Mrs B has taken it into her head to visit some small Italian islands, to, lie on the beach, eat some local food, do a little walking, visit a spa, see a few museums/art galleries, drink wine and generally have a restful time in May or June for a week, hopefully getting the most out any carefully positioned accommodation, so hopefull nowhere that needs loads of taxi rides or car hire, we feel shank's pony is a good tool.

We live near a UK airport that has direct access to Naples, Rome, Pisa, Venice or Catania.

Any ideas, detailed suggestions?

Lipari.
Off Sicily so Catania should be ok.

Woin, what to do, see? Any cheap, great places to stay (E60-85) per night?

You want to visit a spa and drink wine then you go to Ischia. Fly to Naples, where you can visit the museums before you go to the island. Or after. You can go to Procida also. Capri is expensive and has more tourists.

We loved it bilbo. We had toured Sicily and spend the last week there. I remember taking boats to see other islands and to swim in remote places. The island itself was big enough to have some cars and several hotels. I forget the rest. We had a nice hotel where we had half pension.
I paid in Lira - useless to compare now...

Where would you stay in Ischia? Is there an obvious, walking route/restaurant/spa centre or is it more spread out?

In Lipari get hold of Diana Brown. http://www.dianabrown.it/en/

Nothing better!

thanks gertie, looks good.

Thanks all. Ischia looks good as well

I love eolian islands, and Procida and also Ponza. Am afraid none of these have museums, but every other requirement you have could be fulfilled.

Ups, too quick. Catania, naples and rome would be the respective airports to fly into. We always do a 5-6 day trip in mid june without wanting to get too far away from rome, so these have been our islands in the past 10 years.

Bilbo, seen this? The Islands bit starts about half way through!

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ing-sicily.cfm

Maybe for Ischia you would like to go to Sant'Angelo just for relaxation and if you like to go hiking in hills. But if you like the wine and a nice town, maybe Forio is better for you and it is closer to the spas.

AFAIK, among all small Italian Islands, only Lampedusa, Favignana, Vulcano, Ischia, Ventotene, Ponza, Sant'Antioco, San Pietro, Asinara, Caprera, Giglio, Tremiti, Pellestrina, Venezia Lido have sandy beaches to write home about.

As Far As I Know, in case anyone was lost there ;-)

Thanks Gertie, I have now

bilbo, Favignana every time. Idyllic place, non touristy, some nice hotels and you can walk all over the island.

Forgot to say, the eponymous hotel does bike rentals, might suit you, although we stayed at the Tempo di Mare for the views.

Wow Rubicund, I only knew there were islands up this end of Sicily because I read up on the Battle of Mylae and while looking at the map wondered why they fought all the way up there rather than at these islands.

Possibly too small for us but access to Marsala wine my still get Mrs B to change her mind.

Ah, the Battle of Egadi Islands turned the beach red.

Highly recommend the Aeolians. Look for a rental property at the Quatroccio Belvedere. In credible view and Lipari does have a good archeological museo.