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May 9, 2007
Hello from Sicily – Picturesque Panarea
& an Evening in Lipari
I had definitely overcome my little bout of seasickness last night
on our way from Stromboli to Panarea.
A good rest had cured all my symptoms and I was ready to tackle
the world again. Panarea was waiting. Reminiscent of a little prairie
dog I stuck my head out of our sailboat at about 8 am and I realized
that we had another absolutely gorgeous day ahead of us. I was one
of the earlier passengers up and decided to have a little bit of
breakfast on the boat.
The Bay of Drauto where we had stayed overnight
Probably six or seven sailboats were anchored in this little cove
just off the tiny island of Panarea, and a local fisherman was skippering
back and forth between these boats, trying to sell some of his fresh
catch. This would obviously be the Sicilian equivalent of a “traveling
salesman”.
Looking back at the anchored sailboats
Sure enough he arrived at our boat as well and our captain
Francesco had an animated friendly discussion with him. They
both spoke Italian too fast for me to follow, but I gathered that
we were not in need of fresh fish today. The fisherman flashed a
bright smile and took off to try his luck at the next sailboat.
Slowly but surely all our crew members came out of their cabins
and made an appearance on deck on this beautiful day.
Interesting vegetation
By 10 am we were ready to go on land, and in two trips Francesco
packed us into his dingy and took us ashore. We arrived on a nice
sandy beach called Drauto and hiked up past a local restaurant to
a narrow road that was running halfway up the mountain along the
eastern side of this tiny island. Panarea only has two villages:
San Pietro with the main harbour, and Drauto. It also features excavations
of a Neolithic village, just south of the bay where we landed. Many
of the houses have beautiful gardens with tropical plants and colourful
flowers. After about a 20 minute walk we had reached our next language
learning locale: a local bar with an outdoor terrace where we would
have our
next Italian lesson. (An awesome concept…)
Another Italian lesson on the patio of a bar in Panarea
The bar was closed, and the owner came out to greet us. He had
no problem with us sitting on his terrace to study Italian. We broke
up into two groups, the beginner group with Lorenzo and Herbert
was studying with our captain Francesco, while the three ladies,
Claudia, Agnieszka and I were studying with Franco. We spent a good
couple of hours studying and I was amazed that the beautiful surroundings
with all the colourful flowers did not complete distract us.
Gorgeous flowers are everywhere
When our group was finished, we listened in a little bit on Lorenzo
and Herbert’s lesson. Francesco, always good for a sly little
joke, had created a language learning scenario where Herbert was
a representative of a dating service, and Lorenzo was looking for
a wife. The challenge for Lorenzo was to communicate in reasonable
Italian what he was looking for in a wife while Herbert had to ask
the appropriate questions to supply him with the right “merchandise”.
Bougainvillea in full bloom
Now, the irony is that Lorenzo is a Catholic priest, and some of
the statements that came out of both of them were indeed hilarious.
Fortunately, Lorenzo has a great sense of humour, played along great
and had a lot of fun himself with this exercise. This is definitely
not your standard, dry language learning experience.
The church of Panarea with one of the rocky outliers behind
After our lesson we continued our walk on the narrow street, probably
another twenty minutes or so into the town of Panarea, located on
the eastern side of the island and offering a gorgeous view of Stromboli
and of a couple of rock outliers called Basiluzzo and Dattilo located
in the sea.
View from the harbour of Panarea
By this time we were hungry and we sat down on the outdoor terrace
of restaurant / hotel. Later on we realized that the sign above
the hotel read “Best Western”. It was a rather strange
sight to see this American hotel chain sign in this tiny little
village on an island north of Sicily. I strengthened myself with
a prosciutto and cheese panino while my colleagues had various types
of pasta and salads. With lunch completed I was ready to embark
on a photo safari of Panarea, said goodbye to the group who still
wanted to relax and headed off into the northern part of town.
Whitewashed houses, almost like in Greece
To me Panarea is probably one of the more scenic islands, after
Lipari. Many of the houses have a cubic shape and are whitewashed.
In many ways it reminded me of images of the Greek island of Santorini.
Pink, red and purple bougainvilleas are growing all over the place,
colourful subtropical flowers and plants adorn the brilliant white
walls surrounding the houses. Everything is extremely clean, tidy
and well-kept. Panarea incidentally is one of the more expensive
of the Eolian Islands, and a simple pasta dish will set you back
about 12 to 15 Euros at lunch.
Stromboli can be seen in the distance on the left
I walked all the way towards the end of the road which led me up
onto a promontory with a small pine forest and many rocky outcrops.
I sat down for a bit and admired the majestic view from this little
spot. The sky was a bright blue, while the sea was sparkling in
a deeper shade of the same colour. Stromboli was visible in the
distance, and the rocky outcrops of Basiluzzo and Dattilo were gleaming
not far off shore. A view like this has to be absorbed and enjoyed.
Two rock outliers, Basiluzzo and Dattilo
Since we had to be back in the bay where we had landed I started
to make my way back and it took me a good 40 minutes to reach our
embarkation point. Francesco was already waiting for us back on
the boat and within minutes was ready to get us with his dingy and
we departed from Panarea. A good three hours later we landed again
in the harbour of Lipari where we had already spent our first night
on board.
Panarea - a photographer's dream
Some of our group headed into town at about 7:30 pm and Claudia,
Lorenzo and I found an Internet café to get back in touch
with our friends and family back home. I also needed stamps for
some postcards, so Lorenzo and I headed into a local tobacconist’s
shop where I had an interesting experience.
Gorgeous views of the Tyrrhenian Sea
I asked the shopkeeper for a receipt and he responded I would need
to write out a receipt myself and he would give me a stamp on it.
When I politely asked him for a piece of paper, he said there will
be no receipt at all and abruptly turned to the next customer. He
had no intentions of dealing with me again due to this rather outrageous
request for a receipt, I guess.
Sicilian doorknocker
Lorenzo came to my aid and along with his own four stamps, he purchased
eight stamps on my behalf and I reimbursed him for it. The shopkeeper
had no problem with selling Lorenzo 12 stamps, but he absolutely
refused to deal with my request for a receipt. I would say this
has been my first unpleasant service experience in Sicily, and although
I found it quite strange, I decided it wasn’t going to affect
this nice evening.
Floor mosaic
An hour later we all met to head to dinner together. We walked
through the cobble-stoned streets up to the fortified hill of Lipari
where we found a restaurant called “Da Fillippino” where
all of my co-travellers had a multicourse meal consisting of various
types of seafood, fish, pasta and dessert on the outside terrace.
Herbert, the TV travel journalist, entertained and educated us with
his extremely extensive knowledge of wine, fish and other culinary
delicacies.
Everything is in bloom
By 11:30 pm the restaurant had gotten pretty empty and we started
our 40 minute walk back to the boat. I briefly downloaded the photos
of the day and hit the sack, ready for our explorations tomorrow
on the island of Vulcano!
Interesting and useful books about Sicily:
seful links:
Sicily
Tourist Information
Eolian
Islands Tourist Information
Laboratorio
Linguistico Italian Language School
Related articles:
My Italian language learning adventure
in Sicily in 2007
Hello from Sicily: Arrival in Taormina
Hello from Sicily: An
interview with the Sciglio family from Hotel Villa Nettuno
Hello from Sicily: A hike to Castelmola
and a taste of Sicily
Hello from Sicily: An excursion to
ancient Siracusa
Hello from Sicily: A leisurely
Sunday at Isola Bella
Hello from Sicily: Language
studies in Taormina and a walking tour
Hello from Sicily: A country driving tour
around beautiful Mount Etna
Hello from Sicily: A private lecture
about Sicily and the Mafia
Hello from Sicily: A Sicilian
cooking class in Taormina
Hello from Sicily: A hike up Mount
Etna a few days after an eruption
Hello from Sicily: Goodbye Taormina
- Hello Milazzo
Hello from Sicily: Starting my sailing
trip through the Eolian Islands
Hello from Sicily: Discoveries of Lipari
and Salina
Hello from Sicily: A driving tour of
Salina and Italian studies on a patio
Hello from Sicily: Explorations of
Stromboli, featuring an active volcano
Hello from Sicily: Beautiful Panarea
and a nice dinner in Lipari
Hello from Sicily: A driving tour of
Lipari and arrival at Vulcano
Hello from Sicily: Conquering Vulcano
and a final dinner in Milazzo
Hello from Sicily: Discovering Milazzo,
its long history and architecture
Hello from Sicily: An excursion by train
to the medieval treasure of Cefalu
Hello from Sicily: Discoveries
in the Nebrodi Mountains
Hello from Sicily: My final day in
Catania
Presenting:
The Babilonia Italian Language School in Taormina
Presenting:
The Laboratorio Linguistico Italian Langauge School in Milazzo
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