These islands, off the coast of Sicily, are where Frederick shakes off his pursuers, thanks to a Maltese pirate and his windmaster. The Greeks called them the Aeolian Isles, after the god of the four winds, but they are also known as the Lipari Islands. They are volcanic, as the second picture, of Stromboli, shows plainly.

Every island is as dramatically beautiful as this one.

Another of the islands is rather pointedly named Vulcano. The ancient Greeks asserted this island was the home of Haephestus and his blacksmiths. It, too, is an active volcano. An eruption in 1888 killed thousands who worked in the sulphur mines there.

In Altearth, Frederick encounters a Pisan fleet almost as soon as he leaves. Frederick has no sailing experience to speak of. Fortunately he’s with a pirate who has an accomplished windmaster. The ensuing chase travels past the tiny island of Strombolicchio (Little Stromboli).