With only light winds to help us along, we arrived in the closest of the Aeolian Islands, Vulcano at night, and found a place to squeeze into one of its protected habours and anchor. The place was alive with music from a club or a bar onshore, but we decided after a long day on the water to get an early night. The next morning, we climbed to the top of Vulcano’s crater, and enjoyed the view of all the Aeolian islands from up top. As the afternoon set it, sulphur started seeping in increasing quantities from the northern part of the rim. We walked up close and felt the heat. 
Next, we went north to Lipari, which is the largest and most densely populated of the islands. We had a great night out, watching musicians who had set up outside several different restaurants with others milling about the streets. 
We anchored farther up the island the next night and enjoyed watching the landscape change from dark to white rock. This meant that the beaches onshore also shifted to pure white sand, made from white volcanic silt, which also changed the color of the water underneath to a bright turquoise. We found a nice spot to anchor in the turquoise water and enjoyed watching the sun go down. At 2am, however, we began to regret our choice of spot, when the little house on shore came alive with blaring music, and it became clear we actually anchored outside a club. At 5am, the club lit off fireworks to celebrate the end of the night. We watched in surprise and hoped that no live sparks came down on our boat. It was a sleepless night, but we laughed at the irony that our peaceful spot in the bright blue deep was actually right outside one of the loudest clubs on the island. Salina is an island with multiple peaks from dormant volcanoes. It’s now perhaps the greenest of the islands, covered in thick vegetation. It has also become the key wine making area of the islands, producing a sweet dessert wine called Malvasia. We went for a run from the main town of Santa Marina towards Malfa, and enjoyed running past vineyards and taking in the coastline. 
Panarea is the most exclusive and upscale of the Islands, as for most of it’s history, was only accessible by private boat. We sailed up in the late afternoon, and into an area south of the town in which there was a sea of yachts anchored. A boat nearby was plastic party music, so we set up our sunbeds up top, and enjoyed the vibe. We spent the afternoon alternating between swimming off the back of the boat, relaxing on the sunbeds with a book, and taking in our surroundings. After the sun set, we went into town for a fun night out. First up, a sushi bar turned open air club, with a great DJ and views of Stromboli puffing smoke in the background. We had a good time dancing and enjoyed a bit of people watching… a lot of plastic surgery evident in one small club! The club shut at 9:30pm and sent everyone away for dinner, saying they would reopen at midnight — we were glad for the break to get a bite to eat… maybe these guys were onto something with their evening “siesta” baked into their hours. Thoughtful, though maybe not the most profitable model!
Stromboli was perhaps the highlight of our time in the Aeolian Islands. We read that it’s possible to climb with a guide all the way to the top as the sun sets (as 2/3 of the volcano actually sits under water). We also read that the volcano constantly puffs out black silt that ends up covering boats that sail past in a fine mist of dust, so we left the boat in Lipari for the day, and came across on a tour boat. The hike to the top was fairly steep, and the terrain grew increasingly powdery the higher we rose. The guide kept a steady pace, and our group of 15 enjoyed the views as we snaked our way up. As we neared the top (800 meters high), we came around a corner where the sun had just begun to set, and one of Stromboli’s lower vents was letting off steam. It was magical. We watched for a few minutes, and heard some loud explosions.
Twenty minutes later at the top, the sun had set, and a pitch black night set in. We turn on our headlamps, put on our hard hats and face masks, and made our way in front of the largest active crater in Stromboli to wait to see some activity from the volcano. Plenty of sulphuric gas and dust blew around. We heard a few small eruptions but didn’t see any lava as sometimes occurs. When the wind picked up, we headed down a different trail with the guide, which consisted entirely of several feet of silt interspersed with rocks. It was like going down a sand dune — each foot we put down slide a foot or more before gaining traction, which made it seem like we were on another planet. The whole experience, top to bottom, took just half a day, and was one of our favorite experiences of the trip. It was amazing to experience a little bit of the power of the Earth’s core, and remember how the Earth, with it’s molten center and tectonic plates, is always changing. volcano