Stromboli
After escaping from the Cyclops, Ulysses sailed away to the home of Aeolus, ruler of the winds. He would have passed Stromboli, an awesome sight, the third active volcano I’ve visited in Italy and one which has been in almost continuous eruption for the past 2,000 years.
The hydrofoil from Milazzo didn’t stop here, but took me straight to Lipari.
I stayed 3 nights in Lipari, the largest of the Aeolian Islands, in a charming little self-contained appartamento after a hectic hydrofoil trip of over 2 hours
Lane leading to my appartamento
Lipari is pretty well a massive archaeological park within an elevated expanse of fortified Spanish walls built over Greek foundations.
There’s a Norman Castello too, a monument to the fleeting glory of some French knight.
Castello
Lipari has that same mythic spirit I found on Sicily.
Climbing up to the Castello, combined with the sea air, certainly sharpened my appetite and I headed out in search of food. To say that I was ravenous wasn’t an exaggeration but I soon fixed that with a scrumptious meal in a nearby trattoria. Rabbit stew!
I haven’t had rabbit for years I practically wolfed down a flat bowl of piquant rabbit with rosemary and olives on a bed of mashed-together onion, celery and carrots, washed down with a glass of sweet Malvasia.
There was a lovely salad too, Aeolian salad. Cherry tomatoes, anchovies and enormous capers.
Ecco pronta la vostra insalata!
Ingredients
- 200g cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 red onion
- a small handful of capers
- 8 slices of lightly toasted bread
- 1 clove of garlic (crushed or chopped very finely)
- 8 anchovy fillets chopped into largish pieces
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Method
- While toasting the bread (thickish slices), halve the cherry tomatoes, crush or finely chop the garlic and chop the anchovy fillets into large pieces.
- Cut the onion into thin rings and then place all the ingredients together in a bowl. Add some olive oil, season with salt and pepper and mix well.
- When the bread is toasted put onto 4 plates, dribble with olive oil, add a few spoonfulls of salad on top and serve
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