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The
Aeolian archipelago originally the volcanic mythical site of the King of Winds, is
situated in the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Sicily and is composed of seven principal islands
and a few islets. Lipari, Salina and Vulcano are the three major islands, close to each
other, and to the west we find Alicudi and Filicudi, and to the north-east Stromboli and
Panarea. Lipari and Panarea have been inhabited since the Neolithic era (VI millenium
B.C.) and were the sites of commercial activities, a type of obsidian, a volcanic glass
which is harder and sharper than flint. Entering the Mycenaenan economic system, the
Archipelago declined with the fading of that civilization but remained for all of
antiquity a desirable site from a stategic and commercial point of view (for the commerce
of alum) and became renowned for thermal cures. After a period of obscurity, during which
survival depended on pastoral grazing and fishing, the Normans arrived and the
Benedictines founded a monastery on Lipari giving fresh impetus to the cultivation of
grain and the exportation of alum and sulphur. Lipari was pillaged in 1544 by muslim
pirates Kair-ed-Din, said to be Barbarossa, who made slaves of the inhabitants. The
recovery came after a long time and the history of the Archipelago joined that of the
province of Messina. After the union the commercialization of pumice stone (present in the
north eastern slopes of Lipari) received a natural impetus and marine connections were
enthusiastically encouraged. Today the Aeolian islands with their landscapes of
considerable beauty are the centre of an intense tourism and contain an excellent
structure of hotel accomodation. The Archipelago is divided, from an administrative point
of view, into two parts; the municipal council of Lipari, including Vulcano, Stromboli,
Panarea, Alicudi and Filicudi and the island of Salina that is divided into three
councils: S. Marina, Salina, Malfa and Leni. Lipari, the town on the south eastern coast
of the island and bearing the same name as its island, is the principal centre of the
Archipelago and numbers approximately 10,000 inhabitants. Described by Guy de Maupassant
as "tiny, with a few white houses at the foot of a big green hill", it lives
prevailingly on tourism (among its hotels it has also a youth hostel), while in the past
it trusted also on the production and exportation of pumice stone.
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Of
particular interest are: the Aeolian Archeological Museum which holds important exhibits
of the ancient civilization of Archipelago, the castle, built by the Spanish after the
raid of Barbarossa, the Cathedral of Norman epoch but strongly modified in the baroque
epoch, the Chiesa dell'Addolorata, dell'Immacolata and of S. Maria delle Grazie. The
Hellenistic Necropolis is to be found in the district 'Diana'. The island offers numerous
attractions not only connected to bathing but also in its landscapes and environmental
characteristics. Nearby the area of Canneto one can observe the casting of obsidian in the
Forgia Vecchia (the old forge) and in the Rocche Rosse; and extraordinarily suggestive, in
contrast to the blue sea there are the pumice caves of Monte Pelato.
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