Lipari and the Aeolian Islands off the northern coast Sicily.

“..you can feel the energy flowing through my veins from my ancestry!”

If you remember from our original cruising plan a week earlier, we had sailed past these islands on our way through to the Messina Strait. We had hoped to anchor off one or two bays around these islands but the weather conditions were not right for us. Regardless we decided that we would visit them anyway – but by a ferry from Sicily instead.

Lipari is where Cathy’s grandparents were born. When we arrived at Lipari Cathy could ‘feel the connection flowing in her veins. Her roots were as strong as ever!  Honest!  Cathy had actually been to Lipari before with her sisters but she was looking forward to a return trip.

At first light we set off. We negotiated the Sicilian drivers and the dastardly road signs and caught the 10.30 ferry from Milazzo at the NE corner of Sicily. The ferry , being a ‘CAT’ made a relatively short crossing to Lipari.

On arrival at Lipari we had to negotiate through a plethora of taxis - all offering the best island tour available.  Our particular driver was young, very informative and spoke excellent English.

Of course, Cathy asked him if he knew her grandparents last name. He nodded, knowingly and he took us to ‘the’ house. Maybe.

One of the main exports from Lipari in the old days was pumice stone. Now there are more modern solutions than pumice. Consequently the trade died and they are left with an empty factory and open mine.

The island was full of wild flowers. The driver took on a gallant tone and kept picking them to present to Cathy & Les.  (Geeeesh! He’s just after a big tip Les!)  

Our driver suggested the very best restaurant on the island and then promptly reserved a table for us! (Gosh! He was trying hard!)
Now and then you can find ‘Whole fish baked in salt’ on the menu. It is not common because it does require patience while the fish bakes and it does require specialist skills by the servers. Basically, you’ll only find in really good quality traditional restaurants. We discovered this dish in Portugal last year. Our long time friends Mike and Sandra introduced it to us and we have been hooked ever since.  We chose the fish and they did the rest. We had two excellent servers. They recommended a perfect starter and great wines.  

We had heard people mention that Lipari is a little built up, and to avoid it in favour of the other Aeolian Islands but our experience was just the opposite.  

What a wonderful day out.
This would be a great place to visit again.

What did you do after a big earthquake destroys your city in 1632?
Build a new one – a BETTER one!

With still no risk of the wind blowing Etna’s garbage towards us we hired the car for a few more days.  Bob was enjoying the challenges of driving along these crazy roads whilst John was trying to navigate. Road names would come and go. Place names would change to local names. Roads would petter out and drivers would ‘TOOT!’.
“PREGO!”
We would say and carry on!
It’s a nice sounding word, ‘prego’ - we used it all the time and in and out of context – probably mostly out of context! The word ‘feels’ Italiano.

Bob’s next driving challenge was to the small town of Noto - a very pleasant town. The original town was destroyed by the big earthquake of 1632 that took huge chunks of southern Italy and Sicily.  The city dignitaries decided to rebuild Noto on a much grander scale and employed the most famous international architects of the day for the design. The result was to give rise to some monumental buildings with incredibly detailed stone masonry work – all using a local golden stone.

The result was stunning.

“My head hurts”

Noto was hosting an exhibition of Leonardo Di Vinci’s engineering designs.

Gosh! What a smart guy. 
I wonder if his head hurt with all the knowledge crammed in his brain!  Exceptionally clever, brave and forward thinking for the time. You didn’t want to debunk too many myths in those days and upset a local cardinal if you want to keep your head!
He was known to be brilliant during his own lifetime and so his writings were immediately sought after upon his death. For while his main pupil kept them safe but unfortunately his written designs split up to be displayed in several of the major museums throughout the globe. (That’s what the powerful museums of powerful countries did during the 19^th Century!)  Others were ‘lost’. Only a third of his written work exists today. Perhaps within the other two thirds were the answers to the meaning of life and everything.
Most of his engineering principles are still in use today in cars and such like.

We decided to drive back to the boat via Syracuse. We would stop for dinner and to see the old town.
Syracuse is another walled city with a large port with a glittering past. We saw anchored in the harbour our old friend sureryacht “ACE” – and the support ship with the toys of course. There were two more superyachts moored on the town key (I seem to remember the name “Hampshire” for one of them.
Syracuse was a good harbor for anchoring. Syracuse it self was ten times better than Riposto but alas with no wind it was not worth motoring all the way down the east coast of Sicily to change marinas.  We had a short walk around the port and the town. Had a great meal inside the walled city and then travelled back to Riposto.

..The following pictures are just from Noto.