ARIES
One of the world’s most active volcanoes, the Aeolian island of STROMBOLI has erupted continuously for over 2,000 years; just like Aries, it doesn’t do chill. Aries is ruled by Mars, the god of war, and Stromboli is pure fire: a vertical force that rises nearly 1,000 meters above the sea and plunges twice that into the abyss. This is a place as unafraid as an Aries of living on the edge—or of unexpected eruptions. The island is full of stone paths, black sand beaches, primal terrain—wild and unfiltered, exactly how Aries like their environment (and their people). Climbing to the crater’s edge means racing daylight to catch firelit explosions against a black sky. And even when standing still, Stromboli pulses. Like Aries, it commands attention. This is not a place for the faint of heart. Neither are Aries.
Stromboli
TAURUS
Taurus is built for pleasure. Not the fleeting kind, but the slow, rooted, sensual sort that seeps into the bones. ISCHIA, the largest island in the Bay of Naples, offers exactly that. This volcanic land has drawn seekers of beauty and healing for millennia, from ancient Greeks and Romans to Elena Ferrante characters and modern spa pilgrims. The island’s thermal waters are legendary—rich in minerals and naturally heated by volcanic activity, with healing springs tucked into landscaped valleys of palms and pines. Emperors like Augustus and Hadrian were known to frequent the island, and more recently, film stars from Visconti’s set to Elizabeth Taylor have wandered its gardens. Evenings unfold in terraced trattorias where local coniglio all’ischitana stews for hours. In other words, nothing here is rushed and everything is meant to take a good soak—Taurus included. If this earth sign had a motto, it might be “why stand when you could sit?” Ischia takes it one step further: “Why sit when you can melt into a hot spring until your fingers prune?”
Ischia
GEMINI
Gemini is the sign of motion, contradiction, and charisma—a sign that shapeshifts, adapts, and never, ever stays in one place too long. CAPRAIA, an island adrift between Tuscany and Corsica, channels that duality. Once a penal colony, now a remote hiker’s haven, Capraia has been everything and nothing all at once. And, like Gemini, its 19 square kilometers are always in flux, the terrain veering from jagged lava cliffs to gentle coves, fortress ruins to fragrant maquis. In summer, cars are banned; in winter, it’s mostly goats and gusts. As these air signs, the island is ruled by wind. Ferries can’t always come when they’re supposed to, and sometimes, they don’t come at all. You might never make it, or get stuck here for days, depending on the breeze. (There’s a reason it’s home to one of Italy’s most respected sailing schools.) Moody? Maybe. Capraia is as mercurial as Gemini: hard to pin down, easy to get swept away by.
Capraia
CANCER
Cancer is the caregiver of the zodiac, the sign most attuned to memory and the comforts of home. GIGLIO, one of the quieter and smaller Tuscan islands, matches that energy with gentle landscapes, intimate scale, and a history that’s tender as it is tough. The island’s three villages—Porto, Castello, and Campese—feel like lived-in rooms of the same old house. Giglio has endured pirate raids, Roman rule, and maritime myths, but it’s not loud about any of it. Like Cancer, it protects its softness behind sturdy walls (read: 12th-century fortifications). Inside, laundry flaps between stone arches and cats nap in terracotta planters. It’s the type of sanctuary these water signs can get behind. (“Sicura, sana, genuina” is how one local describes his childhood here to us.) Cancer responds to deep-felt belonging, and Giglio offers this in its closeness—the same way Cancers offer themselves to those few lucky enough to be let in.
Isola del Giglio
LEO
Leo is ruled by the sun—and CAPRI basks in it; “subtle” isn’t in the vocabulary of either. Capri is the main character of the Tyrrhenian, stealing scenes since Tiberius made it his personal playground in the 1st century CE. Today, it still plays host to movie stars, moguls, and the magnetic individuals who can walk into a room and make the whole piazzetta turn and look. (Leos are great at this.) Beyond contemporary glamour, Capri is geological theater: limestone cliffs that drop into electric blue grottoes, switchback roads clinging to vertical hills, bougainvillea spilling down walls. The island demands admiration, and Leo doesn’t mind obliging. They understand the power of staging, the necessity of an entrance. And yet, there’s substance beneath the shimmer. Anacapri, perched high above the frenzy of Capri town, channels Leo’s loyal, reflective core. Beneath the fire sign’s charisma is an unshakable sense of self (despite Capri’s popularity, Anacapri hasn’t changed its tune, remaining understated and deeply local). When Leos give their heart, it’s with the full force of the solar system.
Capri; Courtesy of Lorenzo Gargiuglio
VIRGO
Virgos don’t clamor for attention, and neither does PONZA. The largest of the Pontine Islands, Ponza often lies in the shadow of its northern Tuscan neighbors and, to the south, the Campanian favorites. But like Virgo, Ponza rewards those who pay close attention, who look beyond the young Romans coming here to party and find their first loves. Ponza’s prize: dramatic volcanic cliffs softened by pretty candy-colored buildings and sea caves that shimmer only at certain hours. Virgo’s prize: devotion, trust, and a kind of intimacy that deepens over time. Driven by a need to understand, Virgos tend to observe before they reveal, always scanning for meaning beneath the surface. And Ponza, beneath its facades, has a deeper, more enigmatic history—one that Virgo, ever the seeker, would never overlook. Local lore claims the island’s name comes from Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who sentenced Jesus to death (his family is said to have been exiled here). But “Pontia” also means “land of bridges” in Latin, a nod to the island’s stone arches and naturally formed land bridges that rise and stretch with eerie symmetry. If any sign would appreciate that kind of elegant utility, it’s Virgo. Some scholars even believe Ponza is the mythical Aeaea, home of Circe the sorceress in Homer’s Odyssey, so it’s only fitting that Virgo is often cast as the witch, the woman who knows more than she says. (She always does.)
Ponza
LIBRA
Libra is all about balance, and SALINA is quite literally built on it. This Aeolian island rises from twin volcanic cones, Monte Fossa delle Felci and Monte dei Porri, their symmetrical slopes mirrored in the glassy sea below. Among the greenest of the Aeolians, Salina is known for its caper bushes, Malvasia vineyards, and cinematic calm, thanks to its role in Il Postino—a film that, like Libra, finds beauty in small gestures. Ruled by Venus, Libra craves harmony, grace, and beauty. Salina offers all three. It’s elegant without being showy, lush without being overgrown. The air smells of jasmine flowers. You can find some of the best granita in Sicily here. But Libras also wrestle with indecision, with wanting everything to be just right. Thankfully, on Salina, that shouldn’t be a problem. Every trail leads to a viewpoint. Every beach has its clear waters. Whether wandering the village of Malfa or watching the sun dip behind Stromboli, the sense of equilibrium is effortless. And Libra, forever seeking the exquisite in the everyday, recognizes the perfection in that.
Salina
SCORPIO
Scorpio is a mystery. So is PANTELLERIA. Closer to Tunisia than to mainland Sicily, the “’Black Pearl of the Mediterranean” sits alone in the Strait of Sicily, wrapped in black lava rock and windswept dammusi stone homes. Scorpio thrives on depth and transformation, and Pantelleria doesn’t reveal itself easily. The coastline is jagged and dark, carved by fire and sea. There are no sandy beaches here, only coves tucked between obsidian cliffs and thermal springs bubbling from the earth. Venus Lake, a former volcanic crater, lies in the island’s center—proof that, much to Scorpio’s belief, one’s core doesn’t need to be exposed to be powerful. Pantelleria has long drawn those who crave privacy—from Arab emirs to Giorgio Armani—and Scorpio understands this allure. This is an island where aperitivo is taken on the rooftop of your dammuso, and private parties unfold deep in the countryside, reachable only on foot and lit solely by starlight. Pantelleria isn’t for surface-level sunbathers, just as Scorpios are not for the faint of curiosity. Plus, both the island and the sign certainly know how to transform solitude into strength.
Pantelleria
SAGITTARIUS
MONTECRISTO is off-limits. Literally. Only a handful of visitors are allowed to set foot on it each year, all by special permit. But that only makes it more Sagittarian. These adventurous archers are magnetized to anything remote, wild, and free, and, rising out of the Tyrrhenian Sea between Elba and Giglio, Montecristo is about as remote, wild, and free as it gets. With granite cliffs and feral goats, it’s the stuff of pirates and novels, most famously The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. The only human presence is a single villa-turned-ranger station and the ruins of a monastery founded by a 6th-century hermit who lived in a cave. (Sagittarius can get behind living in a cave.) Sagittarius, ruled by Jupiter, is the zodiac’s great explorer, always chasing the edge of the map, and this island doesn’t mark the end of the known world, but the start of the quasi-fictional one. To visit Montecristo is to cross into something fabled, and Sagittarians were born for the story.
Montecristo
CAPRICORN
Capricorn is a perfect match for ELBA, the largest island in the Tuscan Archipelago, which Napoleon Bonaparte turned into a miniature empire during his exile in 1814. The little ruler arrived dethroned, defeated, and supposedly humiliated. In classic Capricorn form, however, he treated exile not as failure, but as a project. He reorganized the island’s administration, overhauled its legal code, built schools, repaired roads, and established a small standing army. He even created a flag for Elba, marked with golden bees for industriousness and immortality (traits Capricorns aspire to). All that in just ten months. That’s Capricorn energy in its purest form: take a setback, turn it into a system. Elba itself is also resilient terrain. It’s layered in granite and iron, minerals that have been quarried here since Etruscan times and which you can still smell on some beaches. Hiking trails crisscross the spine of Monte Capanne, offering dizzying views and steep, satisfying climbs. Old mines have become snorkeling coves. Ruled by Saturn, Capricorn believes that endurance is the highest form of success. By that metric, Elba is success incarnate.
Elba; Photo by Paul Cuad
AQUARIUS
Aquarius is the rebel intellectual of the zodiac, always decades ahead of the curve, and FILICUDI, one of the smallest and most remote of the Aeolian Islands, speaks this air sign’s language. There are no streetlights and barely 300 residents, but scattered among the donkey paths and crumbling terraces is a top contemporary art gallery showing international names (Studio Casoli). Thanks to the gallery’s artistic sensibility, ideas float more freely in Filicudi and conversations go deep fast, in an Aquarian kind of way. It’s radical chic to the max. Filicudi has always drawn the kinds of people, like Aquarians, who seek (or are forced to seek) something other than the status quo: archaeologists, expats, conceptual artists, political exiles. In the 1970s, it was used to imprison mafiosi and anarchists alike. Today, it still attracts an independent-minded crowd that any Aquarius would fit into. Filicudi is deeply analog and somehow totally plugged in—off-grid while also being on-grid, which is about as Aquarius as it gets.
Filicudi
PISCES
Pisces is a dreamer, and FAVIGNANA is the dream. A butterfly-shaped island floating off the coast of western Sicily, the largest of the Egadi Islands, Favignana is all watercolor softness with pale cliffs, turquoise bays, and faded orange rooftops. This water sign is always hovering somewhere between worlds, and myth has also always clung to Favignana. The island exists in that same in-between. It’s rugged but delicate, sun-bleached but cinematic—recently cast in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming The Odyssey, starring Zendaya and Matt Damon. Some scholars believe Homer meant Favignana when he described Odysseus’s detour to the “goat island.” Pisces is ruled by Neptune, god of the sea, and Favignana has always relied on its watery surroundings. For centuries, the island revolved around the mattanza, the ritualized spring tuna harvest, which the Florio family industrialized in the 19th century, turning Favignana into the tuna capital of Italy. At the end of the day, Favignana understands that beauty and melancholy can share the same tide—something Pisces has always known.
Cala Rossa, Favignana
