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Mount Etna towers over the Italian isle of Sicily as the tallest volcano in Europe – and maybe the grumpiest, given its regular eruptions. The island peak has been highly active for maybe half a million years and can still be counted on for amazing eruptions every few years. This photograph shows Etna erupting in 2013. Well over twice the height of Vesuvius – the mainland mount that flattened Pompeii two millennia ago – Etna has an even older reputation. Its written history goes back as far as 1500 BCE, with old poets like Hesiod, Aeschylus and Virgil all writing of its frequent fireworks.
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