was another great day on the water in the Aeolian Island. That night we docked on the east side of Salina near the town of Santa Marina. I enjoyed my first and much needed shower.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10

The next morning we got up and walked around the town of Santa Marina.

It was such a sweet, artsy, beach town. 

The Captains of our boat. :)

Southern Italy feels more like what I had expected of Italy when I first arrived a year ago because it's warm, the people are more dramatic, they try and rip off tourists, and they expect you to learn their language. I loved it!

We sat at a little cafe in town and had some traditional pastries and coffee. We tried Baba, which has marzipan, rum, and cherry. It was worth trying, but I don't think any of us will order it again.  

I think we all liked the chance to get out and walk a bit before we were back on the boat. We had a big day ahead of us! We were going to explore the north end of Salina, then head to Panarea, Stromboli, and then back to Panarea.

We turned around and silly Nick had hopped on the dinghy while we weren't looking. :)

This arch was on the northwest side of Salina near the town of Pollara.

It was a bit cold, so we let the boys explore the waters before we got in. We were getting our swimsuits on when we heard Nick screaming like a little girl from his snorkel with his face down in the water. There was a group of fish near him that seemed a little aggressive. They kept darting toward him...so Marta and I decided to throw some stale bread near Nick. :) The fish went into a feeding frenzy. I've never seen Nick swim so fast in my life! :) Haha! 

Fredo and Nick hopped in the dinghy and decided to watch from there. After a few moments, they worked up the courage to get in the water with them again. The fish were much more interested in the bread than the guys. Listening to Nick scream through his snorkel was one of my favorite memories of this trip. It still makes me laugh:)

The arch framing the island of Stromboli.

Next we sailed to Panarea. This is where Marta and Fredo spent their first hair- raising night, after seeking shelter from a storm. I'm so glad they decided to come back to show us because the rock formations were stunning!

There were a few tiny islands off the coast of Panarea. One of them had bubbling sulfur-water coming from the ocean floor. "L'ACQUA CALDA!" We anchored nearby, and took the dinghy over to explore. It was one of the coolest experiences of our entire trip. The water was about 20-30 feet deep and there were several dozen streams of bubbles floating to the surface. (Unfortunately Nick forgot his underwater camera.)  I felt like a mermaid swimming through curtains of bubbles. We could see exactly where the air was escaping from the ocean floor. It was incredible!! 

Next we made our way over to Stromboli. It's the most active volcano in the world. You can see a small plume of smoke coming from the top of it as we approached.

There's not just one town on this active volcano; there are TWO! Who lives on an active volcano?! 

We rounded the north side of Stromboli to find this...

...Earth being formed! It was easy to see why different cultures made gods out of volcano's. It was quite impressive. Stromboli erupts about once an hour. Even with our creaky boat we could hear the crackling from the eruptions. We were about 4 football fields away from the edge of Stromboli, but it still felt too close.

While the volcano wasn't erupting we were able to easily entertain ourselves...

Still waiting..

Look closely! You can see Nick in the Bosun's chair on top of the mast looking out at the volcano. What a view!

"Thar she blows!"

The sunset the last night on the boat didn't disappoint! I think I might have taken about 100 photos.

After the sunset that night was when the real action happened. Stromboli erupted and it was so clear to see the glow because it was bright red against the night's sky!
While we were waiting for it to erupt again, there was a thunderstorm in the distance. It was beautiful!

As we sat in the dark, our other senses were heightened. We heard a sound coming from the volcano. It kept getting louder and louder, but there was no glow from the top. Listening closely, we realized it was an avalanche of lava rocks! We could faintly see the rocks crashing into the sea nearby making a white line along the shore. A smoke-cloud rose up. We all sat waiting to smell the cloud of ash as it approached us.

Moments later we heard a noise of the starboard side of the boat. It sounded like someone exhaling. After scrambling for a flashlight, we were able to shine it into the water and...up came a dolphin! We threw bread into the water to see if it would attract the dolphin to the boat. Instead, we peered into the water at what looked like a 6-foot yellow eel with blue spots. We all decided later that it must have been attached to something larger because the depth finder on the boat read 6.3km when we were in very deep water.

To finish off the night, Frederic noticed flashes of light going off in the water around us. We think it was the jellyfish in the water reacting to the sulfur. They twinkled like stars all around our boat. We turned all the lights off around the boat to see them better. It was one of the most magical moments I've ever had in my life.  I tried so hard to take a photo, but none of them turned out well.  This is the closest image I could find taken from the movie, "Life of Pi."

Curtis Ellis from the Huffington Post put it elegantly when he wrote, "Constellations sprinkled the midnight sky like luminous grains of sand on an ink black carpet. Phosphorescent jellyfish filled the sea with pinpricks of light, mimicking the stars above." 

His post was a good one, if you're interested in reading more on the Aeolian Islands. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/curtis-ellis/aeolian-islands_b_4091264.html

That night we anchored at Panarea. It was a warm night and you could see every star in the sky. Unfortunately, the cove was not protected from waves. The boat was rocking so much that none of us could sleep. We all ended up on the deck with blankets and pillows. Nick even brought up our mattress. Around 4am, Marta and Fredo napped on benches at the stern, and Nick and I slept on a mattress at the bow. It was a mostly sleepless night, but it was surreal sleeping outside on a boat watching the countless shooting stars in the night's sky.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11

This was the view we saw the next morning in our small, unprotected cove...

We decided to do a bit of walking before setting sail for the mainland that afternoon. We found these ruins just above our cove.

The cove pictured behind us was a much more protected cove than the one we stayed in the night before. In order to stay there, you have to get special permission because it's a protected reserve. However, you can walk ALL OVER the ancient ruins that are on top of the cliff overlooking the cove. As they say in Italian, "Allora." 

That afternoon we set sail for the mainland. It was roughly a 6 hour journey from the Islands to Tropea. The forecast called for 10% chance of rain. We found out very quickly why this area has been referred to as the Aeolian Triangle. (like the Bermuda Triangle) About half way through our trip, we were caught in the middle of a thunderstorm. To put it lightly, it was the longest 2  hours of my life. I don't think I've ever prayed so hard. The good that came from that experience is that my faith is that much stronger. We had such an amazing trip that I won't let that experience dampen my memory of the breathtaking Aeolian Islands.  

We had our last dinner in Tropea after we returned from our turbulent trip. A small pizza place in town called Al Pinturicchio came highly recommended. It was off the beaten path, and it was delicious! Our waiter even gave us a few bottles of spicy oil ("olio piccante") to take home with us. It was a great last meal!

I wish I could have explored this town a little more. They built the homes right on the edge of the cliff! (next time) :)

I loved the little train station in Tropea. You literally had to cross the tracks to get to the other side.

The tracks were overgrown with weeds, and there were corn fields right next to them!

This was our little train we rode from Tropea to Lamezia to catch our flight back to northern Italy. It is literally only one car.

We had a few hours to kill, so we walked around Lamezia before our flight. Nick spotted this cute little bakery. The girl working there let us go into the back and see her "legno fuoco" or wood fire oven. We bought a few rolls from her including: eggplant, dry-roasted tomato, and onion. 

Since I took 100 photos of the sunset next to Stromboli, I thought I'd add one more to this post. 

We had such an amazing trip together. Although, I'm not sure I'll ever be an avid sailor, I sure do enjoy being on a boat with family cruising around breathtaking islands in a temperate climate and calm seas. I would highly recommend taking a trip to southern Italy, and really experiencing Italia. Ciao for now!