Salina, March 2007

John and I went to my grandmother's island in Italy.  This is her home town of Malfa on the island of Salina in the Aeolian Islands.  Her family home is somewhere over John's right shoulder.

This is also where we met our dear friend Maria Taranto.

 

Monte Porri, one of the volcanoes that form the island.  Guido liked it there.

 

The view from the castle on the neighboring island of Lipari.

 

As above

 

John in the cloisters of the cathedral in Lipari.

From the walls of the castle(fortress) in Lipari.

 

Saint Joseph's day feast in Malfa.

 

The crowds trying to get their bowl of traditional chick pea soup outside the church of San Lorenzo.

 

The town of Malfa, nestled in a valley between two volcanoes(actually about five of them, but eroded so much that only two are easily visible) and on the high cliffs above the sea. 

 

I think that this part of the volcano is called Monte Rivi.  It towers over the village of Malfa and Capofaro.  This is the greatly eroded oldest volcano of the island.  It is actually several cones in one with the highest behind this in the mist.  It is the highest in all of the islands.  My sister and I climbed it a few years later.  This picture reminds me so much of "Adventures in Paradise"  remember that show?  anyway, it looks to me like the south seas with the mist clinging to the mountaintops.

This is one of the two islands that "Il Postino" was filmed on.