Lipari

Every other Aeolian island is a short hop from here, and several of them are hard work as a base: Panarea and Alicudi have almost no roads, Stromboli's accommodation is limited and expensive, Filicudi is quiet to the point of isolation.

Lipari has hotels at every price, a supermarket, pharmacies, a bus network and boats leaving all day. Sleep here, day-trip everywhere else, and you avoid the thing that ruins Aeolian itineraries — being stuck on a small island when the wind stops the hydrofoils.

Lipari to Vulcano is around 10 minutes with 23 sailings in our timetable — the most frequent crossing in the archipelago by a distance, and closer to a bus service than a ferry.

That frequency changes what is possible: the fumaroles and the black beach become an afternoon rather than a day, and you can go across for dinner and come back.

Salina has 18 sailings from Lipari at about an hour. It is the green island — two extinct volcanoes, vineyards, capers — and the usual second stop.

Beyond those two, Panarea, Stromboli, Filicudi and Alicudi are all reachable in a day from Lipari in season, though the westernmost pair are thin enough that you should check the return sailing before you leave.

Hydrofoils are the first vessels cancelled in a blow, and the Aeolians get plenty of weather. The conventional ferries keep running in conditions that ground the fast craft, so on a doubtful day the slow boat is the reliable one.

Practical rule: do not put an island day trip on the last day before a flight, and if you are on one of the small islands, come back to Lipari a day early rather than trusting the morning boat.

Milazzo is the standard gateway — 19 sailings in our timetable, more than any other Aeolian route from the mainland. Seasonal services also run from Naples, and other Sicilian ports appear in summer.

Note that Sicily's biggest ferry port, Palermo, does not serve the Aeolians at all. If you are flying into Palermo, the islands are a road transfer across the north coast to Milazzo, not a boat from where you landed.

Lipari town wraps around the castle rock, with the archaeological museum inside the citadel walls — genuinely one of the better collections in southern Italy, and useful for making sense of an archipelago that has been inhabited since the obsidian trade.

Away from the town there are pumice quarries in the north, thermal springs, and a bus route that circles the island. It is small enough to see in two days and comfortable enough that people stay a week.

Connections to Vulcano and Salina run year round. The wider network — the smaller islands, the Naples services — belongs to roughly May through September, and August fills every hydrofoil seat and hotel bed on the archipelago.

Late September is the best compromise: warm sea, full timetable, and space on the boats that in August you would be queuing for.