Today is volcano day. We made our way from Lipari to Stromboli island (and town). We’re now fairly far away from the main cities of Sicily and the rest of Italy, for that matter, and with this distance comes the inevitable realization that the further you are, the smaller the towns get. It doesn’t help that once in a while, the active volcano on which the city is built causes cultivable land to become a wasteland (thanks to lava flow) or an underground eruption causes a small tsunami (with “only” five-meter waves we’re told), destroying some of the homes along the coast.
In any case, Stromboli is a small town. In a small town, people don’t claim their business on Google Maps or post opening hours correctly in their listings. I did take the time to suggest some edits on Google Maps, but I didn’t go through every business on the island, as you can imagine. We did learn the rules of thumb for business hours in the Aeolian Islands:
- If it’s not a restaurant or grocery store it will be closed on Sunday.
- If it’s not a restaurant it will usually open between from 9:30 to 12:30 and from 16:30 to 19:00. Some might close at 19:30 or 20:00 or open at 9:00 but overall the above are safe bets.
- Grocery stores will be open on Sunday morning (9:30 to 12:30) but not in the afternoon.
- Restaurants who don’t do breakfast will open around 11:30 and close at 14:30 to re-open around 19:00 and close for the day whenever. They’ll say 22:00 but really it’s more an indication than real closing time.
The whole point of coming to Stromboli is to hike the volcano. It is an active volcano, and its summit is 150 meters above the crater, so you have excellent views of the explosions caused by the gases escaping the magma chamber. We saw pictures of volcanic activity, with stunning plumes of glowing lava soaring into the air. Our impression was that you only see the significant activity once in a blue moon, but the hike looked fun.
You can only hike alone up to the vegetation line of the volcano at an altitude of about 500 meters. If you actually want to see the volcano in action, you have to book a tour. This is what we did, and at 17:20, we were on our way for a sunset hike to the summit of Stromboli. At an altitude of 850 meters, it takes about three hours to get to the top when hiking in a group. It’s a little over 5 kilometres, but with many novice hikers in the group, the guide keeps the pace slow so everyone reaches the summit in top shape.
We arrived at the summit a little after 20:30 (sunset was at 20:10) and, being able to compare with hiking up Salina’s volcano the previous day during the early afternoon we appreciate the cooler weather brought by the wind and the increased shade in the first 40 minutes of the hike; after that the vegetation is too small to provide shade for anybody taller than a meter, leaving me with a good 85 centimetres too many. The summit of Stromboli is extraordinary. There are stunning plumes of lava every couple of minutes, and they are big! Big enough that everyone is glad to be 150 meters above and about 300 meters away from them. The term active volcano takes on much more meaning here.
It’s not the first time we walk on an active volcano. Our first was Vulcano, a couple of hours’ boat ride from Stromboli. It has plumes of sulphuric vapour and a large crater and stunning view of the ocean, but that’s it. It’s stinky and pretty. Stromboli, on the other hand, offered us views, very little smoke, no sulphur, and a fireworks display. It’s the volcano portrayed in movies; Vulcano feels like the half-missed papier-mâché volcano you made with baking soda and vinegar.
On our way down from the volcano, our guide distributed paper masks like those used by spray painters. He told us the way down would get very dusty, and it would be helpful. And right he was– it’s almost as if he’s done it before. You’re essentially going down a sand hill that’s 800 meters tall. The entire side of the volcano we came down is made of coarse black sand (ash from the volcano, essentially). As you go down, it kicks up a lot of dust. Unless you’re the first one down, it gets foggy with all the dust in the air.
Before you go on the hike, your guide will check that you have at least 1.5 litres of water, a flashlight, warm clothing, and hiking boots. We showed up with our running shoes. To our defence, that’s what we hike with. We’ve done the GR20 in running shoes. Our guide explained that the boots are not so much for the hike but for the sand. He recommended we at least get high socks to limit the abrasion from the rough sand on our skin. He said they would do nothing to keep sand out of our shoes, but they would keep us comfortable. He was 100% right. We emptied our shoes halfway down and at the bottom, and you could have filled a jar with all the sand in our shoes and socks. The dust also got everywhere. We left our hotel room so dusty that we felt bad for the cleaning staff... until we remembered the exorbitant price of our stay and figured they are likely well compensated for it or, at least, used to it by now.