Alicudi

Alicudi, where time has stood still

Living for even a few days in Alicudi is an experience that remains forever etched in your memory. Time seems to have stopped here. With its unique atmosphere, the island seems to tell us its history of looting and invasions, a story that has seen the succession of different peoples and ended in peace and beauty.

 Alicudi
Aerial photo of the islet of Alicudi. It is not intense green in color, due to the barren vegetation. The island is triangular in shape, on the left at the bottom you can see the houses, white in color, which develop linearly uphill up to the middle of the side of the islet.

In the post-war era Alicudi was inhabited by around 600 people. Most emigrated to Australia and South America. Currently only 100 residents are living on the island, and not many more during the summer months.
Alicudi, the island of Erica , is a rugged, very steep isle, where there is a single lane with lava stone steps that connects all the houses, land to be cultivated and any other places of interest.
Erica
This route starts from sea level and goes up to the top of Monte Filo dell’Arpa at around 675 metres. Given the absence of drivable roads, you can only travel on foot or by mule
The island is inhabited only on the east side, which slopes less sharply towards the sea.
The only town is also called Alicudi and is divided into five small hamlets.
The port area is the centre of the island: the coastal stretch of the port (a small pier) houses a pebble beach typical of the Aeolian environment. When visiting the island it is always best to rely on the guidance of people who know the paths well. You must also always carry a torch because there is no street lighting.
The traditional houses have flat roofs for rainwater collection, which is brought into large cisterns next to and below them. The rooms are adjoining and open onto terraces with brickwork seats (bisuoli) and typical truncated cone columns (pulere) on which rest the wooden beams of the pergolas, supporting vines that offer shade. In many houses, rifriggiraturi are still used to store food. These small rooms with a little door are located at the opening of underground communication tunnels, from which air blows out at a constant temperature of around 10 °C. Next to the houses there are still numerous mannare, i.e. buildings made of dry natural stone, with a circular plan, covered with a false dome, which can be accessed from low entrances. They have no windows and a beaten earth floor, and were once used to shelter sheep.

The senses tell The Stacks of Panarea

Lipari at the centre of Mediterranean history

“Vulcanian” eruptions

“Strombolian” activity in the place where its definition was born

Between brush strokes of sulphur and clouds of steam: the fumaroles of the port of Vulcano

Stories of the sea and shipwrecks. The wrecks of the Aeolian Islands

Vulcano, the youngest of the Aeolian works of art

The pure white of the pumice quarries

The senses tell The Pumice Quarries of Lipari

At the heart of trade in history

The senses tell The Village of Capo Graziano

The Gran Cratere of the Fossa: when the volcano becomes a sculptor

The salt lake of Lingua

Myths and legends about volcanoes

The prehistoric village of Cala Junco

The Sciara del Fuoco

Salina, the green island with twin mountains

The senses tell The Sciara del Fuoco

The summit craters

The hidden part of the Aeolian Islands

The Cathedral of Lipari and the Norman Cloister of the Benedictine Monastery

Lipari, where history intertwines with volcanoes to create archaeology

Pollara, between poetry and beauty

The Village of Capo Graziano

The polis of the living and the necropolis of the dead

Tsunamis: a not uncommon phenomenon in Stromboli

The 2002-03 eruption

The malleability of Vulcano’s mud

The stacks of Panarea

The Aeolian Islands, where volcanology was born

The ancient production of salt

The underwater fumarolic activity of Lisca Bianca

The senses tell The summit craters

How pumice is formed

The Thermal Baths of Saint Calogerus

Stromboli, the volcano that breathes

The underwater morphological elements of the Aeolian Islands

Volcanoes as a natural art form

Filicudi, a submerged paradise

Panarea and its history

Where do Vulcano’s gases come from?

Seven islands, dozens of volcanoes

Panarea, where sea and volcanoes become sculptors

Filicudi: small island, big history

The senses tell The salt lake of Lingua

Lipari Castle, “fused” with the lava

Malvasia delle Lipari DOC

Alicudi, where time has stood still