Panerea

Panerea is the smallest of the Aolean islands and certainly one of the best... but not for the reasons you might think. Panerea is famous throughout the islands for being the "rich" persons getaway with hotels starting 200-300% more than the islands (to start!). Consequently I just took a day hydrofoil to the island, but it's small enough to get everything in under a day anyways.

The best part of the island isn't the lush restaurants (although they are amazing and amazingly expensive), the famous night club (which locals from all the islands come to all throughout the year), the small close-knit community or the absolutely beautiful view... it's the hiking!

This is something very few people actually come to Panerea for as witnessed by the totally overgrown paths, but it's certainly something to experience. Not only is the view exceptional (you can get a full 360 from two different points on the island), but there's also some non-travelled areas to explore (and get into a little bit of trouble as evidenced by the cut up arm I would leave the island with!).

Ok I just realized my pics are all mixed up, this is the view from the ice cream parlor:



I'm pretty sure this is actually Stromboli, not Panerea as I've labelled it:



The docs in Panerea:



The view from the restaurant we had an amazing lunch at:



This is the peak we climbed almost to the top, basically it was totally verticle at the end! A great climb:



The terrain got a bit prickly too... and yes, I did have one of those cactus needles jammed into my hand and arm, not fun!



We hung around the islands for 2 more days and then it was a teary eyed departure back to the Sicily mainland. Tonight I'll post the last of my pics from Celafu and wrap up the trip :-)