Vulcano
Vulcano is famous for its
hot springs. They are located within easy walking distance from the harbor. If
you have your swimming trunks with you, you can just dip in immediately. The
water is nice and warm, you just have to pay a cheap entry fees.
You can also walk up to the crater where you will see
many places where smoke comes out of the ground. The smell of sulfur is all
around you.
Volcano: The Virtues of Secondary Volcanism
The
morphology of this island is complex and tormented and can be understood
by a clever interpretation of the landscape. The first volcanic feature
can be detected at a distance for the acrid sulfurous emanations from
the pools of thermal mud. Immediately after, the Big Crater (also called
"Fossa di Vulcano"), which is not very high (391 m above sea level),
offers a "strong" view, even if at first it seems to be in front of a
sleeping volcano.
Vulcano
is a
small volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea, about 25 km north of Sicily and the
southernmost of the Aeolian
Islands. It contains thre volcanic
centres: the first extinguished since the prehistoric age; the
second is Vulcanello
(123 metres high and dormant since 183 B.C.); the
last is Fossa di Vulcano (only the fumaroles are still active), the formerly separate islet is Vulcanello (below)
 View
of Vulcano from the island of Lipari. The green islet centre left is Vulcanello,
which is connected to Vulcano by an isthmus. The Fossa cone is immediately
behind it
Location: 38.4 degrees N, 15.0 degrees E
Elevation: 499 meters Monte
Aria
Area: 21 square kilometres (8 square miles)
It was once called 'Hierŕ" (the sacred), but
also "Termessa" or "Terrasia
Its name is a clear description of its geography: a
land of lava and fumarole, yellow sulphur rocks and black sands all worth a
visit.
For the Romans, the island of Vulcano was the habitation of the fire god
Vulcan. The Greek fire god Hephaestos maintained his chthonic forge on the
island of Lesbos.
The volcanic activity in the region is largely the result of the
northward-moving African Plate meeting the Eurasian Plate. There are at least
three volcanic centres on the island:
At the southern end of the island are old stratovolcano cones - Monte Aria
(500 m), Monte Saraceno (481 m) and Monte Luccia (188 m) - which have partially
collapsed into the Il Piano Caldera.
The most recently active centre is the Gran Cratere at the top of the Fossa
cone, the cone having grown in the Lentia Caldera in the middle of the island,
and has had at least 7 major eruptions in the last 6000 years.
At the north of the island is Vulcanello, 123 metres high, and is connected
to the rest of it by an isthmus which is flooded in bad weather. It emerged from
the sea during an eruption in 183 BC as a separate islet. Occasional eruptions
from its three cones with both pyroclastic flow deposits and lavas occurred from
then until 1550, the last eruption creating a narrow isthmus connecting it to
Vulcano.
Vulcano has been quiet since the eruption of the Fossa cone in 3 August
1888-1890, which deposited about 5 metres of pyroclastic material on the summit.
Until the end of the 19th Century the principle activity on the island was
the mining of sulphur and alum. Around 700 people live on the island, mainly
deriving their income from tourism. It is a few minutes hydrofoil ride from Lipari
and has several hotels and cafes, the important attractions being the beaches,
hot springs and sulphur mud baths.
Vulcano has contributed the words for volcano in most modern
languages.
The style of eruption seen on the Fossa cone is called a Vulcanian eruption,
being the explosive emission of pyroclastic fragments of viscous magmas caused
by the high viscocity preventing gases from escaping easily.
Links
You can visit Vulcano as a daytrip from {Lipari} -
there is no real infrastructure for staying on the island
Photos
of the Apartments
in
Vulcano
Beaches and Bathing
In Vulcano: Swimming All Year Round
Best
beach is the one at Porto Ponente Black sand beach (Sabbie Nere)
which, was formed along with Vulcanello itself. Here the sand is black, very
fine and the sea is marvellous.
The
nearby beaches are reachable by boats Cala Formaggio, Praia Longa to the south
of this beach are of great charm and beauty. A short walk will bring you to
their pebby beaches. One stretch of coastline of incomparable beauty is the one
that runs from Porto di Ponente as far as Capo Secco, with a series of
spectacular inlets and promontories.
After
the Testa Grossa promontory, you come to a grotto called the Grotta del Cavallo,
which a small boat can actually sail into. As you continue your tour of the
island, you will see the slopes of the primordial volcano, the lighthouse and a
few houses in the area of the disused landing-stage at Gelso. You make your
return south of Porto di Levante, passing by the volcanic crater on your way.
Virgil
once wrote of “ Vulcano smoking in the middle of the sea”; since the times
of the Roman poet, the peaceful island has changed very little.
The
fumaroles in the crater still give out dense clouds of sulphur dioxide.
Immediately to the north of Porto di Levante, the sea water is warmed by smaller
fumaroles (Acque Calde) that are located along the coast at a depth of up
to a few metres. In the immediate hinterland area, there are the famous
thermal springs, where you can bathe in a mixture of sea water and mud (Pozza
dei Fanghi.) at any time of year and any time of day or night.
Leaving
from Porto di Levante, you can reach the thermal springs and fumaroles in
a matter of five minutes if you follow the road that bears to the right of the
lighthouse.
Others
beautiful beaches
are Spiaggia
di Cannitello and Spiaggia
dell’Asino on the other side of the island
facing Sicily,
it's Gelso village, you can get there by bus (living from the port in Vulcano in the mornig about 9,00 and 11,00 a.m.),
or by moped.
Boat Trip In Vulcano
To the Horse’s Cave (Grotta
del Cavallo) and Venus Pool (Piscina Di Venere), Faraglioni di Lipari, Vulcano
Gelso, and to other islands.
Places of interest to discover by land
-
The small Crater of Vulcanello, and the near
Monster Valley
-
Hot Springs and Mudbahtspool
-
Capo
Grillo
-
Country side of Vulcano Piano
-
Village
of Vulcano Gelso
-
Spiagge
Nere-
Black Sand Beach
-
Spiaggia Acque Calde
-
Hot Spring Water Beach
-
Hiking to the top of Monte Aria
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