Copying the relevant portion of my post from June on our favorite meal in Ischia (courtesy of ninkat’s recommendation):
Our favorite meal on the latter was at Cantinando, not only for the excellent food (the mussels! the pasta with sea bass!), but also for the genuinely friendly welcome and service from the owners (the wife is the server, the husband is the chef).
Though I didn’t mention it, we did share the (enormous) half-portion of rabbit which was also very good. Fiddling with all the bones left our hands quite oily from the rich sauce - and we didn’t feel inspired to try the dish again…We had a reservation at Il Focolare but canceled because of the long and expensive taxi ride that would have been necessary to reach it. Il Cantinando is much more accessible.
This sounds spectacular. I have long wanted to visit the Aeolian Islands.
Roxlet: Do go, if you have the chance. You will find the food quite different than “mainland” Sicily; it is more limited due to the resources of the island, and it takes a bit of time to ferret out the better places to dine… The island is spectacular and even in high season, does not seem crowded in the least. The “best” hotels are in or near to Malfa, but Santa Marina Salina, the main port, offers more services, a fairly lively passeggiata at night (almost none in Malfa), and the widest choice of restaurants.
We met a German couple at our hotel who are spending their two-week-plus vacation traveling by public hydrofoil to four or five islands, staying 3-4 nights on each one. They had wonderful things to say about their stay on Vulcano, which led me to begin reading about that island, formerly known mostly for its mud baths. Those are now shuttered but they found a wonderful hotel and loved the scenery and the food. And, as the closest island to the departure port of Milazzo, it is only about an hour or less ride to reach from the “mainland.”
But Salina, overall, seems to be the favorite of most experienced travelers, with options to visit other islands on a day trip by public boat, or by the many private boats that you can hire for a not-terrible price if you can collect a group to share…
Thank you so much for taking the time to write all this information! It sounds so amazing.
Hi there. One piece of general advice: I found Google maps hopeless in terms of accuracy re: bus schedules/routes and even how to walk places. Ischia is the only place I have ever visited where Apple Maps was really very helpful on all of those scores. (Full disclosure: I don’t usually even open Apple Maps because Google has been so good for me, so I don’t really know if it has improved in other locations or not.)
As others have said, taxis are expensive there (and I found the mini taxis/tuk tuks really smelly of gas).
FWIW I avoided Il Focolare both because of distance and because some of the reviews made it sound unappealing to me.
Thank you for sharing! I am creating an “Italy” bookmark here on HO for my next trip!
Cantinando looks amazing. How difficult is it to get a taxi after a meal in Ischia? I would like to book a meal here, but want to make sure I can get back to my hotel. Have had problems in other places off season.
Funny you should ask…our hotel arranged a cab to take us to Cantinando and the very friendly and loquacious driver offered to pick us up there after our dinner. In fact, he morally coerced us into accepting his offer - since he refused to accept payment for the ride there until after he returned us to the hotel. Of course, we then had to wait more than half an hour for him to pick us up after we called - and then it wasn’t he who arrived, but one of his buddies. But don’t let our taxi misadventure dissuade you from going to Cantinando. The very friendly waitress/hostess/co-owner/chef’s wife had offered to call us a cab when we paid the check - and I bet we would have gotten home much sooner if our scruples hadn’t prevented us from abandoning our original driver…
Perfect, thank you. I will book!
And now booked! Thanks so much!
What a feast, @erica1! I can’t believe I missed this post so far. The food looks incredible, the prices seem a little higher than what we saw in Sicily this summer.
I can say that some of the best food we had this year was in Sicily. Very affordable, too.
Can you rent scooters on Salina?
Yes, easy to rent scooters!!
