🌎 Ischia is famous for its healing thermal waters, but the powers of its geothermal energy are less known – and they're hiding an ancient culinary tradition beneath the surface.
I'm wandering through the village of Sant'Angelo on the Italian island of Ischia, searching for the footpath that will take me to the volcanic fumaroles on the isle's southern shore – and towards one of Italy's most unique meals.
A shopkeeper points me to a stone staircase snaking up from an alleyway that climbs over the cliffs and mountains. The steep trail takes me past prickly pears and stucco villas, and as I trudge up to the clifftop, I admire the ink blue waters of the Gulf of Naples. On my descent to the fumarole-dotted beach, I approach the crescent-shaped Maronti Bay; umbrellas staked into ash grey sand.
I'm soon ushered to a corner table on the terrace of the seaside restaurant Chalet Ferdinando a Mare. Basil and tomatoes perfume the air as bathers frolic in the sea. I order lunch and a glass of wine.
Below the terrace is a patch of sand ringed by a fence. Danger signs glare in Italian and English: "Prohibited from entering to the unauthorised. Sand boiling 100C" (212F).
These are the fumaroles of Ischia, where sands are heated to a boil by underground volcanic vapours.
It's where my lunch is cooking right now.
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