Lipari

After our big yesterday our next two days would be spent on the island. Today we planned to drive around the island once more like we had done with the kids on Sunday, but this time stop and swim at a few spots. We were in no rush so took our time waking and enjoying the view at breakfast again. We jumped in the car and went to Lipari - we decided to drive in the opposite direction to Sunday. The first place we'd try to find is a beach mentioned in the Lonely Planet book, Valle del Muria. We found it after stopping at the lookout to Quattrocchi, we had to drive down and park the car at a point then had a steep downward walk to the beach. Along the path we saw people coming back the other way and they said it was disappointing, didn't look clean. We decided to venture down anyway.

The beach looked nice but certainly parts of the water didn't. There were only two people on the beach other than two guys who had a bar set up that were selling food and drinks. We had a quick dip in the water, lay a short while on the rocks then headed back. Going uphill was harder for sure. We then drove further along, found a high spot where we had a great vantage point of the island of Salina nearby. Sadly we weren't going to have time to get there, maybe next visit.

We drove further along into Aquacalda, we decided to stop here for lunch. We saw a restaurant as part of a hotel straight in front of the beach so ate there. A little expensive for lunch but what the heck, enjoy the holiday I say. Departing from here we continued around the island, and this time we found the point where they called Spiaggia Bianca - we think, in any case we parked and walked down a steep slope to a beautifully clear beach situated straight in front of the disused pumice factory. Snorkelling here was lovely, it was getting into the late afternoon and when looking down you could see the rays of sunshine coming from behind your head into the water like miniature headlights. We stayed here a little while soaking up the sunshine and the scenery.

We headed home to shower and change as we had been invited to eat at my cousin's house. We got there and Vicky did a load of laundry in her machine to take back home later and hang up as there is no machine in the house up the mountain. We ate some nice octopus and fried little fish and of course her husband Giuseppe kept topping up our glasses with wine he'd acquired from Sicily. The wine makes me tired, we chatted a while but they have dinner very late here in Italy, it's not unusual to eat dinner around 9pm. We fought the tiredness as long as we could but then said our goodbyes and headed back home.