Susanne 
Tthe town of Stromboli
From here I turned left and made my ascent into the town of Stromboli which stretches up along the foothills of the volcano. The roads are incredibly narrow, a regular car would definitely not fit on the roads, so all the vehicles are either motor scooters, tiny three-wheeled mini transport trucks with a cargo platform, or even golf carts. I snapped a few pictures of the various vehicles, and was rather amused when I saw the two local policemen – carabinieri – ride through town on a golf cart.
Carabinieri in a luxurious police vehicle
The village of Stromboli is located on a hill overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea and the main square features a viewing platform that provides a beautiful look over the sea. The Church of San Vincenzo overlooks the square, and on the left hand side is a restaurant with a large terrace offering a great view. A local politician was starting to make announcements for the upcoming mayoral elections and at 6 pm one of the main candidates would be making an appearance. Not many people listened to his speech since most of the people on the square were actually foreign tourists that had come off the ferries to stay for just a few hours. But he steadfastly continued on with his political message…
The Church of San Vincenzo
I stopped into a local outfitters shop that provided shoes and clothing for hikers, equipment appropriate for hiking up to the top of this active volcano. Various local operators provide guided hiking tours to visit the top of Stromboli which is in continuous eruption. This retail store also had Internet access, offering one rather antiquated machine tucked into the corner, but the owner explained that unfortunately the Internet had been down all day, so I was out of luck. I continued my explorations of the town instead which offered numerous restaurants and various retail and artists shops, all closed of course, due to the siesta.
Two old scooters behind the church
So I bought myself an ice cream and relaxed for a bit on a bench by the waterfront. He added that the medical treatment had actually been free of charge. Rested again I hiked back up into the village and turned left at the big church and headed up past the village on the narrow road that provides the ascent to the volcano. By this time, about 6 pm, the sun had already disappeared behind the volcano, and it was getting pretty cool so I decided to come back into the village. There I bumped into Herbert who had arrived on the island in mid-afternoon after accidentally taking a wrong ferry to the island of Panarea to visit a doctor about his flu-like symptoms.
Taxi, anyone?
Fortunately he had found a medical specialist and got a prescription for his flu. The medical treatment had actually been free of charge. We sat and chatted for a bit until it was time to get back on the beach where our skipper would pick us up with the dingy. By 7:30 pm all of us were on the boat and we were ready to start our night time navigation to Panarea, our next destination.
A Husky by the waterfront, how does he handle the heat in the summer?
A big cruise ship was approaching from the south, and the setting sun bathed it in its golden glow. We were just turning the corner near Strombolicchio when we saw a gorgeous beautiful pink and purple-coloured sunset. I thanked our skipper Francesco for timing our departure so perfectly. We rounded the island of Stromboli and also got to see the lava fields on the western side of the island.
Coming back on the dingy
The sea was rough today and we were now sailing in complete darkness. A cool wind was blowing and after sitting at the back of the boat for about an hour I got chilled to the bone. I decided to lie down in the cabin and covered myself with two blankets to try to get warm. In addition, the choppy waters had made me feel a bit queasy and I felt better lying down.
What a sunset…
Around 10:30 finally we had reached Panarea, not that we could see it because it was totally dark, but our captain had dropped anchor and we were going to sleep offshore for the night. A nice on-board dinner of gnocchi and salad capped off an eventful day and I was already wondering what this new island of Panarea would look like tomorrow morning.
