The main focus is Lipari Town, the archipelago's principal transport hub and the nearest thing that islanders have to a capital city. A busy little port with a pretty, pastel-coloured seafront and plenty of accommodation, it makes the most convenient base for island hopping. Away from the town, Lipari reveals a rugged and typically Mediterranean landscape of low-lying macchia (dense shrubland), silent, windswept highlands, precipitous cliffs and dreamy blue waters.