The main Aeolian island, with its castle, its museum and the pumice quarries
Lipari, the largest of the Aeolian Islands, a UNESCO World Heritage Site for their volcanic phenomena, is the natural base for exploring the archipelago: ferries and hydrofoils leave from its two harbours for all the other islands.
The town is dominated by the Castello, a rock fortified by the Spanish, which encloses the cathedral and the Aeolian Archaeological Museum, one of the most important in the Mediterranean, with finds from six thousand years of history, from obsidian tools to Greek theatre masks. The island was rich in obsidian, black volcanic glass, traded throughout the Mediterranean in prehistory. On the north east coast, the old pumice quarries of Porticello have left white slopes that make the sea a brilliant turquoise.
Tip: rent a scooter to go round the island in an afternoon, stopping at the Quattrocchi viewpoint to see Vulcano; boat tours around Lipari and Salina leave from Marina Corta.
Where it is
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