Alicudi - lonely volcanic island

We pack our bags and leave our camper van alone on the Sicilian mainland for 6 days. It is "guarded" - let's see if it's still there when we return...

We head to the westernmost and smallest of the Aeolian Islands. Stephan likes it different and here everything is actually a bit different. Alicudi is a five square kilometer island that few tourists venture to - except for us in mid-October. Accordingly, we are observed by the locals. Joyful greetings are not in sight - the islanders here are rather distant and taciturn towards us.

Here is absolute silence, no noises. There are no roads, and therefore no cars and street lights. Never before have we seen such a sparkling starry sky in pitch black night.

We spend the night in a lovingly renovated farmhouse, which is rented out by a German who has been living on Alicudi for 30 years to tourists who seek absolute silence. We don't get to see him in person.

The 80 inhabitants live rather secluded. The individual houses are connected by a multitude of flights of stairs, so-called mule tracks. To buy bread and milk in the only shop on the island at the harbor, you have to walk up about 500 steps. Then you think about it twice.

Occasionally you can see a donkey carrying groceries along the rocky paths.

After a few days, we also only think in rations that are divided per day: a glass of wine in the evening and a beer per day for Stephan... Everything else would be too heavy to carry.

We start with yoga at sunrise, laze in the hammock, enjoy the view, explore the island (a sporting endeavor), cook creative dishes from what we have or what the little garden has to offer. Stephan tries fish for the first time and befriends a cat that doesn't leave his side for the 6 days. At some point, I hear him calling her Pauli - probably because she wraps him around her little paw and doesn't listen to him any more than our Pauli at home ;-).

We spend relaxing days on this island - often referred to as the last paradise in the Mediterranean. However, we feel most comfortable at bzw. in our little house. We experience strange things and the island somehow seems a bit eerie and spooky to us. But the stories will be told verbally...