41 islands – En route, one by one

Islands of Sardinia, the Maddalena Archipelago

If you are looking for dream islands, a generous archipelago overflowing with nature, inhabited by wonderful people, and you realise you are not Gauguin and that the South Seas are out of reach.... no problem, come here, you will eventually find you have had much more. Experience this unrivalled archipelago.

Islands of Sicily, Pantelleria, the black gem

The last violent volcanic activity on the island was in 1891, geologically it is less than this morning. The Pantelleria community, the rough black lava, the variety of the coastline, the wild capers, the Zibibbo wine and the exuberant natural wealth of the island's interior make up together a unique, [...]

Remember to ……

These modest web pages are not for tourists or visitors, they are for humble travellers destined for marvellous sensations and massive wealth. Because we know well a couple of things: that the journey is much more important than the destination, that intangible goods are far more valuable than material ones.

Therefore, there are a few things to remember.

Even if the islands are our destination, start thinking about them when you are at home and plan to reach them, look around when you are at the boarding point, study the boat or the dinghy or the ferry that will take you there, look at your travelling companions, be they your daughter or son, a sailor, the captain, someone who just happens to be there, a worker of the sea or a traveller like you. Smell the air, follow the flight of the seagulls, think about the boarding ladder, the gangway, from there you will arrive at a emerged land. Talk to your fellow travellers, do not be reserved, exchange ideas and impressions, you will learn a lot, you will get to know new ways, excursions, landings, islands, other seas.

Put a diving mask in your backpack (and a camera, good hint). Fins are not essential if you have to squeeze between sharp rocks and escape through the spines of sea urchins. Without a mask it is even better, you will soon learn to recognise fish with your direct eyes. Diving from a cliff is a privilege, do it with care and conviction, in that athletic gesture there is freedom, defiance of gravity, embrace of the sea and also several millennia of emotions. The image in the background of this page is that of the Tomb of the Diver, from the Paestum Museum…. it has no time, no place, it is a sentimental projection, it was meant to signify a passage to another world. In the end it is simply a dive, but, believe me, it is difficult to come up with a more liberating and generous concept.

And write.
Bring a notebook or use your mobile phone, capture your emotions, take note of your feelings, don’t let them slip away, write them down, jot them down, because the moment is magic and it is like the final verses of the Italian song ‘Una canzone per te‘, don’t lose them. They are worth passing on and being read by travellers like you.
The collective island memory is the real treasure island.

If you want, title them like this: ‘putting an island in your mind and then finding it on the horizon‘.

Happy islands, travellers!

Stefano

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