Every year I attempt a swim between the island of Lipari and the island of Salina. The idea was hatched several years ago with a good friend while enjoying a boozy lunch on the terrace of his family restaurant on Salina. I was staring across the 4.5 kilometre straight toward Lipari thinking it didn’t look…
Category: Salina
The roots of wisdom
My garden on Salina is a place of joy and magic. Many friends and guests have sat mesmerized amongst the trees, flowers, bushes and vines looking out toward the sea. This poem is dedicated to Maurizia and her son, Roberto. entwined, the branches dance together the beat is slow inaudible, incomprehensible to me the ancient…
The fish are still laughing
In 1897 Salomon August Andrée, a Swedish engineer, believed that he could reach the North Pole by flying in a hydrogen balloon. Not long after Andrée and his fellow explorers took off on their adventure, things went miserably wrong. Fog froze on the balloon dragging it down as they ‘flew’ only feet above the ice…
Immovable object meets great force
I can happily walk past something that needs fixing at the house for years without attempting a repair. Sure, an annoying little voice in my head says “You should really fix that”, but moving from thought to action only happens if the consequence of inaction is dire, like, say, flooding or structural collapse. I don’t…
Yoga without wine just isn’t yoga
I’m sure you’ve seen people on the street dressed in leggings carrying a yoga mat on their way to a class. I’ve never understood this. Sure, no one wants to wear rented bowing shoes. But a yoga mat? Isn’t it like gym equipment you wipe down and leave behind? My suspicion is that yoga people…
Eating sand
Pizzerias love to call their most spicy pizza ‘The Stromboli’. Makes sense. Stromboli is the name of an active volcano off the coast of Sicily. If you want a pizza that will burn off your taste buds, you know what order. Lava to go. Stromboli (the volcano, not the pizza) produces clouds of ash while…
A swim for the ages
The island of Salina sits off the northeast coast of Sicily. This paradise is in the centre of a cluster of six other volcanic islands, each in a varying state of agitation. Fortunately Salina can only be described as serene, having recorded it’s last eruption 13,000 years ago. My house is on Salina and my…
Where is Graham? 