Sicily and the Aeolian Islands · Italy
The Aeolian Coast
Seven volcanic islands and the Tyrrhenian shore below them, where the ferries still set the pace of the day.
The Aeolians are not a resort. They are seven working islands off the north coast of Sicily, connected by a hydrofoil timetable that changes with the weather and a ferry that does not care whether you are on holiday. Lipari has a town and a hospital. Salina has vineyards and two mountains. Stromboli has a volcano that puts on a show most evenings and everyone stops to watch.
What we plan here is slow and largely horizontal: a week of boats, capers, malvasia, granita at eleven in the morning, and long unstructured afternoons in water that is startlingly clear well into October. The best days here are the ones nobody planned.
We work with four families on these islands and with a skipper in Salina who has been taking our travellers out for nine years. That is the whole network, and it is the reason we can get you a table, a boat or a bed in August when the islands are otherwise closed to newcomers.
- Best time
- Late April to mid-June, and September to mid-October
- Why then
- Sea is swimmable from June, warmest in September. July and August are hot, busy and expensive, and the islands run short of water.
- When not to
- November to March. Most island hotels close, the hydrofoils are cancelled in heavy weather, and you can be stuck on Stromboli for two days. Charming once; inconvenient if you have a flight.
- Getting there
- Fly to Catania or Palermo, then a two-hour transfer to Milazzo and a hydrofoil. We build the first night on Sicily rather than fighting for a same-day connection.
What it is for
Highlights
Salina's two mountains
The greenest of the islands, with malvasia terraces running up both extinct cones and a footpath between them that takes a morning.
Stromboli after dark
A boat that sits offshore below the Sciara del Fuoco while the volcano does what it has done continuously for two thousand years.
Panarea's back lanes
Whitewashed, carless, and improbably chic after eight in the evening. Worth one night, not three.
The Milazzo caper harvest
Early June, when the fields inland smell of nothing else and the picking starts before six in the morning.
The Aeolian Coast in six frames
From the advisor
The hour the islands turn gold
Every evening on Salina, somewhere around seven, the light comes in low across the water from the west and the whole island turns the colour of the wine they make here. The locals call it nothing in particular. It happens every day. But if you are on the terrace at Pollara when it starts, you will stop talking.
Our advisors build the week around that hour rather than around sights. Boats return before it. Dinners start after it. It is the only fixed point in an otherwise loose itinerary, and travellers tell us afterwards that it was the part they remember.
Journeys
Trips that go to The Aeolian Coast
9 days · Private
The Aeolian Slow Coast
Salina, Lipari, Panarea and a night crossing to Stromboli, planned around the evening light rather than a list of sights.
Coast and islandsCulture and craft€4,850from, per person
7 days · Small group
Cliff Towns and Citrus Terraces
A single base on the Tyrrhenian shore, with the citrus terraces, the tuna coast and two of the islands within reach of it.
Culture and craftCoast and islands€3,400from, per person
12 days · Private
The Tyrrhenian Fortnight
The honeymoon version of the Aeolian week: fewer moves, later mornings, a private boat on call, and no schedule in the middle.
Honeymoons and twoCoast and islands€7,900from, per person
Experiences
Days here worth flying for
Food and wine
Malvasia harvest on Salina
Pick with the family that has worked these terraces for four generations, then eat with them.
A morning, then lunch
On the water
Stromboli by night boat
Out at dusk, then sitting offshore below the Sciara del Fuoco while the volcano works.
An evening, five hours
Food and wine
Capers, salt and the Lipari kitchen
A kitchen morning built around three ingredients the islands actually live on.
Half a day
Stays
Where we put people
Practical
Things worth knowing first
Book the hydrofoil, not the ferry, unless you have a car
The hydrofoil is twice as fast and half as pleasant. On a calm day take the ferry once and the hydrofoil the rest of the time.
Cash still matters
Several of the best places on Filicudi and Alicudi do not take cards, and the Alicudi cash machine is a rumour.
Shoes, not sandals
Lipari and Stromboli are volcanic. The lanes are rough and the black sand gets into everything.
Who plans it
