A Week Sailing the Aeolians, Cooking Aboard, Skipper Included

A week on a boat with a skipper and an assistant, out of Lipari, with every island in the archipelago visited. Start with the practical part, because it is unusual. The crew handles the sailing, the breakfasts, the lunches and the aperitifs, and the galley is provisioned before you arrive according to the dietary preferences you send in advance. But you cook the meals and clean the kitchen, and a common fund is organised at check-in. Nobody is waiting on you. Check-in is every Saturday at 17:00 at Marina di Porto Pignataro on Lipari, with the safety briefing and the cabins allocated then. Check-out is the following Saturday by 08:00, though you can disembark the evening before if you prefer. If you arrive by hydrofoil, book the free minibus from the Lipari stop to the mooring. The route covers all of them. Vulcano's east coast, where the crater has shown signs of activity again since the last eruption in 1889, and the underwater fumaroles at Porto di Levante that turn a stretch of sea into a whirlpool of steam. Gelso, a black sand beach under a lighthouse with Etna beyond the Sicilian coast on a clear day. Salina, and a granita at Alfredo's. Filicudi, the Grotta del Bue Marino and La Canna, a stack that comes out of deep water for more than 70 metres. Alicudi, which has no discos, no pubs, no banks and no cash machines, where mules do the carrying and the lanes are lava stone. Pollara, where Il Postino was filmed. Panarea, Basiluzzo and Lisca Bianca, and Cala Junco with its Bronze Age village above it. Stromboli, passed at a safe distance from the Sciara del Fuoco with the crater going off above. Up to six people, children of any age, and small dogs on exclusive charters. Several of the nights are spent at anchor. One condition, stated plainly: all sales are final and cancellations are not refunded.