THE AEOLIAN ISLANDS: ONE OF THE JEWELS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA.

Declared a Unesco World Heritage Site, the Aeolian Islands are one of the jewels of the Mediterranean, there are 7 islands and they are: Lipari, Vulcano, Stromboli, Salina, Filicudi, Alicudi and Panarea. All the islands are of volcanic origin, and Stromboli and Vulcano are still active. Even the volcano of Monte Pilato, in Lipari, is considered as such, even if the latest eruptions date back to the fourth and fifth centuries. Ulysses was the first traveller to visit these islands according to the Odyssey and Homer was also one of the first visitors. Lipari is the largest and most populated, full of enchanting coves and beaches, the oldest part of the island, the castle, is a natural fortress built on a rock surrounded by sixteenth-century Spanish bastions. Here stood the primitive inhabited center, which dates back to ancient times, as evidenced by the Greek tower of the fourth century BC. The cathedral of Norman origins was rebuilt in the sixteenth century together with the castle dominates the town. The intense smell of sulfur given off by the fumaroles mixes with that of the brooms: beaches of extraordinary beauty of volcanic sand and the Great Crater are some of the excursions offered to visitors. In the area of ​​Baia del Levante there are underwater thermal springs and natural muds. The most worldly and frequented by the international jet set, which in summer also moor there by boat or rent its enchanting white houses, with large panoramic terraces covered with straw. Alicudi and Filicudi are two islets overlooking enchanting beaches. Stromboli is the most open, perhaps the most evocative, certainly the most unusual of the Aeolian Islands: it is in fact a still active volcano and, at times, welcomes visitors to the spectacle of incandescent lava and lapilli.