August 28-31, 2015
PJ and I are not ones to truly 'relax' on our vacations; therefore, in true fashion, we decided to hop on a ferry to Panarea and Stromboli on our last day. The ferry ride was long, I believe it was over 2 hours, and it was another hot one. The ferry did allow us to see Tropea from a different view that we would have never been able to see otherwise so it was a good start.
We bid farewell to Calabria for the day and headed on our way.
Panarea is the second smallest of the Aeolian Islands at 3km long and 2km wide [that is significantly smaller than Block Island for any New Englanders out there]. It is also the most fashionable island in the group and attracts a jet-setting exclusive and expensive crowd. Luxury yachts are typically found in the marina and the island is completely car-free, limiting the only modes of transportation to golf carts, vespas and ones own two feet.
The Island feels more Greek than Italian, with whitewashed walls and vibrant blue and green tiles. Due to the high end cliental, the food and lodging are also luxury and expensive so we opted to get some local Sicilian food porta via and sit amongst the colorful flower-lined paths. We grabbed some arancini, which are deep fried, cone-shapped rice balls stuffed with a combination of things, and headed to a shaded location. We ordered one arancino with speck and peas and the other with spinach. They were delicious and the cost and the view weren't bad either.
Once on the island, ones only options are to relax, take in the scenery, enjoy a drink or two and eat. There are pools, swimming areas, hiking trails, a few shops, etc… It was so hot that we set out for some shade until our boat excursion to a nearby swimming area departed. We did get in some exploration before we headed out and enjoyed the time we did have on the island.
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| Panarea |
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| Small island as we arrived in Panarea |
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| Small island as we arrived in Panarea |
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| Panarea |
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| The Stromboli volcano in the background |
Our secondary excursion was to take a ferry to what I think was the island of Basiluzzo to swim and have a small lunch with traditional food. The water was amazingly clear and we were able to jump right off of the boat and swim around. There must be a high salt content in the water, similar to what we experienced in Tropea, because it was extremely easy to float. After cooling off and filling up on tasty food we headed back to get the others that remained on Panarea and then headed off to Stromboli.
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