Donuz

I have been thinking recently as to whether or not I should change the tone of my writing, whether I should make it sound more romantic, since we are now approaching the island of romance. Then, I figured, it would be a huge disregard that I would be making to my Bubu, and decided to keep it as it is. The air of romance will nevertheless imbue itself, as the islands are essentially romantic…

And so, Bubu and I had just left Taormina on an old train and were riding “tingir mingir” (a.k.a slowly with a clanging sound) to Milazzo. Milazzo was definitely not where we wanted to be at the end of our journey. It was just the beginning of where we would want to be.

The train ride lasted around 2 and a half hours. Off at Milazzo, we rushed to catch the Ustica Lines ferry boat to the Aeolian Islands. At around 4 pm, we were happily settled down in the ferry. Given the lack of atmosphere of the ferry and the fact that we could see null from the hazy windows of the ferry, Bubu immediately fell a sleep -as he wouldn’t have done just that in any case… I turned my attention to my book: Identity & Violence by Amartya Sen, a to-the-point account of discussion on who exactly we are: I am a woman, I am a student, I like sports, I like writing, I am not married and I do not have children. I read in 5 languages, I am straight, I am this and that and that… Yet, our cultures have a tendency to reduce these multiple identities to you are Muslim and you are a woman. Or, you are European and Catholic… And, so as I kept thinking on my multiple identities, we arrived at the island Salina S.M.

The Aeolian Islands are a volcanic archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Sicily. In spite of the volcanic activity that even now causes the earth to issue forth sulfuric belches, streams of molten lava, and hissing clouds of steam, these islands have been inhabited for more than 3,000 years (Frommer’s, Aeolian Islands)

The largest island is Lipari with an actual sense of “civilization” (I tend to exaggerate the extent of the natural beauties of the islands, the more political view of the island of Lipari as quoted in Frommer’s is that it is the most developed island). Lipari is called as the more developed, because it has more markets, more restaurants, hotels, hostels, and many more residents, when compared to the other islands: Vulcano (the island with therapeutic mud baths and closest to the Sicilian mainland, yet it also still has some active volcanic centers), Stromboli (the most distant and volcanically active as well), Filicudi, Alicudi, Panarea and Basiluzzo, which are quoted to offer only bare-bones facilities and are visited mainly by day-trippers -if at all- in Frommer’s. And, here we were with Bubu on the island of Salina -in the middle of nowhere, exuding silence, and not a single soul in our sights- with just the address of our hotel in our hands. We were not terribly panicked. We were told in advance by the insightful TripAdvisor reviewers, that after Taormina, the islands would seem dull at first, then boring and then the whim to leave the islands and go back to Taormina would arrive.

As we descended from the ferry and hailed just one of the two cabs waiting by the port, that whim had already arrived to me. We told our lady driver the address of our hotel. “Signum, ha” she commented back and started driving. About what seemed like a 20 minute-30 minute drive through plain forest and mountains, overlooking indigo sea waters, we arrived at our hotel. The view we had witnessed was amazing. The mountains were so magnificent, so deep and so overwhelming. And, the view from afar of the sea was so seductive. But, the lack of activity was alarming…

Bubu and I departed for our room. As we were settling in, the lady from our concierge arrived, asking whether we would be taking our dinner with them today. Figuring out that it was too late and too lonely and the island had seemed definitely too bare to start our discoveries today, we decided that we would actually take our dinner inside the hotel.

Around sunset, Bubu and I were already seated on the terrace of our hotel and were overlooking the island Stromboli. Bubu went down into the enoteca to fetch a bottle of red wine as I dozed off into the sunset, hoping that Stromboli would erupt for us during our three-day stay.

Bubu came back with the one of the best wines I have ever tasted, a Nero Davola of the regional grapes. Accompanied by regional olives and cheese, we sipped our wine and relaxed. We moved onto dinner with a new bottle of wine, red again. Whatever those meals were called in Italian, cold peppers stuffed with fish and olive oil, gnocchi (one of the best ever), stewed fish and chocolate delighted desert, they were all optimum.

My head spinning out of dizziness after what seemed like the best two bottle of wines I’ve ever had, it did feel like the time to go back to the terrace and enjoy the view of Stromboli once again. I was hoping so much that now it would erupt. What a night it would have been then…

Next morning, we woke up early and had our Mediterranean breakfast on the terrace. Later, we decided to see the island in daytime and decide once again for ourselves whether yesterday’s disillusionment before the two bottle of wines were indeed justified or not. We took the public bus that departed from somewhere near the front of our hotel.

Salina is divided into 8 little towns. Salina S.M., where we had departed off the ferry stands for Salina Santa Marina. This is where the port is. Overlooking the port is what seemed to be a fine, little restaurant. Whoever tries it could let us know if I was right that it looked fine. Our hotel is located in the Malfa district, in the upper north side of the island. We were told that there were two areas with a beach: Lingua and Rinella. The town called Pollara on the upper north west supposedly has the best view of the Sun setting into the sea behind the island Filicudi.

Finally, there were the towns of Capo Faro in the northeast and Isola Salina / Valdichiesa in the middle. Valdichiesa is still a part of the Rinella district, although it is situated further to the middle of the island.

View Larger Map

As you can follow from the map, there are very few connections between these little towns. That is why going from town to town takes a bit of time and travel through landscape only. Desperate to swim in what seemed like pure and deep blue waters from the top the other day, Bubu and I set off for the so-called beach towns: Lingua and Rinella. Since the bus to Lingua arrived first, we set out for Lingua first.

As in the picture, we were in a deserted beach. It was all ours to enjoy, and we did. The water was indeed the way it looked from afar. Pure, cold, fresh, transparent…

After a bit of sunbathing and swimming, we decided to go to Rinella. Afterall, we only had one full day on this island yet to be discovered. We took a school bus that was taking kids back home for lunch to go to Rinella. Rinella was not very different from Lingua. Again set with what felt like a private beach, we sat and chat around a bit. Later, we walked around the houses, taking photos, discussing what it may be like to be living on this island. What the children were doing in their spare times and the like.

Around 4 PM we returned our hotel. Knowing that the bus stopped running at 5 PM, we did not want to take risks. And, so we had to skip the beautiful views of sunset from Pollara. Nevertheless, the view from our terrace was not so bad either.

Until sunset, we fooled around, and then slept by our hotel’s pool. From the edge of this pool, it felt like you owned the islands afar. They seemed to be bowing to you when you positioned yourself right next to the edge of the pool.

We were in no mood to leave the hotel. We knew that another two perfect bottles of wine and a decent dinner was awaiting us here anyway. What better way to say farewell to the place, which we would have to leave the other day. It was true what they had said, the Trip Advisor reviewers. Boring and lonely at first, the island becomes a germ that you do not want to leave at the end. Not even if you know that another nice place may be awaiting you the next day. You lose all apprehension, being dazzled with love and misery by the island’s miraculous air, sea and power.

What I was unable to do and what keeps the urge in me to go back is that we could not rent a fisherman’s boat to take us around the island. I believe, that would have been optimum…

Bare bone, no! Bare heaven, yes!