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Visit Panarea
Panarea is the second smallest one of the Aeolian islands, a group of volcanic islands off the north-eastern coast of Sicily.
Now a popular tourist destination due to its beaches and scenery, Panarea is well equipped with facilities for such a small island. The landing beach for the island is at San Pietro on the east coast, a village equipped with all services. In the district of “San Pietro” there is a small port for ships, hydrofoils, fishing boats and pleasure boats.
Certainly the sea, and especially the beaches, are the distinguishing feature of Panarea. They are normally accessible only by sea, but there are also those that tourists can reach by land. Among the beaches of Panarea are “Cala Junco”, in the southernmost part of the island, which is accessible both by sea and by land, from “San Pietro” to “Drauto” along a path that leads to the beach.Along the road of "Cala Junco" is the beach of “Cala degli Zimmari”. These are the only two beaches on the island accessible by land.
The others, accessible only by sea, are "Lisca Bianca," "Basiluzzo" and "Spinazzola.” A visit to the most famous of Panarea's islets is also very interesting: these include "Lisca Bianca," which takes its name from the color of the rock; “Basiluzzo”, a dome-shaped islet with sheer cliffs overlooking the sea about three kilometers from Panarea. Near the “Punta Levante” a path leads to a height of 200 meters and offers an excellent view of Panarea and Stromboli. Last but not least the rock of “Spinazzola”, which is undoubtedly difficult to reach, but worth visiting for the presence of the rare "dwarf palms."
Drauto, Bronze Age settlement on Panarea
Leaving from San Pietro lovers and experts in archeology can follow the road south across panarea to reach "Drauto". From here a path leads to the promontory of "Capo Milazzese" where a prehistoric Bronze Age village is situated. It is located in “Cala Junco”, a bay closed by cliffs. The village consists of 23 huts, mostly of an oval structure. Some of these huts had a partial paving stone, and slabs of stone that were used for various everyday uses, such as table or mill the grain* The underwater archeology researches have found many Roman remains from three shipwrecks on the treacherous rocks of the "Ants" - all the material from excavations is on display at the “Museum of Lipari.”
*"[...] Each of these huts is made up of an oval-shaped chamber, which is often distorted for to be suitable to the small space and for proximity to other huts, so that one or more of its sides become more or less straight. We find all the possible varieties of a quasi-circular huts offered to us by A, B, XI huts; some huts have a regular oval shape, more or less elongated (huts V, VI, XII, XIII, XVIII); an oval shape with one side straight have I, III, IV huts, and finally others have even a nearly rectangular shape, with very rounded corners (XV, XXI, XIX) [...]" (See Luigi Bernabò Brea- Madeleine Cavalier, "Meligulìs Lipàra”, Flaccovio , 1960: 52).
Tourists hoping to see some typical phenomena associated with the volcanic origin of Panarea can visit the "Calcara” beach, known for its geysers. This area has also been the subject of extensive excavations which have brought to light some remains of early Bronze Age and traces of settlement by local people during more than two millennia, until the Imperial Age; it is known that the area was a place of worship of deities until the Neolithic and then through the Greeks and Roman periods.
Finally, after such an overdose of archeology on Panarea, having adequately nourished the mind, we believe it is appropriate to "feed" the body also. In Panarea there are numerous restaurants offering a cuisine of remarkable value. Among the dishes we recommend the pasta with sauce, head of swordfish, fried dough ‘panarellese’, based on noodles, anchovies, salt, pepper, bread crumbs. Among the main dishes we must taste without hesitation the salt cod with capers, the trig or 'rosmarinu" (red mullet with rosemary), and tomatoes stuffed with fish. Among the sweets we have the so-called "spicchidedda" on the basis of mulled wine and cloves, the cake "munnuli", made with almonds and typical Christmas sweets called "vastedduzzi" and "nacatuli," stuffed with almonds , cinnamon, water, mandarin and clove.
See also Panarea history and etymology.
See the the Sicily travel guide for more places to visit in the same region as Panarea.