Luxury villas for rent in Sicily

Lipari is the largest of the Aeolian Islands, and home to the only true town in the archipelago. It is also at the hub of the ferry and hydrofoil services, and so has the best connections of any of the islands. The main town, Lipari, is a bustling place dominated by a rocky acropolis which retains the remains of a castle (used as a prison for political exiles under Mussolini) and the Museo Archeologico, with an astonishing collection of archeological finds from the islands and the coast of nearby Sicily. Highlights are the unique ancient Greek vases painted in an array of delicate pastels by an artist known simply as the Lipari Painter, and a collection of minature ancient Greek theatre masks discovered in tombs.
Although Lipari is no longer an active volcano, there are still plenty of relics of its volcanic origins to be seen: cliffs seamed with shiny obsidian, mountainsides and beaches of pumice; hot springs; smouldering sulphuruous fumeroles; and a kaolin quarry where the volcanic minerals have stained the clay in an array of colours thought to have been used as pigments by the Lipari painter. Lipari has some lovely walks – one of the finest runs from the kaolin quarry to the Terme di San Calogero, a thermal bath with Roman origins.

Milazzo, on the north coast of Sicily, is the nearest port to the Aeolian islands, and Lipari is served by several hydrofoils and ferries daily.
From Reggio Calabria and Messina: there are several daily hydrofoils in the summer.
From Naples : by ferry, with Siremar, twice a week in the winter and up to 6 weekly in the summer; by hydrofoil, Ustica Lines, once or twice a day, only in the summer (10 June/20 Sept.).
From Palermo : Ustica Lines hydrofoil, once daily in summer.