Itinerario, o Vero Nova Descrittione de’ Viaggi Principali d’Italia

1670

de Beer Itb 1670 S

[Padua]: Mattio Cadorin

The rugby ball to mainland Italy’s ‘boot’, Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean and is surrounded by three seas – the Tyrrhenian (north), the Mediterranean (south-west) and the Ionian (south-east). Volcanic Mount Etna sits on the east coast of the island, close to the towns of Messina and Catania. In 1669 Catania, 29 kilometres away from Etna, was obliterated by an eruption which killed 20,000 people. Surprisingly there are now two ski resorts and a visitors’ centre on Etna even though the mountain still regularly erupts. There were twenty eruptions in 2013, with fiery ash and noxious fumes spewing forth into the air. It can be quite a spectacular sight at night.