Today we set out for Pollara by cab to hike the northern part of Salina Island. The tiny town of Pollara was made famous by the movie Il Postino (The Postman), a beautiful Italian love story set on Salina with an amazing backdrop of Pollara Beach. There is not much of a beach at Pollara built into the rock face. The swimming area in front of the beach is actually the crater of an extinct volcano.
The taxi left us at a fabulous viewpoint. We started an uphill climb past what look like an abandoned “castle” building that our boat captain said the Americans built during WWII as a lookout point. After about a half mile climb we turned around and walked 5km along the street to the village of Pollara. There were many paths down to the rocky beach and up a ravine.
In the square by the village church, Sant’Onofrio, are paintings of two men. I shot this picture of a man on his phone sitting next to the murals. The painted figures represents the Il Postine’s film director and the postman’s character, Massimo Troisi who died just after the film was completed in 1994, having a conversation with the exiled Chilean Poet, played by Phillipe Noiret.
We ended our 3 mile jaunt at a lovely restaurant, La Laconda del Postino. This is a family run hotel and restaurant with great views of the sea. We had a caponata for starter, a Salina style spaghetti filled with seafood and then a whole snapper for our main. The food was excellent and ambience perfect. I’m glad we found this place. It was 12.30 and it closed at 2pm. LB and I took a taxi back to Santa Marina while Linda walked the 12km along the road.
The island is very quiet in late September, except for groups of middle aged hikers. Dinner was a belated birthday dinner at Porto Bella in Santa Marina. It was a nice dinner but nothing that warranted food photos or a glorious review. Just a convenient location for some tired girls.