Itineraries

Day trip – Tour of the island

The 3 main villages are connected by highway S.P. 182 which offers beautiful views of the island. Lingua can be reached from St. Maria Salina going to the South. Just before getting there an old lighthouse can be found on Lingua´s salty lake which used to be a salt pan in the past. Still from Salina, Malfa can be reached going to the North. On the way there the small village Capo Faro with its beautiful vineyards can be seen along the highway. Pollara, a small typical Aeolian village, can be reached going North from Malfa. The village is famous for being the film set of “ Il Postino”. Carrying on North towards Leni passing Valdichiesa there is Rinella a village known for its black-sand beach and the small typical square where William Dieterle shot his film “Vulcano” played by Anna Magnani.

Sea excursions

Navigating around Salina Island, the crystal clear sea water with its beautiful shades of blue and green grabs the tourists attention. But also magnificent cliffs dropping sheer to the sea, coves of dreams ideally for relaxing breaks and snow-white Aeolian houses along the coastline can be admired from the sea. Going around the island by boat also gives the visitor a chance to discover the volcanic nature of Salina.“Cacato” wild rock, cape “Faro”, “Torricella”, Ariana rocks, and “Pollara” stacks are all good examples of its volcanic nature. Salina is part of the Aeolian Islands which are world heritage of the UNESCO.

Archaeological Tours – Portella

Dating back to the Middle Bronze Age (15th-13th Cent. B.C.), this prehistoric village is formed by 25 “huts” with oval floors, dug in the volcanic rock and distributed along a rock wall, in a very strategic position that allowed its inhabitants to best defend their settlement. The discovery, which was made by chance during the Provincial Highway road works, has exceptional aspects thanks to the excellent conditions of the original structures, “dug out” of the layer of soil, result of the natural filling process. Inside the huts the archaeologists found furniture and common tools still well preserved: storage closets built with slabs of stone, shelves, hearths and fragments of vases, pottery, stone tools and artifacts, not to mention the presence of pithoi jars, used to collect and store water, and Mycenaean ceramics, testifying the existence of commercial relations with the Aegean Sea. The village, like many others in the archipelago, was abandoned because of a fire that destroyed it.

Archaeological Tours – Barone

Here, travelers can admire the Roman Baths and the system to salt fish (2nd Cent. B.C. - 6th Cent. A.D.). Way back in 1700, the architect Jean Houel got interested in the site of Punta Lamie after he found in a watercolor painting the ruins of an ancient Roman bath, quite probably part of a settlement of the Hellenic period, which was further developed during the Roman empire. In 1928, the excavations were continued by the archaeologist Paolo Orsi, who confirmed Houel’s observations: it is believed that the thermal complex, already working during the first centuries of the Empire, might have been used until the 6th Century as facility to process and salt fish. In Contrada Barone this specific industry developed thanks to the vicinity of the Lingua salt pans, about 6 km away, already used by the Romans.

Archaeological Tours – Mastrognoli

In Località Mastrognoli, next to the creek of the same name situated on the outskirts of the hamlet of Lingua, at the end of Via Trieste, there is a Greek-Hellenic necropolis, which was inhabited from the 3rd-4th Century B.C. to the 5th Century A.D.. It accommodates 16 rectangular graves dug in the tuff stone. Unfortunately, part of these finds is damaged on the surface due to both tuff erosion and the action of man, such as, for instance, the construction of channels for rain collection. In the tombs area, especially inside the water tank, archaeologists discovered various finds such as amphorae and kitchenware dating back to a period between the 4th-3rd Cen. B.C. and the 4th Cen. A.D.

Archaeological Tours – Serro Perciato And Vallone Castagno

The itinerary starts from Serro dell'Acqua and unravels along Vallone Castagno, between 250 and 350 m of height. Along the track, which in some spots is quite tough, there are many grottoes, at times intercommunicating, which are a clear sign of the presence of a Stone Age settlement. The grottoes, partly natural and partly artificial, were used as refuge during the raids of the Saracen pirates (that’s why they are called Saracen Grottoes). In the 8th Century A.D. the inhabitants of Lipari moved here, in an attempt to escape the eruption of Monte Pelato. On the wall of one of the grottoes there are remains of crosses, which support the hypothesis that the grotto was used as church. It is believed that the village of Salina disappeared one century after the destruction of Lipari by the Arabs in 838 A.D.

Archaeological Tours – Prehistoric Settlement of Serro Brigadiere

The site, which overlooks Santa Marina Salina, offers many interesting finds dating back to a prehistoric settlement inhabited between the 3rd and the 2nd millennium B.C.. The archaeologists found few huts, unfortunately in bad conditions, built on a slope at the foot of the ridge that from Fossa delle Felci descends to the sea.

Hiking in the nature

Salina is called the "green island" and its luscious nature proves this nickname in full. The territory of the Municipality of Santa Marina Salina, for instance, stands out for its fertility: the leading products are the grapes for the renowned Malvasia wine (DOC since 1973) and other wines of certified quality, and the capers (Slow Food certified). They are products of absolute excellence exported worldwide by the local farmers. Besides the clean sea certified by the 5 sails of the Blue Guide by Legambiente, which have been fluttering in Santa Marina for seven years now, thanks also to the ever-growing services offered to tourists and residents, the territory around the village offers a rich and variegated nature. Uncontaminated spaces make this territory an ideal place for the life of animals and plants: wild rabbits, dormouses, small reptiles and lizards (like the Podarcis raffonei, the characteristic Aeolian lizard) inhabit the green landscape, while its skies are crossed by a great number of birds, both sedentary and migratory. The buzzard, the kestrel, the lesser kestrel and the peregrine falcon are just some of the rare species of great naturalistic interest that sojourn on the island. Let’s not forget the Eleonora’s falcon, a rare bird of prey that lives in the Mediterranean basin and prefers islands. The endemic plants that characterize Salina’s flora, like the limonium and the fleur-de-lis, the senecio bicolor, the dianthus rupicola and the scabiosa cretica, have great botanic importance. Along the tracks that unravel in the green until reaching the 962 meters of Mount Fossa delle Felci, the hiker can observe, besides some beautiful glimpses of the sea, also the typical Mediterranean vegetation: brooms, strawberry trees, pinasters and the centuries-old chestnut trees that characterize the landscape closer to the mountain top. Without forgetting sweeps of ferns, the plants symbol of the mountain.