The films shot in the Aeolian Islands
In 1949 two crews filmed simultaneously on two neighbouring islands, over a love affair gone wrong. Then Antonioni, Troisi, Moretti and, last year, Christopher Nolan. Where they filmed, and what you can see.
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» — on the next island, at the same time. Two crews, two stars, two volcanoes a few miles apart, and the world's press on the hydrofoils. The scandal engulfed everyone before either film was released.
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 erupting on a regular schedule, 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
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» on the neighbouring one at the same time. Two rival films, two crews, two islands a few miles apart.
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.
Keep reading
Nolan's Odyssey was filmed right out there
In spring 2025 Christopher Nolan brought Matt Damon to Lipari, Vulcano and Basiluzzo to film the return of Odysseus. It wasn't a convenient choice: for Homer, these islands were the kingdom of Aeolus. Where he filmed, and what you can see yourself.
Illustrious guests: who has passed through Capo d'Orlando
Not a list of celebrities spotted at the bar. Here, in a villa three kilometres from the corso, Tomasi di Lampedusa wrote part of The Leopard — and on these islands Rossellini, Troisi and Moretti all shot films.
Which Aeolian island to choose
Seven islands, and they are not interchangeable. Choose badly and you'll end up on Alicudi looking for a restaurant, or on Panarea in August looking for silence. For each one: who it suits, how long you need, and what not to expect.
Related destinations: Stromboli, Vulcano, Salina, Panarea, Lipari.
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.
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