Hello From Sicily - Exploring Salina, The Island Of The Twin Mountains

After our explorations of Lipari and Salina yesterdayto Southeastern China and grown in warm climates
the weather was going to keep us on the island ofaround the world today, are similar in appearance to
Salina today. I woke up early at about 6 am andapricots and are similarly sweet and juicy.
stuck my head out of the boat. A beautiful sunriseWe appreciated this little roadside snack, thanked
was in the making so I grabbed my camera and tookSabina's dad and continued our journey towards the
in the pink, orange and peach coloured hues of thisnext town on this island: Malfa, a small fisherman's
glorious sunrise in Santa Marina. Dark coloured cloudstown. Along the way we stopped to admire the
were hanging on the horizon. A catamaran had justmalvasia vineyards as well as patches of capers
pulled out of the harbour and provided an interestingwhich are big export products for the island of Salina.
anchor point for my photos.Malfa features a big church dedicated to San Lorenzo
Shortly after it started to rain and when we got upand incidentally was the hometown of our shipmate
for breakfast our skipper Francesco explained thatLorenzo's grandparents and a place that he was
the weather forecast today may not be goodgoing to spend some time in. Sabina took us down to
enough for us to leave the island, so we have tothe fishing harbour and then back up the hill to a
have a briefing in the early afternoon. Two additionallookout point called the "semaforo", a surveillance
guests had arrived, Franco, another Italian teachertower erected in the early 20th century which was
and the co-owner of Laboratorio Linguistico, and hisalso used during the Second World War. Sabina
friend Agnieszka, a young music student from Polandmentioned that UNESCO offered to buy this tower,
who was learning Italian since she was studying musicbut the local town turned down the offer. Today it is
in Rome. Our trusted four-cabin sailboat, the Solitaireabandoned and blocked off.
II, now had passengers in every cabin, and thereSabina stopped the vehicle and we walked out onto
were seven of us traveling now.a lookout point which provided a gorgeous view of
Herbert, the German television travel journalist, wasthe Mediterranean with a great view of the island of
on an official location scouting trip for his travel showFilicudi - the "reclining pregrant woman", so called
to gather intelligence for next year's shoot whichbecause of its shape, featuring a head and what
would feature the Italian learning experience on boardlooks like a big belly, protruding from the sea. To our
of a sailboat, provided by Francesco's company,left was a deeply indented valley which Sabina
Laboratorio Linguistico. Herbert needed to check outexplained is an ancient volcanic crater, half of which
all the interesting spots, the lighting, the locations andhas broken off and disappeared in the sea. Today it
the facilities so he would be able to make plans foris the location for the village of Pollara which has one
the script and the camera crew that would comemain tourist attraction: the house where the movie "Il
down from Germany next year to film thePostino" was filmed.
extraordinary experience of learning Italian on aOf course we needed to check this out so we drove
sailboat while cruising through the beautiful Eoliandown some narrow winding roads, parked the car
Islands.and walked up a short stretch on a dusty road to
So in order to get to know the island better Herbertsee a rather unremarkable simple and small
had asked Francesco to make arrangements withpink-coloured house with some vines, which is one of
some local experts to take him to different spots onthe most famous locations on the island. Seen from
the island. Herbert graciously offered to take otheroutside, there was nothing spectacular about this
people along on his island exploration, and Claudia andhouse, and Sabina indicated that it is available for
me excitedly agreed. Sure enough, Sabinashort-term rentals.
Giuffré, who we had already met last night atThe weather was starting to clear up and the view
dinner, and her local friend Giancarlo, came to pick usfrom the northern tip of Salina was gorgeous. The
up in a rented vehicle to give us a tour of the island.distances on this island are tiny, but due to the
We were nice and comfy in the small Italian vehiclenarrow and winding road it definitely takes a while to
and after just a 10 minute drive, we had arrived atget around. By 1 pm we were back at our boat and
our first stop: the "Gola del Diablo", a gorge cut intohad a briefing with our captain: Francesco indicated
the black and brown volcanic rock, featuring anthat due to the weather forecast we were not going
ancient Roman bridge. The stone formations wereto sail today. So we had a comfortable on board
indeed impressive, and the layers of ancient lavalunch and I then headed into Santa Marina to walk
flows were clearly visible.around and make some phone calls back to Canada.
We also stopped in the village of Lingua where weUnfortunately the Internet café was closed
visited a local ethnographic museum that featuredsince it was siesta time, which often lasts from about
various exhibits, illustrating the ancient ways of life on1 or 1:30 pm to 4 or 4:30 pm. In Sicily you definitely
this local island. An ancient millstone, various farmingneed to time your shopping experiences carefully to
implements, even an original bedroom from a farmmake sure the shops are open.
were exhibited in this museum. This small museumFrom 4:30 to 6:30 pm Claudia, Agnieszka and I had
provides great insight into the traditional lifestyle onour first Italian language lesson, provided by Franco
these islands. We then walked around the corner andon the outdoor terrace of a local bar. Now here is a
steps away is the main square of this tiny town.concept: language learning on the terrace of a bar - I
Here at the Bar "Da Alfredo" we congregated anddefinitely like it. It made the somewhat painful
received free samples of granitas - the semi-frozenexercises dealing with the complexities of the Italian
Sicilian dessert composed of sugar, water and"congiuntivo" (the subjunctive) much more palatable. I
different flavourings such as strawberry, melon,have studied a lot of languages with different
peach, orange, lime, coffee, almonds and manylanguage schools, and Laboratorio Linguistico has
others.definitely created a very unique language learning
Similar to sorbets, granitas usually have largerconcept here.
crystals, and the locals often eat them in combinationAfter our intense lesson I took another stroll around
with a brioche. The black sky overhanging theSalina and this time the Internet café was
mountains was ominous, but a bright ray of sunshineopen. So far I have found fairly good public Internet
lit up the façades of the houses around theaccess in different parts of Sicily, and it's always
square. A big husky dog was snoozing contentedlygreat to be able to connect with home. Our boat
on the floor and I was wondering how this poor dogcrew spent a quiet evening on board, we fixed up a
with his thick fur would be able to handle the hotlovely home-cooked dinner with potatoes, salad,
Sicilian summers. The locals were very hospitable andsweet carrots, cheese and various sweets for
humorous banter was flying back and forth.dessert. Some of my travel partners played cards
From here we drove back through Salina, droppedwhile I organized my photos on the laptop which was
off Giancarlo and stopped at Sabina's house whichconveniently hooked up to the electricity supply
she has turned into a bed and breakfast . Salina's dadprovided by the harbour commission in Santa Marina
came to greet us and I couldn't help but detect adi Salina.
resemblance to famous actor Kirk Douglas. HeIt was nice to have a day of rest in Santa Marina,
graciously picked some "nespole" (loquat fruits) for usbut I am definitely looking forward to exploring a
from his fruit tree. These fruits, originally indigenousnew island tomorrow: Stromboli!