Panarea, carefree, to the island that’s there
Keepers of winds, legends and inexhaustible sources of beauty, the Aeolian Islands remain a constantly evolving reality. Abodes of unspoiled nature and a way of life that makes contemplation of places its cornerstone. The following column has no explanatory purpose in the strict sense; it aims to make those who will read travel not only in space, but mainly in the soul of these suspended places, between sea and sky.
There are places where the constant presence of the sea, its eternal flow, seems to cadence the continuous flow of thoughts and emotions. The pearl of the Aeolian Islands has remained unchanged over the years.
One still walks barefoot, is illuminated by the stars and remains unarmed before the magnificence of Dattilo, Lisca Bianca and Spinazzola. The waters of the sea restore the beauty of the seabed, and a boat ride manages to suspend time and space. Animated, colorful, beloved and the protagonist of some of the stories that helped define its aura as an exclusive and mysterious Island. All of this is Panarea, elegant in the Bougainvillea that adorns the doors of its homes, bright blue, in continuum between sea and sky. Panarea the “divine,” the queen of the Aeolian nightlife or even “the island of sin” as the well-known journalist and writer Lina Sotis called it in 1987 in Corriere della Sera. The scene of glamorous soirees, including glossy clubs and “tell-tale” summers, the island began to define its image especially from the 1960s, after attracting public attention before such absolute masterpieces of international cinematography as
“The Adventure”
by Michelangelo Antonioni, filmed in part in the wonderful Aeolian setting.
Little houses rise there; among the rocks and plants, from time to time, the sea appears, with its superb colorings, with the surrounding islands and rocks, strange and picturesque; so that, at every step, interesting scenes present themselves, now wild, now delightful: it seems to be in an enchanting primitive country…
An ancestral charm, the one described by the Italian Touring Club traveler in 1919, that still lingers today in the narrow alleys and nights lit by the stars and the moon that enhance that suffused air, since there is no public lighting.
A constant, which we have already been able to savor in previous escapes to the wonderful Aeolian landscape. But again, you want to go in search of that something new.
Of that detail, that voice, that narrative that define the peculiarities of these places, which transcend their physicality and flow into life itself. In the slow rhythms of September, which contrast with the perdition and bustle of the hot summer months.
How far from gossip newspaper covers, glittering clothes and the hubbub of discos is the image of Panarea and its simple life made up of the silence of solitude and the “basics of life” of: Beauty, harmony and simplicity.
by James Gandola
The trip to the Aeolian Islands, accompanied by Giacomo Gandola, also took us to discover other islands, dive here: Stromboli, Alicudi, Vulcano, Filicudi.
And if you can’t wait to visit them, book your tour with Charter Aeolian by clicking here.
A scene from the film “L’avventura” by Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960