“Not even by painting it would it be possible to give an idea of this convulsive, fiery and almost melting earth. We couldn’t tell our journey from the dream.” A. Dumas
The Aeolian Islands, also known as the Lipari Islands, are an archipelago of volcanic origin, located in the Tyrrhenian Sea north of the Sicilian coast, a place of wild and rare beauty. The Islands are named after the god Aeolus, king of the winds, who according to Greek mythology established his residence there, giving them their name, thanks to his reputation as a tamer of the winds.
The first of a long line of illustrious travelers was Ulysses who, as Homer narrates in the Odyssey, arrived in the Aeolian Islands after having survived the Cyclops Polyphemus and was hosted here by Aeolus and honored with the wineskin containing the winds contrary to navigation. would have brought back home.
And so again the archipelago is mentioned by Virgil in the Aeneid with the famous description of the island of Vulcano, a mythological forge where the homonymous god forged metals.
The Aeolian archipelago consists of seven islands: Vulcano, Lipari, Salina, Alicudi, Filicudi, Panarea and Stromboli. They include two active volcanoes, Stromboli and Vulcano, as well as various secondary volcanic phenomena. The archipelago’s thousand-year history is well documented by the Aeolian Regional Archaeological Museum, with its headquarters in Lipari and branches in Filicudi and Panarea.
