The Aeolian islands archipelago – also called Lipari islands (UNESCO 2000) – is composed of seven islands: Lipari, the largest one, Salina, Vulcano, Stromboli, Filicudi, Alicudi and Panarea.
They are volcanic islands, positioned as to form a “Y” off the northwest coast of Sicily, their territory has told about human villages for some centuries before 4000 b.c. : a residential community was supposed to be dedicated to collection and processing of obsidian, very sought-after material to be the sharpest among those then known by man. Pearls of the Tyrrhenian coast of Sicily, the Aeolian islands give to the time their history made of extraordinary landscapes - variable under the active volcanos of Vulcano and Stromboli – and made of men and myths, Liparus and Aeolus for instance.
Key players, elements, stories and colours, intersect and mix up to lose one another, in an intense and incomparable triumph of nature.
On the one hand there are some overhanging rocks against which the deep blue waves of Amphitrite beat with terrific fury; the blessed gods call these rocks the Wanderers. Here not even a bird may pass, no, not even the timid doves that bring ambrosia to Father Jove, but the sheer rock always carries off one of them, and Father Jove has to send another to make up their number; no ship that ever yet came to these rocks has got away again, but the waves and whirlwinds of fire are freighted with wreckage and with the bodies of dead men. The only vessel that ever sailed and got through, was the famous Argo [...]
The Odissey, XII, vv. 59-70, transl. S. Butler