Stromboli

Day 9: We say goodbye to Tina, Christiana, and Sergio, but can't find Marusca. The boat arrives, and the boys are excited to be once again on the boat that jumps up out of the water, aka a hydrofoil.

Stromboli at night (from Geology.com)

On arriving, after dropping off our things, we try to hike up the mountain, in the soft volcanic rich black soil. After being overtaken by a couple of guided tour groups, Marie is embarrassed, and wants to go back down before we're reported for taking children unguided up a volcano. Louis went click, click with his postcard, photographing everything, just like papa, but we didn't get close to seeing the molten lava fly. After being Robin, he wants to be now known as Brocoli Moo Cow.

During dinner though, we 4 big orange flashes and 2 to 3 times, the red hot rocks flew up high. The boys make friends with Mateo, who invited them in for his mum's birthday cake. Her hubby is a volcanologist from Palermo. Watching the volcano is like watching the cricket, but without the action replay after you missed the action. Nothing much happens for a good while between events.

Day 10: we decide to stay one more day to try to see the volcano. We walk around the whitewashed homes. The boys play on the black sand beach. We go home to sleep.

In the afternoon, we climb to about 400m by 7.30 at night. The volcano is about 700m, and if you have a guide, you can go to 900m and look down on it. We have a clear view from below. When it blows properly, it covers it's entire peak in bright orange. The rocks bounce down the scree slope and splash into the sea. It'd be interesting to see a fresh ocean quenched rock. The smaller lava fountain gushes like a candle fire cracker, which is exciting, until you realise the main one is a lot lot bigger.

We freeze our arses off to have dinner in the wind at about 200m, with clear views up to the volcano. We get to see it erupt a few more times. The waiter pokes her head out the door at odd times to see if we're ok, but doesn't want to come out.