I first found out about the Aeolian Islands fifteen years ago. It was a typical wet, cold and grey winter’s day in London when I read an article about the seven Islands off the northern coast of Sicily in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The photographs of dramatic volcanic cliffs plunging into the sea, sleepy villages and colourful fishing boats in turquoise clear waters captured my attention, and I began dreaming of the Sicilian sun and sea.

It was not so challenging for me, an Australian, to conjure up feelings of hot summers by the sea, as I spent most of my childhood experiencing just that. The island that particularly caught my eye was Salina, the greenest of all the islands and the backdrop of the well-known film Il Postino.