The Aeolian Islands

We woke up to a grey skies, walked down to town from our Airbnb as it began to rain, forcing a retreat to a café for a breakfast of coffee and gelato. I was strangely not hungry, despite the marathon and missing dinner last night (arriving too late to find anywhere open to eat). The rain eased and we decided to explore the old citadel (fascinating museums, huge basilica and ancient cloisters), before getting a bus to Acquacalda on the north of Lipari, from where it looked like there was a trail to get us into the hills. The plan was to get a drink and a bite to eat there before setting off, soon undone by discovering the place to be completely dead, not a soul in sight until we stumbled across Antonella, outside the church. She spoke good English with an Australian accent. A car drove past, which she hailed. It turned out to be the owner of a shop and we were told he would return to open up in 15 minutes. It felt like our lucky day. By now the sun was out and it was starting to warm up. We walked to where we were directed and right on cue the guy turned up to open the shop for us. Pretty much every shelf was empty. There was nothing whatsoever that we could take as a snack. He had a couple of bottles of drink and that was it. Not so lucky after all. But things looked up from there. Once on the trail (not easy to find) the walking was wonderful, the trail embedded with huge lumps of obsidian and strewn with pumice. Stromboli was active on the skyline. There was, of course, no one else to be seen, which was something of a joy after the last few days.

More adventure was had on the way down. After the timetabled bus failed to show up, we walked down the road from Lami to Canneto. We then found an ancient and narrow, deeply walled path, which dropped steeply to the sea, not so good for my knees but saving several miles of switchbacks. Except that near the bottom it was completely blocked by a fallen tree. We had to climb out and find a way through some private property to get out. Fortunately, the big gate at the drive of the house wasn't locked. We got to Canneto just in time to see a bus leave, but the hour wait for the next one allowed us to grab a croissant and watch the evening light play on the islands of Panarea and Stromboli to the north. I look forward to visiting them sometime in the future.