Hello from Sicily – Exploring Salina,
the Island of the Twin Mountains
After our explorations of Lipari and
Salina yesterday the weather was going to keep us on the island
of Salina today. I woke up early at about 6 am and stuck my head
out of the boat. A beautiful sunrise was in the making so I grabbed
my camera and took in the pink, orange and peach coloured hues of
this glorious sunrise in Santa Marina. Dark coloured clouds were
hanging on the horizon. A catamaran had just pulled out of the harbour
and provided an interesting anchor point for my photos.
A gorgeous sunrise in Santa Marina di Salina
Shortly after it started to rain and when we got up for breakfast
our skipper Francesco explained that the weather forecast today
may not be good enough for us to leave the island, so we have to
have a briefing in the early afternoon. Two additional guests had
arrived, Franco, another Italian teacher and the co-owner of Laboratorio
Linguistico, and his friend Agnieszka, a young music student
from Poland who was learning Italian since she was studying music
in Rome. Our trusted four-cabin sailboat, the Solitaire II, now
had passengers in every cabin, and there were seven of us traveling
now.
On our driving tour of Salina, with two local experts
Herbert, the German television travel journalist, was on an official
location scouting trip for his travel show to gather intelligence
for next year’s shoot which would feature the Italian learning
experience on board of a sailboat, provided by Francesco’s
company, Laboratorio Linguistico. Herbert needed to check out all
the interesting spots, the lighting, the locations and the facilities
so he would be able to make plans for the script and the camera
crew that would come down from Germany next year to film the extraordinary
experience of learning Italian on a sailboat while cruising through
the beautiful Eolian Islands.
A visit to the local museum in Lingua: Giancarlo and Sabina, our
guides
So in order to get to know the island better Herbert had asked
Francesco to make arrangements with some local experts to take him
to different spots on the island. Herbert graciously offered to
take other people along on his island exploration, and Claudia and
me excitedly agreed. Sure enough, Sabina Giuffré, who we
had already met last night at dinner, and her local friend Giancarlo,
came to pick us up in a rented vehicle to give us a tour of the
island.
Shoreline in Lingua
We were nice and comfy in the small Italian vehicle and after just
a 10 minute drive, we had arrived at our first stop: the “Gola
del Diablo”, a gorge cut into the black and brown volcanic
rock, featuring an ancient Roman bridge. The stone formations were
indeed impressive, and the layers of ancient lava flows were clearly
visible.
Claudia and Giancarlo are enjoying the granitas
We also stopped in the village of Lingua where we visited a local
ethnographic museum that featured various exhibits, illustrating
the ancient ways of life on this local island. An ancient millstone,
various farming implements, even an original bedroom from a farm
were exhibited in this museum. This small museum provides great
insight into the traditional lifestyle on these islands. We then
walked around the corner and steps away is the main square of this
tiny town. Here at the Bar “Da Alfredo” we congregated
and received free samples of granitas – the semi-frozen Sicilian
dessert composed of sugar, water and different flavourings such
as strawberry, melon, peach, orange, lime, coffee, almonds and many
others.
An ominous sky hangs over Lingua and Bar Da Alfredo
Similar to sorbets, granitas usually have larger crystals, and
the locals often eat them in combination with a brioche. The black
sky overhanging the mountains was ominous, but a bright ray of sunshine
lit up the façades of the houses around the square. A big
husky dog was snoozing contentedly on the floor and I was wondering
how this poor dog with his thick fur would be able to handle the
hot Sicilian summers. The locals were very hospitable and humorous
banter was flying back and forth.
Sabina Giuffré with her dad in front of their bed and breakfast
From here we drove back through Salina, dropped off Giancarlo and
stopped at Sabina’s house which she has turned into a bed
and breakfast . Salina’s dad came to greet us and I couldn’t
help but detect a resemblance to famous actor Kirk Douglas. He graciously
picked some “nespole” (loquat fruits) for us from his
fruit tree. These fruits, originally indigenous to Southeastern
China and grown in warm climates around the world today, are similar
in appearance to apricots and are similarly sweet and juicy.
View towards Malfa, one of 3 main villages on Salina
We appreciated this little roadside snack, thanked Sabina’s
dad and continued our journey towards the next town on this island:
Malfa, a small fisherman’s town. Along the way we stopped
to admire the malvasia vineyards as well as patches of capers which
are big export products for the island of Salina.
The Church of San Lorenzo in Malfa
Malfa features a big church dedicated to San Lorenzo and incidentally
was the hometown of our shipmate Lorenzo’s grandparents and
a place that he was going to spend some time in. Sabina took us
down to the fishing harbour and then back up the hill to a lookout
point called the “semaforo”, a surveillance tower erected
in the early 20th century which was also used during the Second
World War. Sabina mentioned that UNESCO offered to buy this tower,
but the local town turned down the offer. Today it is abandoned
and blocked off.
The Semaforo surveillance tower
Sabina stopped the vehicle and we walked out onto a lookout point
which provided a gorgeous view of the Mediterranean with a great
view of the island of Filicudi – the “reclining pregrant
woman”, so called because of its shape, featuring a head and
what looks like a big belly, protruding from the sea. To our left
was a deeply indented valley which Sabina explained is an ancient
volcanic crater, half of which has broken off and disappeared in
the sea. Today it is the location for the village of Pollara which
has one main tourist attraction: the house where the movie “Il
Postino” was filmed.
The house where "Il Postino" was filmed
Of course we needed to check this out so we drove down some narrow
winding roads, parked the car and walked up a short stretch on a
dusty road to see a rather unremarkable simple and small pink-coloured
house with some vines, which is one of the most famous locations
on the island. Seen from outside, there was nothing spectacular
about this house, and Sabina indicated that it is available for
short-term rentals.
View of Pollara, a former volcanic crater
The weather was starting to clear up and the view from the northern
tip of Salina was gorgeous. The distances on this island are tiny,
but due to the narrow and winding road it definitely takes a while
to get around. By 1 pm we were back at our boat and had a briefing
with our captain: Francesco indicated that due to the weather forecast
we were not going to sail today. So we had a comfortable on board
lunch and I then headed into Santa Marina to walk around and make
some phone calls back to Canada. Unfortunately the Internet café
was closed since it was siesta time, which often lasts from about
1 or 1:30 pm to 4 or 4:30 pm. In Sicily you definitely need to time
your shopping experiences carefully to make sure the shops are open.
An Italian lesson on the patio of a bar in Santa Marina di Salina
- awesome!
From 4:30 to 6:30 pm Claudia, Agnieszka and I had our first Italian
language lesson, provided by Franco on the outdoor terrace of
a local bar. Now here is a concept: language learning on the terrace
of a bar – I definitely like it. It made the somewhat painful
exercises dealing with the complexities of the Italian “congiuntivo”
(the subjunctive) much more palatable. I have studied a lot of languages
with different language schools, and Laboratorio Linguistico has
definitely created a very unique language learning concept here.
Dinner on board - we are living like kings...
After our intense lesson I took another stroll around Salina and
this time the Internet café was open. So far I have found
fairly good public Internet access in different parts of Sicily,
and it’s always great to be able to connect with home. Our
boat crew spent a quiet evening on board, we fixed up a lovely home-cooked
dinner with potatoes, salad, sweet carrots, cheese and various sweets
for dessert. Some of my travel partners played cards while I organized
my photos on the laptop which was conveniently hooked up to the
electricity supply provided by the harbour commission in Santa Marina
di Salina.
It was nice to have a day of rest in Santa Marina, but I am definitely
looking forward to exploring a new island tomorrow: Stromboli!
