e-borghi travel 7, Islands and villages

The islands, some are fearless, crossed by the winds, punctuated by desert inlets, sandy beaches or granitic coves, featured by a nature that sometimes doesn’t have half-measures or they are sometimes caressed by the sea. The other ones are sometimes set in the lakes’ stretches of water or in the slow running of streams and rivers. They are real places but they are also the projection of our dreams, the islands are magical microcosms surrounded by  tiny villages that are suspended between the history and the legends and they are paced by the art and the old traditions. The islands are enchanting places, they are always a step ahead in their amazing charm: at first you may be happy with listening about them then the need to experience them becomes urgent. This is the feeling that pushed us to write this issue of e-borghi travel that is entirely dedicated to the islands. So let’s start our journey in Puglia heading towards the Tremiti islands, a protected Marine Area featured by a mosaic of transparent water and seabed to be explored, a network of caves, cliffs and coastlines set in the Mediterranean vegetation. Then the Pelagian islands in Sicily, suspended between the sky and the sea with tropical colours where you can discover the villages that are ruffled by the wind where different cultures and traditions come together to offer incomparable feelings. Let’s slowly go up our Peninsula and reach Calabria at the discovery of the island of Cirella, surrounded by forests of euphorbia and lemon scents so here is the nearby island of Dino, a jewel of the Mediterranean Sea featured by its thousand years old caves and the deep blue sea. And water again, from the lake: it’s lake Maggiore that surrounds the Borromean Islands, an elixir of elegance and harmony. From the monumental Isola Bella to the precious Isola Madre going through the picturesque Isola dei Pescatori with its narrow streets filled with the voices and the scents. Then we move to the capital city of Italy and we find the Tiberina island which is connected to the heart of the city and the district of Trastevere by means of the Fabricio and Cestio bridges: the eternal city sounds still here, it sounds it’s pausing and telling about its most secret soul. Two facets, the scenographic one and the more intimate one, the islands can keep these two aspects together like Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, beyond the border and the Canary islands too or the Fiemme Valley, the green island in the heart of the Dolomites of Trento, the woodland alter ego of the salty attractions. Different landscapes around the islands, echoes of freedom and apparent unreality. Since Ernest Hemingway was right: „you can find a feeling of definitive fullfilment on the islands”.

Luciana Francesca Rebonato
Publishing Director