VULCANO
As you travel north from Milazzo into the Tyrrhenian Sea, the first island you reach is Vulcano, with its active, smouldering volcano and sulphurous stench. It's worth a day trip - and an easy hike - to see the volcano in action and wallow in the warm mud baths, but unless you are happy to sleep wearing a nose clip, it is the least attractive place to spend the night.
LIPARI
Next in the chain is Lipari, the largest and most populous of the seven islands, which has a hospital, schools and year-round life. The eponymous main town is busy, in island terms, but worth a visit for the fortified acropolis, and the Aeolian Archaeological Museum , beautiful in itself and packed full of interesting bits and pieces: neolithic vases, Roman amphorae, and an extraordinary collection of theatrical masks and statuettes commissioned by Sophocles and Euripides, among others. But the joys of Lipari are best appreciated by boat. The island was for centuries the world centre for pumice production, and although the minig (now stopped) has left scars on the hillsides, it has also deposited the finest white pumice dust on the sea bed. The water off Spiaggia Bianca (White Beach) is as clear and as turquoise as in the Bahamas.
SALINA
Drama of the cinematic variety put the neighbouring and next-largest island, Salina, on the international map in 1994, when the film Il Postino made the most of its imposing natural beauty. The beach at Pollara, where it was filmed, is stunning, particularly at sunset, and hosts an annual caper festival in the first week of June, with dancing, street games and a smorgasbord of caper-enhanced food. The main port, Santa Marina Salina, is beautiful and unspoilt, with a long, traffic-free main street lined with chic boutiques and food shops, and a terrific restaurant, Porto Bello . It is a four- to five-hour hike from town to the top of Monte Fossa delle Felci, the highest peak, but well worth it. The path winds through lush forest and into the mist, where the temperature drops dramatically; even on a summer day, it feels like walking into a fridge.
PANAREA
Panarea - just north-east of Salina - is a polished gem of an island. It's picture-perfect, with white villages garlanded in bright bougainwillaea, narrow lanes (there are no cars on the island, only golf carts and Motorino electric bikes), and one of the bet nightclubs in Italy. When the sun comes up, and the dancers are asleep, the island calms down: families swim or dive in the clear sea, walk to the Bronze Age huts beyong Cala Junco, and take boat trips to the quiet coves on the uninhabited south and west of the island.
STROMBOLI
The last island on the eastern side is Stromboli, inspiration for the 1949 Rossellini/Bergman film of the same name, and now holiday home to the designers Dolce and Gabbana. People used to visit Stromboli to see the volcano, but after a mini-eruption in 2007 the summit was closed off and the locals sat tight, waiting for a bigger one. They are still waiting, but life in the two villages goes on as normal. The more remote is Ginostra, which can only by reached by sea. It is a small, whitewashed hamlet on a cliff overlooking a tiny port.
ALICUDI
From Filicudi, the boat heads west to Alicudi, the rough-cut diamond of the Aeolian archipelago. Sitting on its own at the end of the chain, it feels like the land that time forgot: small, remote and cone-shaped, with a permanent population of 80, most of whom are apparently related, some of whom have never left the island. The port is tiny - a short stretch of stony beach on which brightly painted fishing boats.There is one hotel, the Ericusa and a clutch of small apartments . Apart from that, there are only simple houses covered with flowers, clinging to the slopes. The climb to the summit is testing but worthwhile. On the way, you pass the now abandoned and very beautiful church of San Bartolomeo - a mere 400 metres above sea level - before heading further up across heath studded with wild herbs and flowers. The view from the top, on a clear day, is breathtaking: the six other islands stretch away into the blue, their peaks crowned with wisps of cloud.
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