Bed and Breakfast da Luca :: Panarea :: Aeolian Islands :: Sicily[
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Rooms for your holidays on Panarea
Growing up in Panarea
Notes for a Happy Childhood
Luca grew up in the outdoors, with the mountains, the cliffs, the Indian figs, and the animals behind him, and the wide expanse of the sea before his eyes. The fifteen children on the island were united in a single elementary school class, and later in a single middle school class. This may have hindered his efforts to learn Dante’s Divine Comedy, but in such a special place, one learns a lot just by being together…
After school, the children always played ball in their bare feet. The soles of their feet had grown tough from walking on the island rocks (even though Luca can attest to the fact that his maternal grandfather was the first and only cobbler on the island of Panarea…), the best branches became precious swords, then they all went up the mountain, where there was a small abandoned cottage at the very top. They took turns carrying up water and some bricks, and with wet dirt they repaired the cottage as best they could. Then they went for a tea…not many children have similar memories.
High school was another matter. It was necessary, and still is, to go to Lipari. Like many adolescents who live in small towns and take the bus to the city to go to school, the young people of Panarea went to Lipari in a hydrofoil. Taking the hydrofoil wasn’t exactly the same thing as taking a bus, in some respects it was better, in others, it was worse. The positive aspect was that every morning, with our book satchels on our shoulders, it felt like we were off on a school trip. During the winter the sea is often rough, and sometimes it was too rough for the hydrofoil to take us to school...
On the other hand, a lot of time was swallowed up by the sea, especially during the return trip, in the afternoon, before there was a large wharf at Panarea, and it was windy. The boat couldn’t dock and it headed straight for Stromboli. A short while later, another boat departed from Stromboli. If it was unable to dock, it went straight on to Salina. Our little island would pass before our eyes twice, and we couldn’t get off. In other words, it was a bit tiring to leave in the morning for school, and get home for dinner the following evening.
Crazy or philosopher?
[Still Reinventing Myself at Panarea]
Now Luca is an adult and he can’t stay still a second…During the summer he doesn’t have time to go swimming, during the winter he moors boats at Ginostra (which makes Panarea look like Manhattan)…you either go crazy or become a philosopher…Luca, a bit of both, does the following: Ginostra, which is part of the island of Stromboli, can be reached only by water. Luca is one of three men who moor the boats, and one of only thirteen inhabitants. Every person who moors works approximately fifteen minutes a day, five for the arrival of the 
morning boat, five for the afternoon boat, and five for the evening boat. Even with shorter days during the winter, the days never seem to end. Solitude is a problem, although today’s technology helps. With Sky and Internet at least you can see what is happening in the world. For more intimate moments, Luca always carries his DJ console with him. DJ becomes another summer occupation, when he returns to Panarea and there are spontaneous private parties or gatherings at discotheques. All this in the evening, after having moored boats during the day, welcomed guests to his bed and breakfast, provided taxi service, managed boat rentals, moored the boats again in the evening, provided taxi service again, etc...
And every year something new happens. Several years ago, for example, during the seaquakes and the anomalous wave caused by the eruption of Stromboli, a passage was opened in the gulf near Lisca Bianca (the interesting little island in front of Panarea where Antonioni shot L’avventura), from which huge air bubbles emerged. This guaranteed entertainment, so Luca had a yellow semi-submarine (which looked like something out of a comic book) sent from Genoa to take tourists near, or better yet, inside the bubbles. This strange floating object, which took 10 hours to transport from Tropea to Panarea (all the while counting every little fish that passed by!), was transformed into an exclusive underwater dancing nightspot, enlivened by our DJ Luca…
At the end of summer, Luca departs for a nice trip. He goes to sea - to see other seas, returning happily to Panarea, which he wouldn’t substitute for any other place in the world.
