How to reach Vulcano
General information
There are two main ferry/hydrofoil companies active between the above mentioned towns and Vulcano: SNAV and SIREMAR. You can see the updated timetables here.
Note: these timetables are officially valid until September 30th. During winter there are far lesser connections. Please keep this in mind when planning your travel back home.
The site of the conference, i.e. the Hotel Eolian, is 200 meters away from the harbour. On
September 30th and October 1st (morning) people from the LOC will wait the participants at the
port (you will easily recognize them because they will hand a conference poster), and they will
show the way. A shuttle from the hotel will also be active to help bringing luggages and people.
Below we give some suggestions to ease your choice.
Airplane
In this case you should consider to reach one of the above mentioned towns: Rome, Napoli, Catania, Palermo or Reggio Calabria. There are many daily connections between Rome, Napoli and Palermo and many european and non-european towns. Catania has also an international airport, with frequent connections with Rome (12/day) and Milano Malpensa (8/day). If you fly from outside Europe or UK you should have no problem in finding a convenient connecting flight to Catania or Palermo, from where it is easy to reach Milazzo and then Vulcano. You can also find convenient to get a connecting flight to Reggio Calabria, whose airport is only 20 walking minutes away from the hydrofoils attrack. However, the connections between Rome , Milano Malpensa and Reggio Calabria are far lesser frequent.
Once you have landed in one of these towns, you should reach the harbour from where your hydrofoil or ferry boat leaves. The way and the frequence of the connections changes from place to place:
Rome: No direct connection, but you can take a train to Milazzo and from there take a hydrofoil to Vulcano.
Naples: There are hydrofoil connections to Vulcano (see here), but only until September 30th. Alternatively, you can take a train to Milazzo and from there take a hydrofoil to Vulcano.
Catania: You can either take a direct bus to Milazzo, or a bus to Messina and from there another bus to Milazzo.
The direct bus Catania Airport-Milazzo is operated by Giuntabus, and leaves once a day at 16:00 (until September 30th). It stops at the Milazzo harbour: about 50 meters back from the bus stop, on the other side of the street, you will find the ticket counters of SNAV and SIREMAR. The attrack of the hydrofoils and ferries are in front of the ticket counters.
The bus from Catania Airport to Messina leaves almost every hour, from the same stopping site as the preceding bus. The company operating this bus is named SAIS. The travel lasts about 90 minutes, you can find the timetable here. Once you are in Messina, the bus to Milazzo leaves from the same bus station: you can buy the ticket at the counter. There are also very frequent bus from 7:00 to 21:00 weekdays (almost one every hour), although they are not necessarily in coincidence with the bus from Catania Airport. The travel is about 45 minutes. Once you arrive in Milazzo, follow the same directions given above.
You could also consider of renting a car to reach Milazzo, and from there Vulcano. All the major rent-a-car companies (AVIS, Hertz, Maggiore) have a box at Catania airport. More instructions concerning the way are given below.
Finally, you could also consider of taking a taxi from Catania Airport to Milazzo. This is by far the most expensive solution (not lesser than euros 150). The travel time is approximately 90 minutes.
Palermo: The harbour from where the hydrofoil to Vulcano leaves is not directly connected to the airport. Either take a taxi and ask to be brought to the hydrofoil's attrack (in italian, ask for "molo partenza aliscafi per isole Eolie"), or use the town bus system to reach the harbour. Alternatively, you could consider of reaching the railway station, and from there take a train to Milazzo. The departure times are mostly concentrated in the afternoon-evening (after 17:00), and the travel is about 2 hour 30 minutes. Once arrived at Milazzo railway station, you should reach the harbour: there are very few taxes outside the railway station, and the town bus leaves approximately once every hour.
Also from Palermo you could consider of renting a car to reach Milazzo and then Vulcano. As for Catania, the same major rent-a-car companies have a counter and cars at the Palermo airport.
Reggio Calabria: The hydrofoil harbour is situated not far from the Airport, and there is a public bus leaving conveniently after every landing from Rome or Milano.
Train
The easiest way is to reach Milazzo and from there take the hydrofoil or the ferry boat. Most trains arriving to Milazzo from Rome, Venice and Milano are night trains, with 2-3 wagon lits coaches and many couchettes/sleeperette wagons. Check the official train timetable available at Trenitalia for times and prices. Typically you will arrive at the Milazzo railway station early in the morning, and from there you should reach the harbour (see instructions in the preceding section).