- Where
- Tyrrhenian Sea, north of Sicily
westernmost of the Aeolian Islands - Coordinates
- 38.5425° N
14.3525° E - Area
- 5.2 km², roughly circular
(Wikipedia) - Highest point
- 675 m
- People
- About 90 all year
about 200 in July and August - Protected
- Aeolian Islands World Heritage Site, 2000
- Getting there
- Hydrofoil from Milazzo, about 3 h
or from Palermo in season - Best visited
- April to October
The fast boat left me at a little stone pier and hurried on, and there was no road anywhere, only stairs. I climbed behind a mule carrying somebody’s shopping, past white houses, prickly pears and goats on the old terraces, until the sea lay all around below. The mule never once looked back. I stopped at every landing, to admire the view and to breathe.
The short answer
Alicudi is the westernmost of the seven islands of the Aeolian archipelago, a volcanic chain in the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Sicily. Wikipedia puts it about 40 kilometres west of Lipari, the largest island, and gives it an area of 5.2 square kilometres, roughly circular, rising to 675 metres. It is administered as part of the comune of Lipari, in the Metropolitan City of Messina. About 90 people live there all year, Wikipedia records, mostly from fishing and small farms, and the population rises to about 200 in July and August. Italy’s national tourism site, italia.it, calls it the smallest, westernmost and most remote island of the archipelago, with no tarmac roads and no cars.
Why it's worth knowing
An island with stairs for streets. On Alicudi, italia.it says in indexed text, people walk on stairways and alleys of volcanic stone, on paths and on mule tracks, and the only transport is the donkey, called scecco in the local speech. Luggage and shopping go up the slopes by mule. The houses are spread over the old terraces rather than gathered round the harbour, and Wikipedia gives the reason: for centuries the island was raided by pirates, and its people sheltered in small houses built on high terraces, living from simple farming and from peaches.
A volcano that went quiet long ago. The island is the cone of a single volcano, Montagnola, which formed roughly 150,000 years ago, Wikipedia records, citing the Smithsonian’s Global Volcanism Program; its last activity may have been about 27,000 years ago. That sets it apart from Stromboli and Vulcano, the two active volcanoes at the other end of the chain. In 2000 UNESCO inscribed the Aeolian Islands, Alicudi among them, on the World Heritage List for providing “an outstanding record of volcanic island-building and destruction, and ongoing volcanic phenomena”, the wording Wikipedia quotes from the World Heritage Committee.
The field notes
Named for heather
The modern name Alicudi descends from the island’s ancient Greek name, Ereikousa, from erica, the heather that grows on its slopes, according to Wikipedia. People were here long before the Greeks named it: archaeological finds date its first settlement to as early as the seventeenth century BC, and Roman pottery fragments, many centuries younger, lie along the eastern coast.
A story about bread
Alicudi has old stories of witches and of women who could fly. Wikipedia, citing a 2021 article in Vice, records that they have come to be explained as ergotism: rye bread made from grain infected with the ergot fungus, eaten in hard times because there was nothing else. The story has travelled widely, and CNN’s travel desk, which reported it as “Italy’s LSD island”, also reported islanders who said it was not true. It remains a story told about the island, not a finding about it.
More goats than people
In 2024 Riccardo Gullo, mayor of Lipari, the municipality to which Alicudi belongs, offered the island’s goats free to anyone who would catch and remove them, CBS News reported. A count had found about six times as many goats as the island’s year-round population of about 100, and the animals had come down into the inhabited areas, damaging gardens and stone walls and even entering houses. The mayor told reporters the municipality opposed culling them.
Alicudi Porto from the water: houses climb the terraces above the landing.
Photograph: Godromil · Public domain · cropped
A stone stairway drops toward the sea on the island's slope.
Photograph: Benjamín Núñez González · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
Roofless stone houses on the island's terraces.
Photograph: Benjamín Núñez González · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
A caper bush on a stone path above the sea.
Photograph: Godromil · Public domain · cropped
Alicudi from the air, seen from the northeast, May 2026.
Photograph: Carsten Steger · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
- Pack only what you would gladly carry up a very long stair. Then take one more thing out.
- Watch the weather the day before you leave. When the sea gets up, the boats stay away and the island keeps you.
- Start up toward the summit while the steps lie in shade, and pause at each landing. The list has grown a chapter headed Landings, and it now outruns the stairway.
- Flatten yourself against the wall whenever a mule comes by. It has a job to do, and for once you do not.
- Sit on a doorstep at dusk and watch the lights come on across the water, one island after another.
The stairway. Alicudi’s streets are steps: stairways and mule tracks of volcanic stone that climb from the harbour to the houses on the old terraces and on up the cone, the only ways around an island with no tarmac roads or cars, by the account of Italy’s national tourism site. Luggage and shopping still go up them on the backs of donkeys and mules. It is walked, slowly, and shared with the mules.
Tally, in the marginAll of that first morning I hunted for the street the stairway was leading to. The stairway was the street, of course, and the mules had been waiting most politely for me to notice.
Getting there
How to get there. By sea. Liberty Lines hydrofoils link Milazzo, on Sicily’s north coast, with Alicudi, calling at the other islands on the way; ferry-booking sites list a crossing of about two hours and fifty minutes and up to two sailings a day. Siremar ferries also run from Milazzo several times a week, and take more than five hours. In season, usually from about April to October, a Liberty Lines hydrofoil also runs from Palermo, the booking sites add. There is no road on the island: from the small harbour everything goes on foot or by mule.
When to go. April to October, when the Palermo hydrofoil adds a second way in. Weather decides the boats in any month: in August 2026 the Sicilian daily La Sicilia reported Alicudi and Filicudi cut off by rough seas and a strong westerly wind, with doctors unable to reach them. Leave a spare day before any flight home.
What to arrange ahead. A room, and a way to get your bags up to it: hosts’ listings say guests are met at the harbour, and mule transport for luggage can be arranged on the island. Bring food for the first evening if you arrive late, and plan to walk everywhere, on steep stairs, with water and sun protection in summer.
Safety. The State Department has Italy at Level 2, exercise increased caution, because of terrorism (advisory dated 23 May 2025 in its feed, read 5 October 2026), with no areas singled out; the targets it lists include tourist spots and transportation centres. The hazards on Alicudi are the place’s own: steep stone steps, summer heat with little shade, and a sea that can stop the boats for days.
Mark this place
Common questions
Where is Alicudi?
Alicudi is the westernmost of the seven Aeolian Islands, in the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Sicily, Italy, about 40 kilometres west of Lipari. It covers 5.2 square kilometres and is part of the comune of Lipari, in the Metropolitan City of Messina.
Are there cars on Alicudi?
No. Alicudi has no tarmac roads and no cars, according to Italy’s tourism site italia.it. People walk on stone stairways, paths and mule tracks, and luggage and shopping are carried up from the harbour by donkeys and mules, called scecchi locally.
How do you get to Alicudi?
By hydrofoil or ferry from Sicily. Liberty Lines hydrofoils run from Milazzo, a crossing that ferry-booking sites put at about two hours and fifty minutes with stops at the other Aeolian Islands; Siremar ferries take more than five hours; and a seasonal Liberty Lines hydrofoil runs from Palermo, usually from about April to October.
Is Alicudi a volcano?
Alicudi is the cone of the long-extinct Montagnola volcano, which formed roughly 150,000 years ago, according to Wikipedia citing the Smithsonian’s Global Volcanism Program; its last activity may have been about 27,000 years ago. The active volcanoes of the Aeolian Islands are Stromboli and Vulcano, at the other end of the chain.
How many people live on Alicudi?
About 90 people live on Alicudi all year, Wikipedia records, mostly from fishing and small farms, and the population rises to about 200 in July and August. CBS News, reporting in 2024, gave the year-round population as about 100.
What does the name Alicudi mean?
Alicudi descends from the island’s ancient Greek name, Ereikousa, from erica, the heather that grows on its slopes, according to Wikipedia’s article on the island.
Why did Alicudi give away its goats?
In 2024 the mayor of Lipari, Riccardo Gullo, offered Alicudi’s goats free to anyone who would catch and remove them, CBS News reported, after a count found about six times as many goats as year-round residents. The goats had been damaging gardens and stone walls and entering homes, and the municipality opposed culling them.
Is Alicudi a UNESCO World Heritage Site?
Yes, as part of the Aeolian Islands, which UNESCO inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2000 for providing “an outstanding record of volcanic island-building and destruction, and ongoing volcanic phenomena”, in the words Wikipedia quotes from the World Heritage Committee.