Coral Beach

Canneto is the second settlement on Lipari, a couple of kilometres north of the main town, and its beach runs for roughly two kilometres of dark sand and sea-smoothed pebbles below a seafront lined with bars, gelaterie and fish restaurants. The water off it is clear and turns from grey-green to deep turquoise as the seabed drops. Coral Beach sits directly on that sand on Via Marina Garibaldi, a few steps from the centre of the village, and it is organised as a full-day operation rather than just a sunbed rental. Breakfast is served from eight in the morning on the beach, bar and food service runs to the umbrella from half past twelve, and in the evening the site turns over to a proper restaurant from eight until half past eleven, booking advised. The cooking is straightforward Sicilian and Aeolian, simple dishes rather than reinvention. Umbrellas and loungers come with showers, changing rooms, wifi and a playground for children, and the club takes private events and group dinners by arrangement. The season is unusually long for the Aeolians, opening on the first of May and running to the twentieth of October, which makes it a workable option well outside the ferry-crush weeks of August.