The films shot in the Aeolian Islands
In 1949 two crews filmed simultaneously in the same archipelago, over a love affair gone wrong. Then Antonioni, Troisi, Moretti and, last year, Christopher Nolan. Where they filmed, and what you can see.
Written by the family of B&B del Corso, who live in Capo d'Orlando
The war of the volcanoes
It's the most extraordinary episode in the history of Italian cinema, and it happened here. In 1949 Roberto Rossellini left Anna Magnani, his partner, for Ingrid Bergman, who had written to him from America. He sailed with her to film «Stromboli». Magnani's answer was to accept a film called «Vulcano», directed by William Dieterle, at the same time and in the same archipelago. Two crews, two stars, and the world's press on the hydrofoils. The scandal engulfed everyone before either film was released. One correction almost nobody makes: despite its title, «Vulcano» was filmed on Salina and Lipari, and the island of Vulcano does not appear among the documented locations — the little harbour of Rinella plays the port of Vulcano, and the church of San Gaetano plays the island's parish church. The traverse that ends at Rinella →
Stromboli, and the Sciara
Rossellini filmed on the island using what was there: white houses, real fishermen, the tuna fishery, and a volcano that erupted for real during shooting. Anyone going today finds nearly all of it: Ficogrande and Scari, the black beaches, the stack of Strombolicchio offshore, and the Sciara del Fuoco running down to the sea on the north-west flank. The island →
1960 · Antonioni at Lisca Bianca
Eleven years later, Michelangelo Antonioni shot «L'avventura», the film that split Cannes and changed European cinema: a woman disappears during a boat trip and is never found. The island where she vanishes is Lisca Bianca, one of the islets off Panarea: white rock and nothing else. You can only reach it by boat, and it's the same spot where the seabed releases underwater fumaroles. Panarea and its islets →
1993 · Nanni Moretti, all five of them
In the «Islands» chapter of «Caro diario», Moretti films an entire episode hopping from one island to the next: Lipari, Salina, Stromboli, Panarea, Alicudi. It's perhaps the truest portrait of what moving around the Aeolians actually involves: the timetables, the different character of each island, the fact that Alicudi has no roads. Anyone planning a tour of the archipelago would do well to watch it first. Which island to choose →
1994 · Il Postino, at Pollara
The best-loved film on this list, and the saddest: «Il Postino» was Massimo Troisi's last, and he died a few hours after shooting finished. The Sicilian scenes were filmed at Pollara, on the island of Salina: half a collapsed crater above the sea, white houses suspended over a pebble beach. You walk down to it, and it's the most famous sunset in the archipelago. Salina →
2025 · Nolan, and the wandering rocks
The most recent, and by far the largest in scale. Between April and May 2025 Christopher Nolan filmed part of «The Odyssey» here, with ten period tall ships moored at Pignataro harbour: Lipari for the sirens episode, Vulcano for the primordial landscapes, the islet of Basiluzzo and the Pietra del Bagno stack. And the sea stacks of Pietra Lunga and Pietra Menalda, the ones seen from the Quattrocchi viewpoint, as the «wandering rocks» of Book XII. The locations, one by one →
And «The White Lotus»? Not here
It's the question we get more than any other, and the honest answer is no: the second season of «The White Lotus» was not filmed in the Aeolian Islands. The hotel in the series is the San Domenico Palace in Taormina, a Dominican convent founded in 1374 and later turned into a hotel; the rest is on the Ionian side and in the south-east. In Taormina the Ancient Theatre, Piazza IX Aprile, Corso Umberto and Isola Bella; in Cefalù the beach and the cathedral square, which open and close the season; in Noto the cathedral of San Nicolò; the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania for the night at the opera; and the Castello degli Schiavi at Fiumefreddo, the Godfather villa the characters visit on a tour. Around here, nothing. Which doesn't make them far: from Capo d'Orlando, Cefalù is about an hour by motorway and Taormina about an hour and a half — both doable in a day, without paying to sleep there — here's how Taormina works in a day, with the real tolls, car parks and tickets. And for anyone waiting on a Sicilian sequel: season four has left Italy, and is filming around Saint-Tropez on the French Riviera. Cefalù, Taormina or here: which base →
Why these islands
It isn't only the beauty. It's that within a few miles the Aeolians offer things that don't usually sit together: a volcano that erupts continually, though never to a timetable, uninhabited islets, white villages without cars, and a sea that changes colour by the hour. For a director that means filming wildly different landscapes without moving the crew a hundred kilometres. And for Nolan there was more: the Odyssey is set here. The Aeolians are Homer's Aeolia, the kingdom of the god of winds.
How to actually see them
There's no signposted route and no plaques. From land: Pollara is reached on foot, Pietra Lunga and Pietra Menalda are visible from the Quattrocchi viewpoint on Lipari, and Stromboli's black beaches are in the village. Only from the sea: Lisca Bianca, Basiluzzo, the Pietra del Bagno, and the Sciara del Fuoco seen at night. These are precisely the places the scheduled hydrofoil doesn't touch, because it runs port to port. The day out by boat →
Frequently asked questions
Was The White Lotus filmed in the Aeolian Islands?
No. The Sicilian season was filmed on the Ionian side and in the south-east of the island: the hotel is the San Domenico Palace in Taormina, and then Cefalù, Noto, the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania and the Castello degli Schiavi at Fiumefreddo. Not a single scene was shot in the Aeolians. The islands appear instead in Rossellini's «Stromboli», Antonioni's «L'avventura», «Il Postino» and, in 2025, Christopher Nolan's «The Odyssey».
Where was The White Lotus filmed in Sicily?
In Taormina (San Domenico Palace, the Ancient Theatre, Piazza IX Aprile, Corso Umberto, Isola Bella), in Cefalù (the beach and the cathedral square), in Noto (the cathedral of San Nicolò), at the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania and at the Castello degli Schiavi in Fiumefreddo di Sicilia. Season four is not in Italy: it is filming on the French Riviera, around Saint-Tropez.
Which films were shot in the Aeolian Islands?
Among the best known: Rossellini's «Stromboli» with Ingrid Bergman and «Vulcano» with Anna Magnani, both 1949-50; Antonioni's «L'avventura» at Lisca Bianca in 1960; Massimo Troisi's «Il Postino» at Pollara in 1994; the «Islands» chapter of Nanni Moretti's «Caro diario»; and in 2025, part of Christopher Nolan's «The Odyssey».
What was the war of the volcanoes?
The name given to the 1949 episode when Rossellini left Anna Magnani for Ingrid Bergman and went to film «Stromboli» on that island, while Magnani filmed «Vulcano» in the same archipelago at the same time. Two rival films, two crews, the international press in tow.
Where was the film «Vulcano» with Anna Magnani shot?
Not on the island of Vulcano, despite the title: the documented locations are on Salina and Lipari. The little harbour of Rinella on Salina plays the port of Vulcano and the church of San Gaetano its parish church; on Lipari, filming took place at the sea stacks, the Porticello pumice quarry, Marina Corta and via Garibaldi.
Where was Il Postino filmed?
The Sicilian scenes were shot at Pollara, on the island of Salina in the Aeolians: half a collapsed crater above the sea, with white houses over a pebble beach, reachable on foot.
Can you visit the film locations in the Aeolian Islands?
Some from land: Pollara on Salina, Stromboli's black beaches, the sea stacks seen from the Quattrocchi viewpoint on Lipari. Others only from the sea: Lisca Bianca off Panarea, the islet of Basiluzzo and the Sciara del Fuoco. There are no signposted routes or commemorative plaques.
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