Just Back From…Salina

I haven’t been to the Aeolian Islands in over 20 years, which is crazy! Back then, we stayed in Panarea at the Hotel Raya and took a day trip to Salina. My friend Ale, who handles the PR for the Capofaro Hotel, had been wanting to get me there for a long time, and since I was somewhat in the vicinity, we planned three nights here. However, a certain cloud over Pantelleria meant all flights were canceled and we had to shift gears. Rather than fly to Catania and take a car to a fast boat from Milazzo to Salina, we flew into Palermo and took a ferry from there. Yes, the ferry time was 3x, but the timing was better, as we’d be able to arrive in Salina late afternoon. My one worry was what we were going to do between arriving at the Palermo airport and catching the ferry, because we had several hours and I was picturing a ferry terminal with a vending machine. I was so wrong–we were in a sunny, breezy little ferry restaurant with an excellent spaghetti vongole and a delicious glass of Grillo. The ferry time passed quickly and we were in the Capofaro pool in no time. Besides the minimalist chic rooms (our Guest Book review is here), the views over the sea and out to Panarea and Stromboli in the distance, we were struck by their very serious garden. I’ve seen a lot of hotel kitchen gardens, but this was the most extensive one–walking the path to our room, we passed crates of eggplants, lettuces and tomatoes. Not to mention the rows upon rows of Malvasia, from which they produce their wine, which was the reason the Tasca family (yes, same family as in Palermo) came to the region. The hotel isn’t on the beach, but they have a relationship with a beach club in a town about 10 minutes away by shuttle, and it is just perfect.

Loungers, umbrellas, a snack bar for whatever you might want, and it’s an easy walk to the tiny town of Lingua, where we had one of the best lunches I’ve had in a long time at Il Gambero (get the spaghetti with the smoked ricotta and you have to try a cunzato, which is basically a pizza salad).

The concierge at the Capofaro said everyone argues whether Il Gambero or Da Alfredo is better, but we went with his personal favorite and we were very happy. On our way back to the beach club we discovered a very cute hotel for our Costa Meno list, La Salina, directly on the sea, rooms with hammocks on terraces, and which looked very well appointed from our spying.

Our last meal was at Trattoria Cucinotta, which was turning people away every five minutes, even on a Sunday in June. I’m including it here because many of you asked me about it on Instagram–it was good, but hard to beat our epic lunch. Souvenirs we picked up there: caper leaves in oil from the charming Terre di Salina, which is also a wine bar on the prettiest square, and a hand-crocheted purse with bamboo handles from a lovely woman who had a stand on the main square. While we had only 36 hours on this sweet little island and barely made a dent, I’m so glad we made the trek–perfect recon for a deeper dive return trip where we’ll definitely go back to Panarea, and Filicudi is also high on my list.