Day 3: Panarea and Stromboli

We were signed up for another boat excursion today but we didn't need to check in for it until 12.00, so we had another slow start to the morning in Milazzo. I was particularly excited about today's trip because it involved visiting not just one Aeolian island, but two: Panarea and Stromboli.

I'd booked the trip online months ago, so our first stop was to check in at the offices of the boat company to receive our paper tickets. We were then able to board the boat not long after 12.00 and given green wrist bands to wear for the rest of the day. The boat set off promptly at 12.30 and soon we were leaving the harbour of Milazzo behind us.

The first stage of our journey took around 90 minutes, as we sailed past the island of Lipari which we'd visited yesterday and onwards towards Panarea. After a while I could see what looked like a huge mountain looming on the horizon. 

That must be Stromboli!

We got some good views of the island, which is home to one of Italy's four active volcanoes, as we got closer to Panarea.

And before too long Panarea itself began to come into view.

Before pulling into the harbour outside the island's main town, the ferry took us to a rocky bay.

The photos aren't perfect because I was taking them through the window of the ferry, but there were some interesting rock formations here.

Once we'd had chance to admire those, the boat finally docked in Panarea's main harbour.

We had a two hour break here, which ought to give us time to explore a little bit and get some food.

From the harbour we had a good view back towards Stromboli and I realised that I could see smoke emerging from the top of the volcano  

Stromboli is a volcano that continually erupts at a low level and so it isn't unusual to be able to see smoke, but I was nevertheless very excited  

We set off to explore Panarea.

The town on the island is quite small and we soon found we were in danger of walking out of it.

We walked as far as a little church, partway up the hillside.

There was a terrace in front of the church with an amazing view down towards the sea.

And every so often we'd get another view of Stromboli too.

When we climbed back down the hill from the church we strolled along the town's little promenade.

I loved these pots filled with cactuses!

Then we got a table at one of a handful of the available restaurants. While I played it safe and ordered a lasagne, Tim was more adventurous and ordered an arancino, a deep-fried ball stuffed with rice.

For dessert, I went with tiramisu...

...while Tim was more adventurous again and ordered cassata.

Before long it was time to head back to the harbour to catch our boat.

The next part of our trip was an hour of sailing towards Stromboli.

I think the direct trip to Stromboli was actually only 30 minutes, but we took a diversion to sail past another very rocky island.

Again, the photos aren't perfect because they were taken through the window of the boat.

But we passed some really interesting rock formations and caves and the sea was an amazing shade of blue.

Eventually the boat pulled into Stromboli.

We had a bit over two hours on this island to explore.

It was immediately obvious that the island was volcanic from the dark black colour of the sand on the beach.

There seemed to be more flat paths to explore on Stromboli than there had been on Panarea, so we set off for a walk. We passed lots of amazing cactuses growing by the side of the road...

....and had occasional views up towards the volcano itself.

After a while we came to a second beach, covered in black sand.

It's so strange to see!

These signs were also a bit strange to see - warnings telling us what to do in the event of a volcanic eruption  

Luckily the volcano looked nice and peaceful as we headed back towards the island's main village.

We found a quiet cafe and sat down for a drink. I was quite impressed to find our order came with free snacks!

And when we ordered a second round later, we got even more!

We'd been told to get back to the harbour at 19.05 to re-board our boat.

It was going to be a late return back to Milazzo, but the most exciting part of the trip was coming up as we got to spend half an hour sailing around the island of Stromboli. Almost immediately after we set off we could see smoke emerging from the top of the volcano. 

We were sitting outside on the boat this time to make the most of the views.

The boat took a detour around a large rock out at sea.

One of the rocks was supposed to be shaped like a sea-horse, but I couldn't quite see it!

I was far more interested in looking at Stromboli!

As we began to circle around the island, we could see smoke emerging from the side of it...

...and we realised we could also see it descending diagonally down the side of the mountain.

Wow.

Having made it to the far side of the island, the boat stopped for a while so we could wait and see whether there would be another eruption.

We could certainly see lots of dark smoke.

But every so often we got a tantalising glimpse of lava too!

When eruptions happened they were sudden and without warning. But we managed to capture one or two on camera

The most dramatic eruption came right at the end - wow!!!

We weren't going to top that one! The boat turned around shortly afterwards and began the long journey back towards Milazzo. It was about 10pm by the time we finally arrived so it really was a long day. But definitely worth it