Sicily June 2,2025 🌋

June 03, 2025

On my all-time list of things I thought I’d never do in my lifetime, sitting on a bus driving TOWARD an erupting volcano would be pretty high up there…. but after today I have to rearrange my list. As possible retribution for my disparaging Mt. Vesuvius in my Facebook post, Mt. Etna decided to go off today during our shore excursion to Catania. We pulled into a gas station to take some great pictures of the early part of the eruption.

It seems as if Sicilians have learned to coexist with this flatulent mountain without any great amount of concern. After the picture-taking opportunity, we drove on to our destination which was on the other side of the volcano. In Catania, life carried on as normal. The eruption drew as much attention as an ocean breeze or the arrival of daylight savings time. It was left to us, the tourists, to generate any level of concern about the situation. Still, we spent our allotted period of time exploring the city, taking our pictures and supporting the gelato merchants. On the return trip, our tour guide shared with us some photos and video clips sent to her by one of her colleagues who was actually on the mountain conducting a tour when the eruption occurred. There were a lot people up there while Etna was spewing, and in one of the videos someone near the videographer had a moment of inspiration and decided to yell, “Run!” This produced a flurry of activiity that can only be reproduced by the sorts of folks that I’ve had to line up behind at the buffet.

The good news is that Mt. Etna is a benevolent volcano, as volcanos go, and has reputedly never killed anyone. I believe all of the people in the video waddled their way to safety.

Once all passengers were back aboard our ship, we set sail for Malta. This meant sailing right past Etna again, providing us an amazing sunset vista complete with ash cloud. We feel pretty awestruck to have been witness to today’s events.