Salina (click on the link to read more) is the greenest and the most fertile of the Aeolian Islands, famous for its capers and the sweet Malvasia wine. It is neither as developed for tourists as Vulcano or Lipari nor as fashionable (and expensive) as Panarea, but boasts some excellent restaurants, cafés and shops. Its ancient Greek name, “Didyme”, means twins and refers to the camel-hump shape of its two long-extinct volcanic cones. There are excellent opportunities for walking.
In delightful contrast to the exposed volcanic terrain of the other Aeolians, Salina boasts a lush, verdant landscape thanks to its natural freshwater springs. Woodlands, wildflowers, thick yellow gorse bushes and serried ranks of grape vines carpet its hillsides, while high coastal cliffs plunge into the breaking waters below.
Top Attractions
Don't miss a trip to sleepy Pollara, sandwiched dramatically between the sea and the steep slopes of an extinct volcanic crater on Salina's western edge.
Tumbling down the hillside to a small shingle beach, this settlement on Salina's north coast is the island's largest, though you'd never guess it from the tranquil atmosphere.
Salina's main port, Santa Marina is a typical island settlement with steeply stacked whitewashed houses rising up the hillside.
Three kilometres south of Santa Marina Salina, the tiny village of Lingua is a popular summer hang-out, with a couple of hotels, a few trattorias and a small beach.
This small museum, tucked behind the church on the main road above Malfa, documents the emigration of thousands of residents from Salina and the other Aeolian Islands to Australia and the Americas in the late 19th
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