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Panarea, The smallest of the Aeolian Islands

The smallest of the Aeolian Islands rises to its highest point with Punta del Corvo (420m), its western flank plunging steeply down into the sea. The eastern side has gentler slopes ending in a tall black lava coastline skirted by small pebbled beaches. To the south-east, near Punta Milazzese, the remnants of a prehistoric village dominate the fine bay of Cala Junco. All around the island emerge isles and rocks including the dreaded Formiche’s (Ants), just below the water surface, which have been the cause of many shipwrecks since Antiquity.

Panarea, the antique Eunonimo, is a most scenographic island; one of the most enchanting of the Archipelago. The island, the small islands (Basiluzzo, Dattilo, Lisca Bianca) and the islets (Battaro, Lisca Nera, Panarelli and Le Formiche) are to be considered parts of the same volcanic system; they represent the remains of eruptive centres implanted in the same morphological unit constituted by a volcanic underwater upland.
The formation of the island, the most ancient of the Aeolian Archipelago is attributed to the Sicilian by Keller and to the Milazzese by Pichler. A stratum volcano, the eastern part of which is left, is implanted on the part above the waters, while secondary eruptive centres in the form of cupolas of stagnation have subsequently formed along the sides. The highest peak of Panarea is called Pizzo del Corvo (420 m), which descends to the East with terraces cultivated with corn and surrounded by gigantic olive trees.

This side is dominated by the inaccessible rocky coasts of Pizzo Falcone and Pizzo Castello. To the West the slopes are like harsh attachments and rocky walls dotted with green. This island is composed of a great mass of andesites which are superimposed on the "rioliti colonnari" visible at the Northern extremity known as Calcara and on that of the South called Milazzese. The bult-up area is scattered picturesquely on the Eastern slopes with its white houses surrounded by olive trees and cyclopic cliffs. The homes are grouped in three districts which bear the names respectively of Iditella, S. Pietro and Drauto.

The principal importance of Panarea is from the Paleontological point of view due to its well known village of the XIV century B.C. Upon sailing by boat around Panarea there unfolds before ones marvelled gaze, as a general panorama, colossal blocks rounded or cut into prisms isolated in the sea, rocks crowned by high pinnacles and enchanting inlets such as the famous Gala Junco.

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