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With its 3300m in altitude, Monte Etna is Europe’s highest active volcano, dominating the whole of Sicily. The volcano covers an area of 1600 sq km, has a diameter of 44km and a base circumference of some 160. The height of the upper crater is currently around 3340m, though this varies considerably with lava build-up. Views from the summit can range as far as 240km.

At present four craters are active on the summit: the North East, the Bocca Nuova (new mouth), the South East and the Voragine (chasm); while around 320 secondary or adventive cones dot the slopes, witnesses to recurrent decentralised activity.

The first recorded eruption, and possibly the most violent, occurred in 475 BC, though a subsequent episode in 396 BC was evidently of mammoth proportions as it obstructed the progress of the Carthaginian army. Over 250 more have since followed, often catastrophic events such as in 1669 when 15 villages were obliterated and Catania was inundated by lava, which reached the sea and resulted in a 2km extension of the coastline. Over the last 30 years there has been an eruption every three years on average, for a duration between a few hours to a matter of years. The explosive activity has become Strombolian in nature, namely small explosive eruptions and often accompanied by spectacular lava fountaining. Noteworthy recent flows include that of 1985, which cut across the road from Nicolosi, and the 1991 streams which threatened Zafferana Etnea. Moreover the 1991–93 period meant over 250 cubic metres of lava over 473 days. In late 1999 a voluminous river of lava from the Bocca Nuova made its way down the western flanks in the direction of the township of Bronte. On the other hand the extended 2000–2003 eruptions made headlines all over the world. Columns of thick smoke and ash of biblical dimensions towered into the sky, showing up on satellite pictures – and incidentally closing Catania’s airport. A new mouth opened up, discharging mammoth amounts of lava in a sluggish but destructive red-black river north-northeast that slowly submerged the northern resort of Piano Provenzana. Fortunately there have been few victims; life-threatening explosions are rare and the creeping lava flows are slow enough to give people time to evacuate their homes.