Take an archipelago of seven small islands smelling of wild fennel and the open sea. Volcanic, sky-thrusting. Scattered 50 miles north of Sicily, the Aeolians are thought of throughout Italy as beautiful and natural – but mysterious. Volatile.

Some 60 years ago they were near-deserted but have since been passing between them the baton for southern Europe’s most rugged glamour. Sometimes it’s Stromboli (beloved especially of Neapolitan left-wingers) and sometimes Panarea, and yet... two islands at the far western tip, Filicudi and Alicudi, remain a puzzle, suspended at a distance.