Islands

Updated 04.14.2006

Stromboli volcano, Eolian Islands Italy

What’s an isle? Often just a little piece of bare rocks and sand dispersed in the middle of the sea. Why do the islands stimulate so deeply our imagination? An island is a world apart. There is something different in an isle. People are more confident and friendly; landscapes are somewhat larger and purer than usual. The sea is less polluted and the beaches are less crowded. But that isn’t all. Every time you can really taste insularity, you realize that, may be, there is somewhere a different kind of life and a better place to stay. Life in an isle may be rude, especially in Northern islands during the winter, but usually islanders love their stile of life and are strongly attached to their little rock on the sea. For us, living in the continent, islands are a "far better place". May be you heard of the St.Kilda, the most remote isle of Great Britain, and its saga. It’s the moving story of an entire island community evacuated in 1930 from their isle, inhabited since the Stone Age, because of the increasing difficulty of life and starving conditions. The community never was able to adapt to the new life in the mainland. One of the ancient islanders, Malcom Macdonald, said about the former life “You had pace of mind, quietness and a way of life I don’t find in the mainland. To me it was peace living in St.Kilda, and to me it was happiness, dear happiness. It was a far better place”.

I like very much the islands and I love over all the little isles, not yet touched from mass tourism. In the last few years I was at the Azores (Açores), a great site for whale-watching, Outer Hebrides, Chausey, Ouessant, Sein Isle, Porquerolles, Port Cros, Texel, Elba, Eolian Archipelago and Belle Ile en Mer, "la bien nommée", that literally means "beautiful island in the sea, the fairly called", La Réunion Island, a tropical paradise in the Indian ocean, Shetland Islands and Fair Isle, Groix, Guadeloupe, Martinique.

If you are searching travel information and good addresses about these islands just click at the links below or use the search engine in the navigation bar to scan this site or the web. All the addresses and the suggestions made in these pages were personally tested.

You can also use my link page to web resources about islands.