Milazzo

In our timetable, Salina shows about 3 h 20 m while Stromboli — much further out — shows around 70 minutes. Geography has not changed; the vessel has.

The long Salina figure is a conventional ferry working its way through Vulcano and Lipari first. The short Stromboli figure is a hydrofoil running direct. Before you book on duration alone, check which boat it is: on this archipelago the slowest crossing to the nearest island and the fastest crossing to the furthest one can appear in the same search.

All seven Aeolians are served from here — Lipari, Vulcano, Salina, Stromboli, Panarea, Filicudi and Alicudi. From our timetable, by frequency:

• Lipari — 19 sailings, the archipelago's capital and the usual first stop.
• Vulcano — 18 sailings, about 45 minutes, the nearest island.
• Salina — 17 sailings, the green one, with the capers and the Malvasia.
• Stromboli — 11 sailings, the active volcano, and the longest run of the four.

Milazzo is on Sicily's north coast between Messina and Palermo, on the coastal railway and the A20 motorway. The station sits a little outside the centre, with buses down to the port; most people arriving by train allow more than the map suggests.

Coming from the ferry at Messina or the airport at Catania, Milazzo is the standard road transfer — and it is the reason Palermo, despite being Sicily's largest ferry port, is not the way to the Aeolians.

You can: Siremar's conventional ferries carry vehicles to the larger islands. Whether you want to is another matter. Lipari and Salina have roads and buses; Panarea and Alicudi effectively do not; and several islands restrict non-resident cars in summer.

For a week of island-hopping, leaving the car in Milazzo and travelling on hydrofoils is faster, cheaper and removes the loading queue from every transfer. Bring the vehicle only if you are staying put on Lipari or Salina for a long stretch.

First departures are around 07:00 and the frequency peaks through the morning. In high season the port handles roughly 30 departures a day, which sounds like you can turn up and go — and in July and August you often cannot, because the hydrofoils sell out.

The hydrofoils are also the first thing cancelled in wind. If you have a flight to catch, come back to the mainland the day before rather than the morning of.

Milazzo is not really a destination, and it does not pretend to be — there is a castle, a long thin cape and some good seafood, and most people see it between two journeys. Where it earns its place is as a decision point: how many islands, and on what kind of boat.

The practical answer for most first visits is to sleep on Lipari and use the inter-island hydrofoils from there, keeping Milazzo as the arrival and departure gate.

The core connections to Lipari, Vulcano and Salina run all year, because people live on those islands and the crossings are short. Stromboli, Panarea, Filicudi and Alicudi thin out sharply outside summer, and the far islands can go days without a boat in bad weather.

June and September give you the full timetable with a real chance of a seat; August gives you the full timetable and no seats.