Hikes
Trails
Honest difficulty, out-and-back timings, elevation gain, altitude profile. And where access limits exist, we tell you before you book.
- Stromboli — the volcano climbStrenuous · 3 h walking, 5 with the guide and stops · 495 m measured on the full outing
Climb in the late afternoon, sit at the viewpoint and watch the volcano work while the village lights fade below: the most memorable excursion you can make from this coast, on a volcano that has been erupting without pause for millennia, with explosions minutes apart.
- Vulcano — Gran Cratere della FossaModerate · 2 h round trip on foot · 391 m from Porto di Levante
From the rim you look into a crater that genuinely smokes, sulphur-yellow fumaroles at your feet and the whole archipelago laid out to the north. You go when the traffic light says so, and you don't go alone.
- Panarea — Punta del CorvoModerate · 2 h 30 walking, 4 with stops · 714 m on the full loop
Anyone who writes Panarea off as an island of aperitifs has never set foot on the summit trail: from up there you see Basiluzzo and the cone of Stromboli on one side, Salina, Lipari and the plume of Vulcano's crater on the other.
- Salina — Monte Fossa delle FelciStrenuous · 4 h walking on the traverse · 1,021 m measured sea to sea
The roof of the Aeolians: 962 metres, with a forest of ferns, chestnuts and pines accompanying you to the top. It's the only Aeolian climb you can do in summer without cooking, and in its full version it crosses the island from one sea to the other.
- Lipari — Rocche Rosse and Monte PilatoEasy to moderate · 2:30 h round trip · 470 m
Above Acquacalda lies a flow of black, glassy obsidian, still since the Middle Ages. The trail skirts it and climbs to the crater it poured from: you walk on volcanic glass and white pumice.
- Catafurco waterfallEasy to moderate · 1:30 h round trip · 180 m
The outing that rescues a sirocco afternoon: half an hour's walk to a thirty-metre waterfall plunging into a rock pool.
- Lago Biviere and Portella Femmina MortaEasy · 2 h loop · 120 m
A lake at 1,278 metres ringed by beech forest, Etna as a stage backdrop, horses grazing free and fifteen degrees less than on the coast.
- The Goletta pathModerate · About 1 h there and back · A steady climb from the sea
Just over a kilometre climbing from the village of San Gregorio up the hill: until the mid-twentieth century this was the only way into town. Mediterranean scrub, cicadas, and the Aeolians on the horizon.
- Filicudi — the path to Zucco GrandeStrenuous · 3 h there and back · Up and down along the ridge
A mule track along the north-east flank leads to a village whose people left in the 1960s to emigrate. Roofless houses, terraces returned to the maquis, and silence.
- Alicudi — the climb to Filo dell'ArpaStrenuous · 3 h there and back · 675 m
There is no trail: there are steps. Thousands of them, in stone, built by hand along the flank of the cone. That's how you climb to 675 metres, the archipelago opening up at every turn.
Stay in Capo d'Orlando
A base in the centre — and everything else becomes a day trip.
The port for the Aeolians is 45 minutes away, the Nebrodi right behind. Breakfast served early for dawn departures.
Direct booking, no intermediaries · See the rooftop →
