Even from some distance – and via a wide-angle, short lens – Mt Etna is very obviously big.
South of the Alps, Europe-proper has no higher mountain.
Etna is circa 1.5 times higher than Australia-proper’s highest mountain.
Unlike Kosciusko’s, from some vantage points, Etna’s full height is easily viewed, from sea to summit.
Europe’s highest and most active volcano has been active for around 500,000 years.
The “round trip” around its east Sicilian base is a walk of circa 150 kilometres.
In various ways, Etna “rules” its surrounds very much more than does any Australian mountain.
This post’s and the next post’s featured images were both taken within a short walking distance of Taormina’s so-called “Greek” theatre.
Very few of the world’s theatres are its peer in terms of “sublime location”.
Originally – in the third century BCE – it really was a Greek amphitheatre, carved out of the hill on which it sits.
Subsequently, it was much-modified by Roman conquerors.
In more recent centuries it has “enjoyed” various forms of neglect, destruction/pillaging, and restoration/modification.
You will get to see it, later in this series.
(photo is ©️ Doug Spencer, taken in Taormina at 10.04 am on 3 October 2023)