The time has arrived. Sea Cloud leaves the big island, Sicily, to start the slalom around the small ones, the Aeolian Islands. These islands are an incredible concentration of dead and alive volcanoes. Alicudi is the first one. Its shape does not give doubt. It’s a perfect cone upside down on the water. Filicudi is much older, geologically speaking, so the volcano collapsed and the shape seems as any other island. Salina that became famous worldwide due to “Il postino,” an Academy Awards winning movie that was filmed here—it’s a dead volcano.
Sea Cloud turns to the north to get to the anchor position at the island of Lipari, and we see from the starboard side the island of Vulcano with its famous fumaroles. Sea Cloud drops the anchor in Lipari for our land excursion. This island is a mix of several dead volcanoes where most of the population lives and all the services, such as schools and hospitals, are concentrated. We get into buses and cover a loop around the island admiring the sceneries along the perimeter and ending at the archeological museum. A gem of Greek and Roman artifacts. It’s small but incredibly rich in pieces. No museums are so rich in the Mediterranean.
Back aboard for the final sail of the Aeolian. We are all excited. Sea Cloud is sailing up north, to visit the last island, Stromboli. Famous for another movie, with Ingrid Bergman, it’s known since antiquity as the lighthouse of the Mediterranean. I can’t wait to sail around the big black cone. Stromboli is an active volcano, erupting ash all day long. Smoke is visible at great distance during the day, and a red aureole is clearly bright at night. Greeks and Romans, and even earlier the Phoenicians, used it as navigation signal, a natural lighthouse. Centuries later it is still there, attracting thousands of visitors every year with its eruptions.
It’s a strange night. The high humidity generates lower clouds that often cover the top of Stromboli. We think we see something, maybe not. A mix of excitement and delusion. We expect a bigger explosion, a bigger aureole, but nothing. Nature does not want to cooperate making a big show for us. Sadly, Sea Cloud has to proceed for the next destination, the Strait of Messina. We leave Stromboli in a complete darkness. I’m not sad, sincerely, I’m happy. We cannot control everything. We tried, we hoped. It has been the lighthouse for centuries, we can always come back one day and try again.
