When we arrived in Milazzo we took a taxi to the port. Our timing was great as when we got to the port the hydrofoil was leaving in 5 minutes. Here is a photo of the hydrofoil we rode on.
It took a little over an hour to get to Lipari after a short stop at the island of Vulcano. For those not familiar with these island, they are known as the Aeolian Islands. They are a group of volcanic islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea just off the north coast of Sicily. They were named after the Greek god of the winds, Aeolus, and have been inhabited for at least 6,000 years. Lipari is the largest and is where we are headed as that is where my maternal grandfather is from and we would like to see where he was born and find out about his family. The other islands are Vulcano, Salina, Stomboli, Filicudi, Alicudi, Panarea and Basiluzzo. Stomboli and Vulcano still have active volcanos. In Neolithic times from about 4,000 to 2,000 BC, Lipari was a very prosperous island as it was one of only two sources of obsidian in the Mediterranean area. Before the advent of metals, obsidian could be chipped and yield a very sharp edge, so it was in demand for knives, arrow and spear points, etc. In the bronze age Lipari remained important as it was a trade point for tin which came from England. It was conquered in 1,250 BC by the Ausonians led by Liparus who was succeeded by Aeolus who, according to Homer, gave hospitality to Odysseus. Lipari has been conquered and ruled by many peoples over the years including the Greeks, Romans, Visigoths, Vandals, Ostrogoths and then the Greeks again. In 836, the Saracens sacked Lipari, massacred most of the population and enslaved the rest. In the 11th Century, the Normans drove out the Arabs and ruled for several hundred years, then the Spanish, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Naples and Palermo) and finaly it became part of Italy. In 1544, Lipari was sacked by Ariadeno Barborossa who was a Turkish corsair and almost all of the population sold into slavery in North Africa. The island was then repopulated by Sicilian, Calabrian and Spanish families. My maternal grandfather's family (Ziino) was part of this resettlement and they arrived in Lipari sometime in the 1600s but we don't know from where they came. One other piece of history, according to legend in 236 AD the coffin of Saint Bartolomeo washed ashore and ever since then he has been considered the patron saint of Lipari.
After arriving in Lipari, we checked into our hotel, the Borgo Eolie, unpacked and headed into town to see what it was like and to grab a late lunch/early dinner. Here is a photo of our hotel.
We went down to the Piazza Bartolomeo which is where the original fishing port is located and had lunch at Bar "Il Gabbiano" (The Seagull) which as it turns out is run by Dominic Ziino (no relation). Here is a photo of the Piazza and the restaurant.
That's Dominic in the middle of the restaurant. It turns out that the name Ziino is fairly common on Lipari. Besides the harbor, the other main feature in the Piazza is the Chiesa San Giuseppe which was founded in 1545, one year after Barbarossa sacked the island. Here is a photo of the church and its main altar.
This is the main church in the town. There was a wedding going on in the church earlier that day while we were in the square below. Later that evening there was a fireworks display at a hotel just down the street from the Borgo Eolie where they were holding the reception.
Over looking the Piazza is the Castello. This is the high ground right on the edge of the water where the fortress and the Duomo were built.
The plans for tomorrow, Sunday, is to find the Ziino street and home and to visit the archaeological museum and Duomo.
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