Punta dell'Omo

Seeing a volcano erupting has been high on my bucket list for a long time! The closest I’d been had been in Guatemala where a nighttime hike was possible but I’d chosen not to at the time. Since then it’s been a massive regret that I missed the chance so to get another opportunity it was not to be missed. Fortunately, we were able to book a full-day return trip out to the island that would provide a nighttime vantage point from on the water.

We left mid-morning for a 2-hour trip out to the nearby Panarea island where we stayed for a few hours before continuing on to Stromboli. The initial view of the island showed it to be a perfect conical volcano emerging from the water to a smoking crater at the top. It is known to be the most active volcano in Europe with mini eruptions occurring every 20 minutes or less. The mindblowing thing is there is a full village on one side along the coast. Established as what appeared to be a fishing village it was obviously a popular tourist stopover as well. From the port where we arrived, we were surprised to see the majority of the slope up to the peak covered in lush green vegetation. While the summit showed evidence of some lava flows down this side, it didn’t appear to be that active at all.

From a bit of research, I could see there was a track that scaled up this side to an observation point into the crater. With only 2 hours until our boat would depart again, we started calculating the time needed to run the summit and back in time. To my despair, we were dropped an extra half-hour walk away from the actual trail start point. So our plan fell apart before it even began.

Once back on the boat, we started the cruise around the island right at sunset. The opposite side of the volcano couldn’t have been more of a contrast. Like someone had drawn a line down the side, the lush green was replaced by an entire blackened face. Known as Sciara del Fuoco, which translates as the fire pit, it was clear evidence of the constant flow of lava and ash that came down this side. As the boat positioned itself with a clear view of the crater we experienced the first of a handful of eruptions. Even from this distance (approx 4km) the eruption was surreal. After about an hour of watching multiple eruptions, we departed for the trip back to Milazzo and happily ticked that from the bucket list.Read more