The island of Panarea

The island, the smallest of the eoilian archipelago, surrounded by huge and tiny rocks, offers an amazing sea bed, with an incredible variaty of flora and fauna, where diving is very captivating. Also, the path that leads you, through nature, up up the island, offers an exiting view of the other islands, especially of the vulcano Stromboli, that fascinates with its neverending eruptions. Being car free, Pnarea’s air is fresh and unpolluted, and you can live the quiteness of the place taking your time to get to one place to the other, enjoying the sicilian way of relaxing during vacation. Since the paths of the island are almost totally light-free, you can get your eyes used to moonlight, or you can get shocked tothe incredible starred sky above you. In any cas, you can find many bars and restaurants, in the village, where you can savour the sicilian food and get in touch to the inhabitants and guests of the isalnd. Depending on the period of your stay, the scenery changes, in colours, life style and social activities: in August Panarea is pretty crowded and fashion, whereas in other months it can be really quiet; to the extreme, in winter it can be totally isolated.

How to get to the island

Depending on the period of the year, timetables and availability change. In general, the island is connected by hydrofoil or ship, to napoli, Palermo, Reggio Calabria-Messina and Milazzo. The companies are : Siremar, Snav, Usticalines and Alilauro. Also, it is possible to reach the island by helicopter from the airport of Lamezia terme, Reggio Calabria and Catania ( see AirPanarea).

How to move on the island

The beauty of the island comes also from being car/free, so that it is necessary to take times to explore it. (In any case it is pretty small). The house is 5 minutes walk to the village/harbour, 10 minutes walk from the stome beach and 15 from the sand beach. You can walk all around the island passing by Punta Corvo (421 meters on sea level). To enjoy the sea, we reccomend you to rent a little boat at the harbour> this way, you can circumnavigate the island passing by Cala Junco (also reachable on foot in 40 minutes), the natural pools and the old crater, half of it collapsed. Also you can reach the rocks all around, where you can stop to dive and snorkel. The house has a rock stair that leads you directly to the sea.

What to eat in Panarea

The tastes you can find here are typical of the eolian tradition: capers, eggplants, lemons, prickly pears. On the island there’s a very good butcher, whereas for fish you have to wait to hear, in the morning, the fisherman yelling “Pesce fresco” while he drives all around the island selling it. Otherwise you can fish it! The water of the house is not drinkablem but the market at the harbour has a delivery service to bring it home. There are a lot of restaurants, much or less expensive and elegant. In general, they serve fish, homemade pasta with typical flavours, and sweet of the tradition.