The bizarre hallucinogenic past of Italy’s Alicudi island

THE Italian island north of Sicily has a pristine coastline and untouched shores. It also has a bizarre hallucinogenic past.

THE remote Italian island of Alicudi makes the perfect spot to escape.

There are no roads, no shops, no bars and no crowds — just the pristine coastline of the Tyrrhenian Sea, thousands of stone steps, a few donkeys to haul your luggage, a few local fisherman and a lot of rugged charm.

Alicudi is smallest and least populated of the Aeolian islands, north of Sicily. There is only one restaurant, two grocery stores, a newsagent and a souvenir shop. It is the ultimate off-the-beaten path, unplugged and untouched travel experience.

When you visit Alicudi you experience a simple way of life, long forgotten elsewhere.

But the isolated island getaway holds a very trippy secret. It involves hallucinogenic bread and evil sorceresses.

Narrow alley on Alicudi island. Eolie archipelago. Sicily. Italy

For centuries, according to CNN Travel, villagers were fed on “crazy rye” — bread made by local housewives which was unknowingly contaminated by a mind-blowing fungus called “ergot”, fostered by the humid weather conditions.

Ergot is the base element of the hallucinogenic drug LSD.

Up until as recently as the 1950s, oblivious island dwellers were getting high without even knowing it.

“It was a diet mistake, a bad eating habit triggered by poverty, isolation and ignorance of hygiene,” local historian Pino La Greca told CNN .

“The first harvests were scarce and food was precious so nothing was thrown away, even rotten bread and pasta covered in mould were eaten.

“Scarcity of other alternative food sources and humidity produced this nasty fungus that when ingested caused mass hallucinations, hysteria, hypnosis and autosuggestion.”

View from Lipari island on Salina, Filicudi and Alicudi islands.

Because of the daily mind-blowing trips, legends then evolved of flying women, dubbed “maiara”, meaning “sorceress” in Aeolian dialect.

There are ancient stories of these wicked sorceresses straddling the bows of fishing boats to make them sink, or casting evil spells on enemies. Tales of men being turned into donkeys, cows and pigs were shared among the villagers.

“These people were on a LSD-induced trip 24/7, they spoke to each other and shared their visions, making real what was only in their minds,” La Greca said.

Boats on beach of Alicudi island of Eolie archipelago. Sicily. Italy

But for some locals, the legends are real. Peppino Taranto, the owner of the island’s only hotel, Ericusa, loved listening to the village elders share their visions as a child.

“These are not fairytales,” he told CNN.

“A bishop told me these people had made a pact with the devil in order to possess magical powers and fly, just like Simon the Sorcerer had done to confront St. Peter in the New Testament. He was Christianity’s first heretic who Dante placed in the Divine Comedy’s Inferno.”

He believes the last flying “maiara” died in 1948.

Tree and boat on Alicudi island. Eolie archipelago. Sicily. Italy

But whether you believe it or not, the island embraces its mascot of sorts. There are painted murals of flying ladies dressed in long black robes with their hair blowing in the wind, and tourists can buy T-shirts with the “maiara” logo.