Etna, Stromboli, Lipari — July 2022.
The brochures show Sicily on fire: Etna spitting red at night, Stromboli erupting. I didn't see that fire. Etna was just a black mass in the mist. We walked on it in a line, tiny. The volcano smoked in the distance and never showed its lava. What was left was the sea around the islands: a rock with a lighthouse, a cargo ship at anchor, the sun dropping into the water. The only fire I saw was the sunset. The mountain kept the rest.
