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As I was planning out my itinerary for Italy and booking hostels, I spoke to an Australian girl who was running a hostel in Taormina, Sicily. She seemed to be knowledgable about the island, so I asked her for recommendations on good places to visit for a couple days, which I still had open. I am so thankful that I asked because I definitely would not have gone to the Eolian island of Stromboli otherwise. The island itself is an active volcano, and there is a very small local population that caters primarily to tourists who have come to relax on the beach and to see the volcano. I had often heard that things in the south of Italy are a lot slower. I can say this with absolutely certainty with regards to Stromboli.
I got my first taste of this before I even made it to my hotel. After four hours on the aliscafo, Italian for hydrofoil, I had to catch a different boat at another island called Salina. Conveniently, the hour layover that I had coincided with the second half of the Germany vs. Argentina match. It was not a huge surprise to anyone waiting for the second
boat that it was an hour late. Luckily for me, that enabled me stick around long enough to watch the penalty kicks at the end of the game. Of course this would mean that I would miss part of the Italy game later in the evening.
When I arrived on the island, I immediately got a sense of how small the place was when I saw the "taxis" waiting at the port. The taxis were literally golf carts. No cars on this island. The small little roads just aren't big enough. I asked how far the hotel was, and someone told me that it was only about 15 minutes up the road, so I figured that I would save the money and walk. That was the first mistake. The walk should have been about 30 minutes, and since he sent me the long way around the island along the coast, it took more like 45 minutes with my pack on my back.
When I arrived at the Casa del Sole, I was somewhat surprised to learn that there was no reception desk. Grazella, the owner, lived nearby and she pops in and out throughout the day. Since I
didn't know the boat schedule when I made the booking, I couldn't tell her what time I was arriving. I had phone numbers to reach her, but of course, there was no phone anywhere in the vicinity. Luckily I ran into a nice woman who had previously given me directions as I got closer to the hotel, and she called Grazella for me. I was to meet her in 30 minutes. This was particularly frustrating because 30 minutes from then would be somewhere in the middle of the second half of the Italy vs. Ukraine match. By the time I had settled in and made it to a TV, Italy had secured a 3-0 lead, and I had pretty much missed all the action, so I grabbed a tastey pasta with calamaretti, or small squids, and called it a night.
After two weeks of non-stop soccer watching in Germany, I was ready for a break from soccer when I arrived in Italy earlier in the week. For about four days, I had gone without watching any soccer at all. After my brief hiatus, I was ready for more on Saturday night. Initially I had scheduled a hike up the volcano for Saturday, but decided that since there were no matches on Sunday, that I might as well push it back. This ended up working quite well for me, especially since I later learned that the group who had gone up that night didn't see anything because of the clouds.
Days in Stomboli were very relaxing, usually involving several hours at the beach, a long lunch and a lot of reading, but by far the highlight of the visit (maybe even of my whole trip) was hiking up the volcano. When I first joined up with the tour group, they pointed to clouds at the top of the volcano and said that there was a decent chance that we may go up and see nothing. Since that was my last night and only opportunity to try, I was going up no matter what. Of course, the sky seems to be clear everywhere else around the island other than at the top of the volcano.
The 2.5 hike up leaves around 5:30pm to avoid the daytime heat. I found the hike to be fairly easy, especially at the slow pace at which we ascended. When we finally reached the top, it felt like we were sitting on top of the world. The clouds were coming straight at us, and the wind was refreshingly cool. From the top of the volcano we were peering into the crater where we patiently waiting for the clouds to temporarily break open so we could see lava spew out of several blow holes right in front of us. Luck was with us that night. After waiting about 15 minutes staring at the glowing blow holes, we saw what we were all waiting for: a big bang and then lava shooting up hundreds of meters in the air. We were just far away enough to be out of danger, but close enough that a few minutes after the explosion, we would get pelted with a shower of ash. Absolutely incredible. You really have to see the video and photos to understand what I saw with my own eyes. We saw several more erruptions over the hour that we were allowed by law to stay up there.
I had no idea that it was even possible to see this kind of volcanic activity right there in person anywhere in the world. I've been to and heard of walking around volcanic craters before, but nothing like this. I can say without exaggeration, that this is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. If you are anywhere near Rome, it is certainly worth spending a few days just to go out to Stromboli. What surprises me is that in general, my guides on Italy, rarely include even Sicily, let alone Stromboli, on their suggested itineraries. There are so many things that I have seen while traveling that I have no desire to see again. I'd hike up the volcano in Stromboli tonight, if I had the chance.
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Ben Campbell
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What's Up
It sounds like you are having a good time....I hope we get a chance to catch up when you get back.