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No other European volcano spews lava as often as Stromboli on the Italian island of the same name in the Mediterranean. At the crater, our author Gunnar Herbst was overcome by humility. A field report with travel tips.
First it thunders, then it rustles loudly, as if a deity took a deep breath. Lava shoots into the air and rains down onto the black crater floor, where it slowly burns up and solidifies. In between, chimneys are steaming. And it dawns on city slickers like me that only a thin layer of earth and illusion separates us from the underworld. And that we are at the mercy of forces much stronger than us.