I have always loved volcanoes! Once at school we mixed bicarbonate of soda and red paint made it erupt. At home I shaped a wire mesh frame and made a volcano with layers of ash, sand and stones. I have read volcano books, studied them at school, watched videos, and even used to make my mashed potato into volcanoes with tomato ketchup squirted into the vents! We were going to climb Stromboli, Europe’s most active volcano , constantly erupting lava! In strong boots we set off in the evening. Stromboli was constantly puffing, but as darkness fell, there was red glow too. After 2 hours of very hard, tiring ascent we reached the summit. The sun set , the smoke cleared, and we saw 500m below a bubbling red dragon’s lair. With a whoosh, a red hot fountain of lava shot into the night’s sky, seemed to hang there for a while before falling back gracefully into the lava lake. For an hour I feasted my eyes on the fiery activity, holding my breathe with each new fountain. Finally it was time to retreat back to humanity below. We turned our headtorches on, and ran down the loose ash scree slopes of the volcano. 20 minutes down 2 hours up!
It was a magical, inspiring evening. What an amazing world we live in!
If you fancy this then I would really recommend the Hotel Ossidaina, just below the volcano and only 200m form the where the ferry stops. It is cool and clean with views out the front to the sea and black lava sand beach, and rear views to the volcano herself. Art £150 per night for a family room, its pricey but then so is most accommodation on the island. If walking the mountain is not really your choice then there are many boat trips at dusk that take you around the island to watch the red lava flowing down to the sea, or erupting in the air.
