Sailing in Sicily - Eolie by food

This summer me and Francesco went for a week sailing trip around Eolie, very authentic and unique small islands north of Sicily. Sharing with you some tips if you want (and should!) visit

Lipari - The biggest of Eolian islands

Being an Italian living in London, when summer starts approaching and my mum starts sending pictures of sun, seaside, beach I really feel home seek and the same with Francesco; this is the why we always try to get a 2 weeks break at a place with lots of sun, beaches and, of course, good food.

This year we decided to go to Sicily and, in particular, we decided to wind sail across the Eolian Island for a week. Before starting to sail we also visited Catania and Taormina for a few days.

Eolian Islands are very wild, unique and small places where time seems to have stopped 50 years ago and this is the beauty of them.

In our trip we sailed from Lipari to Salina, Vulcano, Stromboli, Panarea and Filicudi.

In this post I want to give you insights around the islands I liked the most and, things to see/ places where to eat good food.

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Catania/ Taormina

Taormina - View point

I went to Catania a few years ago and I did not love it; this time, however, I appreciated it more, especially its nightlife.

Also, we eat very good food, especially at 'Me Cumpari Turiddu', a Slow Food authentic Sicilian restaurant. Some dishes we really appreciated were Grilled Vegetable with Robiola sauce, a very fresh seafood salad with sundried tomatoes and Yellowtail skewers crusted in aromatic bread.

Cristina's Norma arancino in Taormina

When you approach Taormina, a part from having a walk in the main promenade, which is very nice and with plenty of shops, you should stop (based on Francesco's suggestion, as I do not eat fried food) at Cristina's to eat her arancini (the Norma ones especially).

I got, instead, a very good Pistacchio ice cream, which is very typical in Sicily.

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Eolie - Lipari

The first and biggest island you are going to visit during the sail is Lipari. It has a long and quite nice promenade, but the truly beautiful part is the castle, with tiny streets and lots of colorful shops.

Kasbah's tuna steak with pistacchio pesto

When it comes to food, I have 2 key suggestions:

- Pasticceria Subba: very famous for their freshly made cannoli and other very indulgent desserts

- Kasbah: this is a quite upscale restaurant, which is however not super expensive (~£50 p.p. for a full meal). I quite liked it because it combines the traditions and ingredients of Sicily with an innovative touch. Among the interesting things we tried it is worth mentioning the raw seabass with goat cheese, aubergine and passion fruit and the stunning tuna steak with pistacchio pesto in the picture above.

Eolie - Panarea

I will not spend much time on Panarea, as I really did not like it. Everyone describes it as very posh and with a great nightlife, but what I found were 2 nice, but not amazing rooftops where to eat and drink something for the happy hour.

Eolie - Salina

Salina is a very small island, but some beaches there are amazing! It has a small promenade with a few restaurants and you cannot avoid to try the famous 'Pane Cunzato' at Alfredo's.

Francesco eating this huge pane cunzato

Pane Cunzato is a sort of huge bruschetta typical of Sicily with fresh ingredients as mozzarella, ricotta cheese, tuna, tomatoes on top ... it is very good, filling and refreshing.

Also, do not miss Alfredo's granita as it is amazing and delicious, almost a fresh fruit puree (I got wild blackberries and peaches and it was stunning).

Eolie - Stromboli

We did not have much time to visit the island as we went straight to hike the Stromboli volcano; despite being pretty tough, even for me that I daily practice sports and run, it is an amazing experience which I recommend to everyone who could go there.

Us on top of the volcano (sorry for the low quality of the picture!)

Going on top of the volcano will take you around 3-4 hours (and a lot of sweat! :)) and another 2 hours to go down, so given the hike starts at around 7 pm you will come back between midnight and 1 am.

I suggest to bring something to eat from the boat or, if you do as Francesco did, buy 250g of fresh buffalo mozzarella in Stromboli village and eat it on top of the volcano! :)

Eolie - Filicudi

Last, but not least, Filicudi. This is the wildest among all the islands and very, very tiny, being mostly comprised of a short promenade with an hotel/ restaurant, one new sushi place and one bar.

The best thing about the island is, however, the atmosphere - lot of live music, drinking at the seafront and mostly the amazing food buffet of 'Zia Rosa'. Zia Rosa is a pretty old woman who sells almost everything you can imagine (arancini, fish, parmigiana, fried vegetables, desserts ...) for a very cheap price.