Sicily & The Aeolian Islands: Stromboli by day

Stromboli is an amazing place. The main settlement is in the North East of the island that is shaped by two narrow 'roads', one along the coast and another at a higher level. These form a one way system for the three wheeled carts, golf buggies and scooters that pass for traffic here. The local police have a golf buggy with a blue light on the top. There are no pavements, but pedestrians and vehicles seem to get along just fine.

We had a warm but hazy day for our walk to see Sciarra del Fuoco - formed by lava flow. The start of the walk repeated the stiff initial climb from the previous evening, and then contoured around a well-made path at around 1000'. This was very colourful, with a the pink of cistus and yellow of broom all the way. We eventually reached the mule track built by Visconti when filming on the islands, and soon got our view of the lava flow. This apparently glows at night, but all we could see was steam as it entered the sea. We climbed the  narrow track to the makeshift helipad to get a better view and were treated to a few eruptions from above while there. Quite a backdrop for our picnic lunch. The dark grey plumes were presumably there the previous night when we'd been at the top!

We descended the mule track to the aptly-named L'Osservatorio restaurant, where we had a drink in the sunshine and watched more eruptions, then made our way back via the coastal path and the residential streets, stopping for a delicious ice cream on the way.

Dinner was pizzas all round outdoors at Ritrovo Ingrid on the main square. It was Eurovision time, and we amused ourselves by trying to remember the UK entries from the 1970s. 

View Stromboli by day in a larger map