The “urban” aspect of the islands is an evident trace of a long history made up of invasions of different populations, and also of the fusion of various cultures which have indelibly marked the modus vivendi of the islanders.

The peculiar architecture of the island is an evidence of it.

The commercial influences, the geographical position and the consequences of numerous invasions shaped a particular architecture , which in its parts highlighted the necessity and the anxiety of a population who continually struggles against the harsh territory ,in order to assure the indispensible for its surviving. Notwithstanding a few means and the objective logistic difficulties of the Aeolian territory, the first Aeolian structures were situated far away from the coasts and the plains, in places of little visibility, where the defence was simplified by the harshness of the territory.

The fear of the inhabitants towards eventual external raids manifested both in the choice of places for the construction of houses, and in the architecture, as it emerges from the purely defensive structure. The better political-economic conditions and the reducing of raids permitted a major development of urban activity along the coastal lines, and in flat zones.

The rural house of the Aeolians is, from ages, the most widespread structure on the territory.

With the birth of the middle-class little palaces and villas with big gardens emerged. The white colour of the external whitewashes, described by many travellers of the 19th century, is an element which was used only after the unruly invasion period.

The commercial influence of the 17th century brought new decorative elements, especially on the facades. These ones were whitewashed with accuracy, the openings were framed with the local stones and along the superior edges, some laces were applied. They were usually decorated with two intense hues, one as a basic colour, and another one which framed the edges. Obviously, in the characteristic Aeolian architecture there are not only houses, but also the buildings of cult, warehouses, palm groves, rarely mills, watchtowers, and defence towers.

The Aeolian islands are the reign of Eolus, the god of the wind, that wind that in course of millennia accompanied different populations far from their mother earth towards those islands so harsh and wild, but at the same time, so beautiful and pure. The conqueror populations, guests, and sometimes discoverers, each of them contributed to the creation of a complex puzzle, today making part of the vast traditional Sicilian cooking. A relevant example of this mix of flavours and traditions created one of the milestones of the Sicilian confectionary, its majesty the granita, an uncontested protagonist of the islands’ breakfasts.

The origins of this product date back to the Arabic domination in Sicily (827 – 1091 A.D). The Arabs imported the recipe of the sherbet, an iced and aromatized drink with fruits and rose waters. Many of the documents evidence the birth, during the Medieval Age, of a new professional figure: the “nivarolu”, who collected and kept the snow in special locals for a hot season. The most interested areas of this phenomenon were: Etna, Peloritan Mounts, Iblei Mounts, and Nebrodi, places where even today it is not difficult to find holes in the soil made of bricks.

The preparation of the forefather of the granita occurred scratching the snow, mixing it to citrus juices, and fruit syrups. During the 16th century, adding the marine salt to the snow the preparation of the “rattata” was completely modified, and the snow, from the primary ingredient was transformed into the refrigerant one. The ice, once  transformed, was put into a wooden well, into which a small zincous bucket was put where water, whisked fruit, or citrus juice was mixed.

The continually mixed  mixture  by a system of handle was more creamy, and the ingredients got better mixed among them. The modern granita is prepared with the help of a “gelatiera”, which simplifies the process of production, and grants a more creamy product, where the ice crystals are almost imperceptible.

Where to Eat a Good Granita

Messina is a worldly capital of granita. In every bar it is possible to taste a granita in different flavour varieties : coffee, lemon, strawberry, almonds and black mulberry. In the city the “mezza con panna” (the half with whipped cream), an expression referring to a granita of coffee with the cream with the characteristic brioches. The tastes of pistachio (typical of Bronte) and almonds are widely spread in zone of Catania and Siracusa. At this regard the minnulata of Catania (mandorlata) is very famous; upon it a drop of warm coffee is poured.

On the Aeolian Islands the range of tastes is close to that one of Messina: lemon, strawberry, coffee and peach, almond and mulberry are the main ones.

The birth of cinema left a strong print in the cultural background of the islanders, changing in this way the Aeolians’ essence. The first to promote the amazing landscapes of the Aeolian archipelago were the founders of Panaria Film: Francesco Alliata from Villafranca, Quintino from Naples, Pietro Moncada, and Renzo Avanzo, Rossellini’s cousin. These prominent personalities of the ‘40s, with the aid of their handmade equipment ,and rudimental techniques, created a diving suit for a movie camera, in order to realize shoots in apnoea. Their techniques became more elaborated with the production of a series of documentaries: Bianche Eolie (White Aeolians), Isole di Cenere (Ash Isles), and Cacciatori Sottomarini (Underwater Hunters), introducing in this way the first example of underwater shoots in the world, so as to create a prior event, used some years later by Dieterle for the shooting of film “Vulcano” in 1950.

In 1949 Roberto Rossellini shot “Stromboli Terra di Dio” ( Stromboli, God’s land), with a female character Ingrid Bergman. The film was very successful, also because of the media scandal due to the liaison between the director and the actress; for weeks the newspapers related upon them, creating in this way the myth of the Aeolians , calling them “Wild Isles”. The film, entirely set on the Stromboli Island, left a strong print on the islander’s culture. Stromboli was an island used to solitude, but this film, thanks to its success, and to a changed cultural dimension of the place, permitted to create an advantageous relationship between foreigners and islanders. The film, hardly criticized, recorded the story of Karin, a young Lithuanian woman, who knew Antonio in an Italian concentration camp. He was an island fisherman, who trying to rescue her from imprisonment, decided to marry her. On Stromboli Karin faces a very different reality from that described by her husband, and runs into the inhabitants’ hostility. In the grip of desperation she decides to escape from the island passing through the volcano, but overwhelmed by fatigue and sulphurous exhalations, she falls asleep. Only love towards the baby in her womb gives her courage to continue. Quite at the same time of shooting “Stromboli”, Dieterle, under strong pressure of Anna Magnani, films “Vulcano”, the film set on the namesake island, concerning Maddalena, an ex-prostitute, repatriated by Naples’ Questura (Police Force) to Vulcano, her native land. She is well-greeted only by her sister Maria, she has not seen since she was a child, but not well-greeted by the islanders. Maddalena gets in trouble because of her sister, trying to free her from a shady man who oppressed her; she decides to make a rash action, turning off the air during the immersion.

Bergman, Rossellini and Anna Magnani were the protagonists of the so-called “war of volcanoes”, the title which remained for weeks in the newspapers of the worlds. Magnani felt herself deeply hurt both sentimentally and professionally by her biggest love Roberto Rossellini, who gave the protagonist role to the beautiful Ingrid Bergmann in the film “Stromboli, God’s land”, the role which seemed to be written properly for Magnani. This fact brought to anger of Magnani who because of both sentimental and artistic delusion pushed the director Dieterle to shoot the film “Volcano”. They moved to Vulcano together with the staff of Panaria Film. Both troupes worked at the same time on the archipelago, struggling against heat, volcanic emissions, doubts and remorse. Betrayals, boycotts, and arduous underwater shots were the means of a war which took place at the distance of few kilometres.

In 1959 it was Michelangelo Antonioni who made of the Aeolian Islands the set of his film “L’Avventura” which was showed during the 13^th Cannes Festival, and which won the committee award. The film shows amazing shoots of the desolate island of Lisca Bianca where the first part of the film is set. Pirandello, in 1915 publishes the last episode of “Kaos” used by brothers Taviani in 1983 to shoot their film. The pumice caves of Porticello, in the Punta Castagna zone of Lipari became the setting of film of Taviani, the authors of this excellent and respectful reinterpretation of the most beloved themes and the atmospheres of the Sicilian playwright. Well-performed, with the great attention to details, and shot with mastery, “Kaos” is one of the best products of our cinema during the ‘80s. The Tavianis chose four stories of fields and farmers, of the humiliated and the abused, struggling against misery, injustice, and superstition; the best of them is perhaps “Mal di Luna” (The Moon ache), where a magic fusion between horror, pity and eroticism is reached.