Island Hopping Italy: Five Island Worlds Beyond the Mainland

Italy has more islands than any country in Europe after Greece. Most visitors to Italy never reach any of them.

The Italian island world divides into five completely separate territories — the volcanic Gulf of Naples, the extraordinary Aeolian chain north of Sicily, the national park archipelagos of Sardinia, the overlooked Ligurian and Tuscan islands and the remote Sicilian islands from the tidal islet below Taormina to the volcanic outpost closest to Africa. Each territory has its own ferry network, its own geological character and its own reason to go further than the mainland.

The lake islands — Lake Como, Lake Maggiore, Lake Garda — are a sixth territory of a completely different register, covered at the end of this guide.

Before the ferry

Italian island ferry logistics are more complex than the Greek network — five separate sea territories served by different operators with no unified booking platform. The Italian Island Ferry Guide covers all five territories in one downloadable reference.

[Download the Italian Island Ferry Guide — €9 →]

The five Italian island territories

The Gulf of Naples — the most visited and most misunderstood

The Gulf of Naples contains three extraordinary islands — Capri, Ischia and Procida — within 35 minutes of each other by hydrofoil from Naples or Sorrento. All three are genuinely extraordinary. All three are significantly more interesting than the standard day-trip circuit suggests.

Ischia is the largest and most overlooked — a volcanic island of extraordinary thermal springs, extraordinary gardens and the extraordinary medieval Aragonese Castle rising from a connected rocky islet above the sea. The Giardini La Mortella — created by the English composer William Walton and his wife Susana in 1956 — is one of the most extraordinary private gardens in southern Italy. The volcanic thermal water that emerges from the island’s beaches at temperatures between 12°C and 98°C is the most extraordinary natural feature of any Italian island. Ischia receives a fraction of Capri’s visitors despite being larger, more varied and equally extraordinary.

Capri rewards an honest editorial approach. The famous Piazzetta, the Blue Grotto and the Faraglioni rock stacks have been photographed by every visitor since the Grand Tour. Via Krupp has not. The extraordinary cliff path carved into Capri’s vertical limestone by the German steel industrialist Friedrich Alfred Krupp in 1902 — descending from the Gardens of Augustus to Marina Piccola in switchbacks cut directly into the cliff face — is the most extraordinary piece of engineering on the island and the element most visitors never find.

Ferry operators: Caremar · SNAV · Alilauro · NLG from Naples and Sorrento Best season: May · June · September · October Key logistics: Hydrofoils run from Naples Molo Beverello and Sorrento. Avoid July and August on Capri — the day-tripper pressure is extraordinary. Ischia and Procida remain manageable year-round.

Sicily and its Islands — from Taormina to Africa

Sicily’s island world spans from the extraordinary tidal islet below Taormina to the volcanic outpost closest to Tunisia — three completely different registers on one Mediterranean island’s extended territory.

Isola Bella Sicily — not to be confused with the Borromean island on Lago Maggiore — is a tiny protected nature reserve islet just off the coast of Taormina in northeastern Sicily, connected to the Taormina beach by a narrow strip of sand that appears at low tide and disappears at high tide, creating the extraordinary spectacle of an island that is sometimes a peninsula and sometimes genuinely surrounded by the extraordinary clear Ionian water. The extraordinary Mediterranean maquis vegetation covering the islet — one of the most biodiverse small nature reserves in Sicily — and the extraordinary juxtaposition of the wild islet below, the extraordinary cliff above and the Greek theatre of Taormina on the hilltop create one of the most remarkably compressed landscapes in the entire Mediterranean. The surrounding Ionian water is the clearest on the northeastern Sicilian coast.

The Aeolian Islands — seven volcanic islands north of Sicily in the Tyrrhenian Sea, UNESCO World Heritage — are the most dramatically extraordinary island chain in the Italian Mediterranean. Stromboli erupts continuously, its lava flows visible from the sea on clear nights. Salina produces extraordinary capers and the extraordinary Malvasia delle Lipari dessert wine. Panarea has Bronze Age village ruins above extraordinary underwater volcanic fumaroles. Filicudi and Alicudi — the western Aeolians — have single ferry connections, no cars and permanent populations small enough that the ferryboat captain knows every passenger by name.

The offshore Sicilian islands — Pantelleria (a volcanic island between Sicily and Tunisia, closer to Africa than to Italy, extraordinary dammusi stone houses, extraordinary Zibibbo wine, extraordinary volcanic crater lake), the Egadi Islands (site of the 241 BC Battle of the Egadi, the decisive naval battle of the First Punic War, extraordinary tuna fishing heritage, the most extraordinary underwater archaeological territory in the western Mediterranean) and Lampedusa (the southernmost point of Italy and the EU, 113km from Tunisia, the extraordinary Spiaggia dei Conigli consistently rated among the most beautiful beaches in the world).

Ferry operators: Liberty Lines fast ferries · Siremar from Milazzo (Aeolian) · from Trapani (Egadi) · from Porto Empedocle (Pantelleria · Lampedusa) Best season: June · September Key logistics: Milazzo on the Sicilian north coast is the departure port for all seven Aeolian Islands. Stromboli night summit excursions require a licensed guide — book in advance. Island Hopping Sicily and the Aeolian Islands route: coming soon →

The Sardinian Islands — national parks and extraordinary coasts

Sardinia’s island world extends beyond the main island in three extraordinary directions — the national park archipelago of La Maddalena, the former prison island of Asinara and the limestone monolith of Tavolara.

La Maddalena — seven main islands and dozens of islets off the northeastern tip of Sardinia, a national park of extraordinary pink granite coastline and extraordinary historical depth. Nelson anchored here in 1804 before Trafalgar. Garibaldi retired to the adjacent island of Caprera in 1857 and is buried there. The most historically layered island group in Sardinia.

Tavolara — a 565-metre limestone monolith rising sheer from the Tyrrhenian Sea, military zone on its summit, extraordinary endemic botanical species on its cliff faces, extraordinary kingdom claim from an 1836 royal decree. The current royal descendant serves sandwiches at the landing restaurant.

Spiaggia del Dottore — the extraordinary Sardinian cove accessible only on foot or by boat, below cliffs of extraordinary colour on the Sardinian coast that the standard Costa Smeralda circuit never reaches.

Ferry operators: Delcomar from Palau (La Maddalena) · local boat taxis from Porto San Paolo (Tavolara) Best season: June · September Island Hopping the Sardinian Islands route: coming soon →

The Island of Elba and the Tuscan Archipelago

Elba is the largest island in the Tuscan Archipelago — seven islands between the Ligurian coast and Corsica that form Italy’s least visited and most extraordinary island chain. Napoleon’s 300-day exile here in 1814-1815 — the period between his first abdication and the Hundred Days — is one of the most extraordinary chapters in European history played out on a 224 square kilometre island of extraordinary natural beauty.

Rio nell’Elba is the historic mining centre — a medieval hilltop village above the iron ore deposits worked since Etruscan times, whose iron literally supplied the Roman Empire’s metalwork industry. The view from the hilltop across the Tyrrhenian toward Corsica and the other archipelago islands is one of the most extraordinary elevated coastal views in the northern Tyrrhenian.

Cavoli is the most beautiful beach on the island — extraordinary turquoise water, extraordinary granite boulders, the most extraordinary cove on the southwestern coast.

Beyond Elba — Capraia (the most remote inhabited Tuscan island, accessible from Livorno, volcanic landscape, former prison colony until 1986), Giglio (recovering its extraordinary character after the 2012 Costa Concordia shipwreck), Giannutri (uninhabited, accessible only by private boat, extraordinary Roman villa ruins).

Ferry operators: Moby · Toremar · Blu Navy from Piombino (Elba) · Toremar from Livorno (Capraia) Best season: May · June · September Island Hopping the Tuscan Archipelago route: coming soon →

Lake Islands — the sixth Italian island world

The Italian lakes contain some of the most extraordinary island architecture in Europe. On Lago Maggiore — the Borromean Islands: Isola Bella with its extraordinary baroque palace and terraced gardens, Isola Madre with its extraordinary botanical collections and Isola dei Pescatori, the only permanently inhabited Borromean island, a fishing village of extraordinary intimacy accessible by water taxi from Stresa.

Lake Como’s extraordinary ferry network connects the extraordinary villages of the western and eastern shores in a navigation system that has been running continuously for over a century.

Buying Ferry Tickets on Lake Como → — the complete practical guide to navigating Lake Como by ferry.

Read the complete Lake Como Beyond the Map guide →

Italian islands in The Wanders collection

The guides

Italian Island Ferry Guide — €9 — complete timetables for all five Italian island territories. Operator comparisons. Seasonal schedules.

[Download the Italian Island Ferry Guide — €9 →]

The Island Collection Field Guide — €14 → — Italian islands alongside 20+ extraordinary European islands across five sea territories.

All Italian island articles are part of The Wanders Island Hunter collection — European islands that reward the decision to take the ferry.