The Rada di Lipari is a wide bay facing to the south with a number of options for mooring though none of them provide any shelter from southerly conditions. There are pontoons off the town itself and a small harbour to the northern end of the bay with a wall that give some shelter to the north west. We opted for a business running two pontoons in this area called ‘EOL Mare’. We were moored alongside as there isn’t enough width here for ‘stern to’ which left us with our stern facing the open water. Within an hour we had the heavy metal mooring springs out and secured these in place as the regular wash from the passing ferries had Splice surging violently. With the springs taking much of the surge we were OK and the ferries stop at night so things become peaceful then. The only real protection would be in the marina tucked further behind the wall.

The USA flagged boat that had been near us in Vulcano was moored next to us here as well. The staff are very friendly and helpful and with a bit of negotiation the price was the same as a mono-hull at E50 per night, good compared to some places. The facilities are recent and a good standard as well.



The view from our cockpit is good

We decided to walk in to town for dinner but to have a drink in the bar above the marina first. As we finished our drinks and were leaving the American crew from ‘Orontes II’ appeared and we were suddenly having another drink before leaving! Steve and Laura have been in the Med for a few years after crossing the Atlantic and were cruising with their son Cory and his wife Heather. We had a good chat for a while before heading off to find food.

We then found another downside of the location. The walk into town is an easy 15 minutes or so but the first half is along a busy cliff-side road with no pavement, and these are Italian drivers! We didn’t enjoy that bit and were glad we’d thought to take a torch for the return trip.

Our research had identified a restaurant called ‘L’Officina di Cannolo’ on Coral Virtorio Emmanuelle. We had a great meal. The staff were friendly, spoke English and were attentive and the food was lovely. Homemade breads, a wine from the nearby island of Salina and we both ate tuna. Chunks of fish wrapped in crushed almonds and deep fried so that the coating was crisp but the fish still rare. This was served on a bed of local vegetables with very thin crisp style chips with a sprinkling of fresh grated ginger on them.



The partly demolished tuna dish

It was delicious and we even had a desert as this was a speciality of the house. Cannolo’s are tubes of dough made with flour, butter, sugar and the local sweet wine to form a very crisp tube shaped pastry. This is filled with ricotta cream cheese produced on Vulcano and served with chopped pistachios or almonds, chocolate bits and caramelised orange slices to add as you eat it. As we don’t have very ‘sweet teeth’ this was a very tasty and enjoyable alternative. Especially as a glass of local sweet wine was offered on the house to accompany it.
Though not a cheap meal at around E70 we thought the quality and value was excellent. We would certainly recommend this ‘Office’.

The next morning we spent more time chatting with ‘Orontes II’ before they headed off and we walked back into town to visit the Aeolian Museum. We spent a couple of hours here looking at artefacts back through the history of the islands and marvelling at the quality of some of the pieces made three thousand years ago. The story of the islands and the many conflicts over their ownership together with the sea battles in the waters around this area kept us busy for the rest of the morning and lead to a late lunch at a street stall. A deep fried fish and rice ball and tomato and cheese fried in dough, not very healthy but it was filling.

We plan to head towards Panarea and Stromboli tomorrow and will eat on board tonight, boat pizza is on the menu for the first time this season...... we really must be cruising!

Main Photo : Lipari town from the Rada. The Castello, (centre) built on a natural raised promontory was one of the major reasons for the towns location as a centre of the obsidian trade in the years BC.