Aeolian Islands (Part 5) – Lipari

It’s only about 8 miles from Vulcano to Lipari so, on the morning of Wednesday 18 June, we didn’t bother with unstowing and hoisting the mainsail, we just unrolled the genoa and still had a cracking reach across a stretch of water that is surprisingly busy with tripper boats, ferries and hydrofoils. Lipari is the largest of the Aeolian Islands and the area of the Castello, which dominates the town and bay on the east side of the island, has been continuously inhabited since Neolithic times.

We dropped anchor in 15m of water (off most of the Aeolian Islands the seafloor shelves quite steeply) just to the south of the Lipari town. Having taken the dinghy ashore we had a lovely time wandering through the narrow streets and alleyways on our way to the Aeolian Islands museum, which is housed in a warren of buildings inside the Castello.

The museum is described as a ‘must do’ in both our pilot book and our guidebook of Sicily, so we did, and at €6 a head it was well worth it (though you have to like looking at pottery). Excavations around the Castello have revealed vast quantities of Neolithic tools and pottery, Bronze Age artefacts and Greek and Roman vases and statues. From the number of artefacts on display, one would think that the museum has no storage facilities other than the display cases. The exhibits are displayed in great detail in chronological order, starting with the obsidian tools of Neolithic times.

Even at this early time, the Aeolian Islands were involved in trade with a surprisingly wide geographical area because of the volcanic sulphur and, more importantly, the black, glass-like obsidian which was used for making sharp tools before the advent of metal-working.

Much of the museum is filled with early pottery with lots of detail given about the development of its decoration. The artefacts come in all shapes and sizes but I was struck by this tiny cup, barely the size of an eggcup. Did Bronze Age Aeolians like espresso as much as their modern-day counterparts we wondered?

Later rooms were filled with myriad cases of puppet-sized Greek and Roman theatre masks, statuettes and household and ornamental pottery influenced by and developed from these civilisations.

Outside, some of the excavation sites are still on display, though they are rather weed covered, but inside there are reconstructions of some of the sites showing the layout of the artefacts in the sites when they were uncovered. Interestingly, some Neolithic/Bronze Age people were found to have been buried in a crouching position inside large jars/amphorae. In fact, many of the artefacts in the displays have come from tombs, including from those of children, and apparently many of the discoveries from the Lipari excavations have helped to date other Mediterranean cultures.

The museum also displays artefacts from a number of shipwreck sites around the islands. The extent to which the islands were involved in the trading routes of the Mediterranean in Greek and Roman times is amply illustrated by the serried rows of amphorae of which the photo shows just one of about half a dozen collections.

Back on board BV we kept our culinary skills going by making a pizza for lunch to use up some bits and pieces in the fridge (what else when in Italy!). We ate in the cockpit, sipping cool beer whilst discussing the important business of a strategy for the next leg of our journey through the Strait of Messina. It is one of the few bits of the Mediterranean with any real tidal flow and it has a fearsome reputation for squalls blowing down from the high ground on either side so we would need to time our passage carefully.

To confirm our timing for the passage we decided that we should make a last weather check on the internet (a great excuse to go ashore again for an icecream!). Capela, another British yacht, was anchored close to us with much industry on deck to repair a leaking dinghy. With their dinghy out of action we gave David and Sheona a lift ashore so that they could get supplies whilst we checked the weather forecast. That prompted a kind invitation for evening drinks onboard Capela. We could have chatted all night but had to draw stumps at around 9 pm so that we could eat our  moules marinière dinner before setting off.