Salina, green paradise of the Aeolian Isles, is a land of contrasts and beauty, its sweetness and ruggedness blending in a fascinating natural marriage. Didyme, the twin, as the ancient Greeks called it owing to the presence of the two peaks - Mt. Fossa delle Felci to the east, and Mt. dei Porri to the west -divided by a deep valley, preserves unequivocal traces of its volcanic origins; there are a good six volcanoes on the island, and there are various endogenous activities noticeable, including underwater gas and vapour emanation in the sea near Rinella and the thermal springs at Pertuso. The fascination of the Nature Reserve is insuperable, embracing the island's twin volcanoes: in atmospheric surroundings, lush enough to recall tropical vegetation, Mts. Porri and Fossa delle Felci are cloaked in tall poplars, mighty chestnuts, ancient oaks, incredible stretches of ferns, myrtle, strawberry-trees, mastic shrubs, spurge and broom; from the summit of Fossa delle Felci, moreover, there is a panorama sweeping from Rinella over Mt. dei Porri, Alicudi and Filicudi up to the Tyrrhenian coast of Sicily and the smoking cone of Mt. Etna. On the volcano slopes, the black, fertile soil is intensely cultivated and often terraced, so it is easy to glimpse luxuriant orchards, silvery olive plantations and magnificent vineyards through the deep green caper bushes and the prickly pears bearing their amber fruit. Finally, along the coast there are splendid coves, lovely villages with their characteristic white houses, ending at the beach. The coast itself is high and jagged, some stretches are movingly beautiful, in fact, the volcanic rocks fringing the village and beach of Pollara are the most famous.