Italy has some pretty spectacular volcanoes. Read on.....
Stromboli
Climbing Stromboli was absolutely spectacular, mostly because we summited in the dark, and the small eruptions against the night sky were beautiful. But a lot can be said about the approach by boat: my husband took the photo at right from the ferry.
Stromboli
Climbing Stromboli was absolutely spectacular, mostly because we summited in the dark, and the small eruptions against the night sky were beautiful. But a lot can be said about the approach by boat: my husband took the photo at right from the ferry.
Getting There
After getting ourselves to the Sicilian city of Milazzo, we took an hour-long ferry to the island of Lipari. We stayed in Lipari a few days and enjoyed the beaches before taking another ferry to Stromboli. You can also get to Stromboli from Naples or Palermo by boat in several hours.
Climbing It
The only legal way to go up Stromboli is on a guided tour, and there are two companies on the island that run them.
To address the obvious implication: when you get to the top you may see people who have climbed up on their own to camp for a night, but it's dangerous. Beyond the clearly bad idea of camping next to an active volcano, there is also a colony of rats living up there, feeding off tourist garbage. Evidently the route down has some sheer drop cliffs, too, so independent climbers try to follow a group down.
The tours run in the summer, and either begin at dusk and descend in the dark (5 pm - midnight); or they begin in the dark with a dawn descent (midnight - dawn). We chose the 5 pm start option, and got back to the bottom about 1.30 am.
It was about 3 hours of strenuous uphill hiking, so we needed proper hiking boots, layers of clothing, and we carried lots of water. Climbing Stromboli is one of the best activities I've ever done in Italy, and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants an active component to their vacation.
Etna
Mount Etna is Europe's highest volcano, and is also located in Sicily, next to the city of Catania. I climbed Etna in the early 90's, and I remember it taking about half a day. My main memory of Etna, apart from being at the top and seeing it smoke the entire time, is running down through the lava, which is essentially like running downhill in 1-foot-deep garden mulch. Fun, but hard on the ankles!
Etna is free to climb, you don't need a guided tour, and you can stay in Catania. Here's some good info on climbing Etna.
Mt. Vesuvius
I haven't climbed Mt. Vesuvius, though I know it can be done. It's famous for erupting in 79 A.D. and burying the famous city of Pompeii.
Photos by Sanjay
Let Italy Beyond the Obvious plan your trip: see the sample itinerary or learn more.
script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js">
