The Island of Lipari

Saturday, April 9, 2011

                            

We had a morning of leisure while we sailed toward the Liparian Islands.  All of our peers will know these islands as the Aeolians.  The students, including those being home-schooled will know them by their new name of Liparian.  Who knows what some of you may call them. 

We sailed past the Island of Stromboli in hopes of witnessing a lava display.  It was quite hazy during the morning so we just caught a vague glimpse of the island and saw no volcanic activity.  We remember passing it late at night on the 2006 cruise and witnessing lava pouring down the side.  The Island of Vulcano had steam rising from a caldera.  The islanders are happy when steam is escaping because lava isn’t!

  

The haze cleared prior to our 1:00 pm arrival at Lipari.  This was the maiden visit of the Prinsendam to this port.  The captain dropped the anchor in the pretty little harbor of Lipari Town.  The harbor is guarded by a citadel built on top of ancient Greek ruins. 

 

The little town extends to the left, right and behind the Citadel.  We had time to explore part of it and enjoyed poking our noses into a couple of churches (as usual).  The locals were very pleasant and we enjoyed visiting with several of them.  It is amazing how we can communicate with so many people when we don’t share a common language.  The gelato store was also a bakery and we had a wonderful discussion with the baker’s daughter, Jenny, who was running the store. She was trying to find a bride and groom cake topper for us, but explained that she didn’t have enough time since we were sailing at 6:00pm. 

                     

       

The town was filled with antiques from old island businesses.  We did our best to support the local economy.  It was probably a blessing that we were not in port any longer.  All the passengers who went ashore had very favorable opinions of this new and dear port.

We were back on board in time for Mass.  Dinner will be later this evening as we are meeting friends in the Pinnacle Grill. 

We’ve “retrieved” (as the Captain likes to say) our tenders, pulled up anchor, and are sailing along the north coast of Sicily which we can see off the starboard side.  At nine this evening we will transit the Strait of Messina.  We will see Sicily from our verandah and mainland Italy will be on the other side of the ship. This strait connects the Tyrrhenian Sea with the Ionian Sea.  At its narrowest point, it measures 1.9 miles wide.  This constriction and the strong Mediterranean currents create strong winds and whirlpools in the strait.  A natural whirlpool in the Northern portion of the strait has been linked to the Greek legend of Scylla and Charybdis. 

                              

Tomorrow:  Syracuse in Sicily