Etna, Catania-Sicily, Italy
I started in 1991 with the news ,but immediately had the chance to work on Etna: Infact ,on the 14 december 1991 a new and important eruption began which threated to destroy the town of Zafferana Etnea. It was an inspiring adventure that changed my way of looking at it, from a mere element of the natural scenery it became for me an extraordinary subject of study and of opportunities.
From that day, my professional interest for the vulcano progressively increased, aswell as my great respect for it. For those who , like me, were born and live at the roots of one of the biggest active vulcanoes in the world, the daily presence is both assuring and menacing.
Every morning I curiously gaze at it and its peak, searching for signs of change in its outbursts of candid vapours and gas that are constantly released from the summit craters. Usually there are no particular changes and almost down heartily I return to my work, but when large explosions and charges of dark vulcanic ashes are let out, suggesting the prelude of a new large eruption the excitement grows together with the fear of what is about to commence.
For thousands of years man has lived at the foot of Etna, and perhaps for thousands of years many of them have felt the same reactions: fear, terror, hate, love, curiosity, pride, reverence and impotence.
The cohabitation between man and vulcano has never been easy, and in this day and age, more than ever, it has become increasingly more difficult. Touristic settlements, located in areas with high probablities of new eruptive openings, define areas of elevated vulcanic risks. Earthquakes and eruptions occur, destroying repeatedly lift, ski lifts, hotels, restaurants and roads, but man has stubbornly, and maybe without sense, continued to rebuild in the same places, recreating a continuous duel between man and vulcano, today even more striking due to the arrogance of the “tecnological man” that dares to take on the “Giant”.