Stone Island At Triads

There are no roads, no retailers, no bars and no crowds — simply the pristine coastline of the Tyrrhenian Sea, 1000's of Stone Island Online steps, a number of donkeys to haul your luggage, a number of local fisherman and a whole lot of rugged charm.


Alicudi is smallest and least populated of the Aeolian islands, north of Sicily. There is only one restaurant, two grocery shops, a newsagent and a souvenir shop. It's the final word off-the-beaten path, unplugged and untouched journey expertise.

If you visit Alicudi you expertise a simple manner of life, long forgotten elsewhere.

But the remoted Stone Island Online getaway holds a very trippy secret. It involves hallucinogenic bread and evil sorceresses.

Slender alley on Alicudi island. Eolie archipelago. Sicily. ItalySource:istock

For centuries, in line with CNN Journey, villagers had been fed on "crazy rye" — bread made by local housewives which was unknowingly contaminated by a thoughts-blowing fungus called "ergot", fostered by the humid weather situations.

Ergot is the base component of the hallucinogenic drug LSD.

Up until as recently because the 1950s, oblivious island dwellers had been getting excessive without even understanding it.


"It was a eating regimen mistake, a foul eating behavior triggered by poverty, isolation and ignorance of hygiene," native historian Pino La Greca informed CNN .


"The first harvests had been scarce and food was treasured so nothing was thrown away, even rotten bread and pasta coated in mould were eaten.


"Scarcity of other alternative food sources and humidity produced this nasty fungus that when ingested triggered mass hallucinations, hysteria, hypnosis and autosuggestion."

View from Lipari island on Salina, Filicudi and Alicudi islands.Source:istock

Because of the day by day mind-blowing journeys, legends then evolved of flying girls, dubbed "maiara", which means "sorceress" in Aeolian dialect.


There are ancient stories of these wicked sorceresses straddling the bows of fishing boats to make them sink, or casting evil spells on enemies. Tales of males being became donkeys, cows and pigs have been shared among the many villagers.


"These folks had been on a LSD-induced journey 24/7, they spoke to each other and shared their visions, making actual what was solely in their minds," La Greca stated.

Boats on seaside of Alicudi island of Eolie archipelago. Sicily. ItalySource:istock

However for some locals, the legends are actual. Peppino Taranto, the owner of the island’s solely hotel, Ericusa, beloved listening to the village elders share their visions as a baby.

"These are usually not fairytales," he instructed CNN.

"A bishop advised me these folks had made a pact with the satan so as to possess magical powers and fly, similar to Simon the Sorcerer had completed to confront St. Peter in the new Testomony. He was Christianity’s first heretic who Dante placed in the Divine Comedy’s Inferno."

He believes the final flying "maiara" died in 1948.

Tree and boat on Alicudi Stone Island Outlet. Eolie archipelago. Sicily. ItalySource:istock


But whether you believe it or not, the island embraces its mascot of sorts. There are painted murals of flying ladies dressed in lengthy black robes with their hair blowing within the wind, and tourists can buy T-shirts with the "maiara" emblem.