Vulcano (Aeolian Islands), Sicily, Italy

All the wind of the previous week had died down, leaving us to motor sail from Cefalu to the Aeolian Islands. With limited time remaining in Italy (Schengen), we decided to skip the western-most islands in this chain and head straight for Vulcano. The island is an active volcano, and you could see the fumeroles smoking around the crater at dusk from the boat in the anchorage.

The town of Vulcano is tiny and filled with sulfuric mud baths (closed for the season), a few stunningly beautiful black sand beaches, and a bunch of small shops and restaurants. But the highlight is the climb to the top of the crater. As we wandered past one of the many pizzerias, Trip waved and said “hi” to the head pizza maker, already furiously churning out pizza in front of a smoking, blasting, hot pizza oven. The man waved Trip over and handed him a loaf of pane cunzato, the Sicilian loafs used to make sandwiches. It was quite tasty and fortified us as we walked. That same pizzeria would later sell us the beautiful commemorative Messina beer glasses that I couldn’t resist.

But back to the volcano. It’s unpatrolled and done at one’s own risk. Because there is no shade and the sun is blistering in the summer, the trail is closed from 10:30 AM to 4:00 PM every day, and stoplights (with cameras) are at the trailhead to remind those of the rules.

The hike is nothing more than a series of switchbacks. It’s not particularly easy at the beginning, as you’re climbing through ash and sand and gravel. It’s one step up with a partial slide back. There’s seismological equipment stationed all around to measure the activity of the volcano as well.

We had brought a fair amount of water, but were shocked to see the numbers of people hiking with no water at all. I also had to laugh at the stereotypes in the hiking crowd: the Italian women hiking in dresses, the French women hiking in fashionable big floppy sun hats, the Germans with children too young to remember such a strenuous hike.

Of course the views at the top were absolutely stunning and completely worth it.

The one bad thing about where we had anchored was that it was in a lot of boulders (Trip says I exaggerate and that they were large rocks at most). We decided to re-anchor when other boats left to make for a more comfortable night’s rest (chain sliding along rocks creates a grinding noise) and to make it easier to leave in the morning, Trip dove to clear as much chain as he could before we upped anchor. A big motor boat came by, thinking we were definitely stuck, and had their lines out with offers to help free us – so kind! I reassured them that we were not stuck and they waved and moved on. I was crushed to have to also wave on the local fishermen selling their catch straight from the boat, but we had no time to stop. Luckily it was a straightforward thing to up anchor and reset.