Hello, glad to have found you! I will be traveling with my girlfriend to visit her grandparents home town in Southern Italy. On our way there, we are flying to Naples and want to take a hydrofoil to Lipari and then go to Milazzo. We arrive in Naples on the 23 of September at 9:45. Any suggestions on how to book passage to Lipari? We want to visit the Regional Museum in Lipari and go to the mud baths in Vulcano before going to Milazzo and Cefalu for a couple of days at the beach. Any comments or suggestions appreciated. Grazie.

You may get better response if you move your question to the Italy forum. There is a lot of info on the ferries there.

quote:

Originally posted by Staffanell:
...We want to visit the Regional Museum in Lipari and go to the mud baths in Vulcano before going to Milazzo and Cefalu for a couple of days at the beach.....

Hi Steffanell, and welcome to Slow Travel Talk.

As jhdflyer mentioned, there's lots of ferry information in the Italy travel forum. Use the "find" function to search on key words.

We collect restaurant reviews on the SlowTrav site. Click on the link to see reviews for Sicily, including Cefalu.

Hi,
We have been to Sicily this summer and spent 2 weeks in Cefalu. Just to let you know, there is a hydrofoil from Lipari to Cefalu. It is daily in high season and weekly, I believe, otherwise. However, it is better to go to Milazzo and take the train from there to Cefalu. The hydrofoil to Cefalu is smelly and you have to have a solid stomack.

In Cefalu don't miss the puppet theatre. From the restaurant perspective one of the good ones is Al Porticiollo on the rocks in the old Cefalu.

In Lipari we found Trattoria d'Oro a very good restaurant. It is a bit more expensive, but the food and decor are typical.

If it is possible take the ferry to Lipari. It is longer but the views are amazing. From the hydrofoil you won't see much. Also do a search on GAC, he posted a lot on ferries on this site.

The Naples to Lipari hydrofoil service terminates on September 30 and will resume again at the end of May, 2008.

For the last week of September, your ONLY hydrofoil operator is Ustica Lines

www.usticalines.it

Departure Naples 8:00 (daily through Sept. 30)
Arrival Lipari 13:40
One way fare: 74.90 Euros plus 2.51 Euros taxes and supplement

There is also the twice weekly SIREMAR overnight car ferry on Tuesdays and Fridays.

www.siremar.it

Finally, if neither the hydrofoil nor the ferry schedules are convenient, you can take the daylight or overnight train from Naples to Milazzo, then proceed to Lipari by hydrofoil (Siremar and Ustica Lines) or car ferry (Siremar only).

You won't need reservations for this run because Sept. 23 is already past high season.

P.S.: I think that the Lipari National Archeological Museum is great: I've been there four times in four years.

As Anastasia notes, you can also take the Ustica Lines hydrofoil from Vulcano/Lipari to Cefalu (bypassing Milazzo), three times weekly (Monday-Friday-Sunday morning) at the end of September. One way fare from Vulcano to Cefalu is 22.20 Euros. Travel time is 3.5 hours. The hydrofoil stops at Lipari, Salina, Filicudi and Alicudi, then proceeds to Cefalu and Palermo.

Hydrofoil service is subject to cancellation due to poor weather.