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Part 2: Best known as the setting for
the Academy Award-winning film Il Postino,
Salina has been inhabited since at least 5000 B.C.
By Cynthia Barnes — Spring
2005
Aeolian cuisine is a delectable blending of Arab, Greek,
and Italian influences, enhanced by a bounty of fresh seafood. You’d
have to work really hard to find a bad meal. I’m not up to that kind
of effort and enjoy a delicious feast of risotto with clams and shrimp,
caponata, and other delicacies at Ritrovo Sottomanastero. The local wines
are world-renowned, so I stick with a crisp white from Corvo, a Sicilian
vineyard. Bene. Molto
bene.
Mud Baths and More
“Hercules, when he needed to recharge his legendary strength, came
to the natural mud baths at Vulcano. All the gods of Olympus, actually.”
So say George and Anna Zirelli, who come to Vulcano every October for
the mud and the weather. They are a font of information about the island.
I left Lipari early to get here, charmed by the church bells and the buildings
glowing peach and cream as dawn spread over the harbor. Now I’m ensconced
in smelly, sulfurous mud, looking longingly at the turquoise sea just
beyond the baths.
The Zirellis tell me the stinky goo contains serotonin,
a natural antidepressant, and works for psoriasis and arthritis. I learn
on my own that the pond’s properties also include tarnishing silver
jewelry on the spot and that it burns like Hades if you get any mud or
water in your eyes. A steam vent opens beneath my feet, scalding a toe
as I rinse and scuttle out. Hercules can have this place. But my skin
is super-soft.
A few steps away the Mediterranean is a Jacuzzi, tiny
bubbles rushing up from an underwater volcano. Maybe the gods aren’t
crazy. By the time we depart, I’m planning a second wallow.
Dolphin are a nice omen as we cruise toward Salina,
which is rich in greenery and boasts Monte Fossa delle Felci, the highest
point on the archipelago. Best known as the setting for the Academy Award-winning
film Il Postino, Salina has been inhabited
since at least 5000 B.C. Its cultivated fields abound with marvelous Malavasia
grapes—also called malmsey—as well as capers and cacti.
I explore a bit in the port of Santa Marina Salina,
grabbing a snack and an espresso at Antica Pasticera. The barista is bad-tempered,
but the pastries are excellent. Walking in the village, I find a perfect
grocery on Via Risorgimento. Mr. Loschario’s store offers free home
(or boat!) delivery and has a good selection of meats, wine, breads, and
mozzarella di bufala, possibly the
best cheese in the world. The shop also sells cans and bags of cat food,
perfect for helping out the hungry strays that beg piteously across the
street. English is spoken, a bonus in an area where you’ll usually
need your Italian phrasebook.
>> Next page >>
Part 3: Stromboli rises from the
sea in a perfect black cone, as clear and unambiguous as a child’s
drawing. Page
1,
2, 3,
4, 5,
6, 7,
8
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