The View from Taormina
Thirty-seven years ago, a friend and I – he a student at Cambridge, and I a student at Oxford – met in Rome a week or two before Christmas, spent some time there, took a train to Naples, stayed a few days to see Pompeii and Herculaneum and to climb into the crater at Vesuvius, then took another train towards Sicily, jumped off to see Paestum, hopped on the next train, and arrived in Palermo on Christmas morning.
A week or so thereafter, after visiting Agrigento and Syracusa and viewing the ancient remains, we found ourselves in Taormina on the slopes of Mt. Etna. A storm had shut down electricity on the island. We toured the ancient sites during the day, read Thucydides in Greek and Horace in Latin in the early evening by candlelight, dined at a restaurant that cooked its food with wood, and drank a great deal of wine.
It all came back to me tonight (it seems like yesterday) as I looked at pictures taken from Taormina of the volcanic eruption that has just taken place on Mt. Etna – the development of which you can watch in the video above. Events like this are reminder of the fragility of our existence on this earth – a fact that we all know and rarely reflect on.
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Dec '10
Re: The View from Taormina
And now they say that when Vesuvius blows, it could take all of Naples and even Capri with it.
And the supervolcano under Yellowstone could cover the entire eastern two-thirds of the continental US with volcanic ash and debris -- it's a few thousands of years overdue for its regular catastrophic eruption.
I think that most people don't really know how fragile the existence of humankind on the Earth's crust really is. All of our recorded history falls in a time of relative geothermal quiet and warm temperatures, and we don't have a collective memory of a supervolcano eruption or an Ice Age turning entire continents into barren wastelands.
May '10
Re: The View from Taormina
Stuart Creque:
I think that most people don't really know how fragile the existence of humankind on the Earth's crust really is. All of our recorded history falls in a time of relative geothermal quiet and warm temperatures, and we don't have a collective memory of a supervolcano eruption or an Ice Age turning entire continents into barren wastelands. · Jan 13 at 4:36pm
That's how I felt after the Iceland volcano last year. Reflections on this will find you eventually.
Paul A. Rahe:
Sep '10
Re: The View from Taormina
I lived in Catania, Sicily for the past 2 years and recently moved to Naples. My friends down in Sicily said it was quite the show - small amount of ash spread on the streets and cars, but nothing horrible. As long as Etna is doiing something to relieve the pressure everyone breathes easy. With the way Naples has built up around Vesuvius, though, a significant eruption would cause major problems here.
Sep '10
Re: The View from Taormina
Goodness...The memories this brings to mind. In 2002 my wife and I (and friends) spent two weeks in Italy, including 5 days in Sicily. The two high points by far were having Thanksgiving dinner (wine, various cheeses and cured meats, bread, and more wine) on the ruins at Agrigento. This included yet more wine while watching the sun set over the sea, right behind some temple columns. The second was our trip to Taormina. While standing on the top row of the Roman amphitheatre admiring the spectacular view of Etna and the Mediterranean, we suddenly heard this beautiful voice singing. Way down on the stage area a young Japanese woman was singing a folk song in her native tongue. We could hear her perfectly despite our location. Truly amazing.
Nov '10
Re: The View from Taormina
And think, that little erruption there probably undid all the carbon savings Italy has been doing for the past decade.
Oh well.