Seriously now. Etna beats Stromboli on all scales of awe, hands down... But for catching a volcano in the act, Stromboli is brilliant. (Mt Vesuvius just scares the crap out of me. The countdown to catastrophe is running...)
Visits to Stromboli are a bit more micro-managed since the northern flank partially collapsed and resulting mini-tsunamis wrecked parts of the main village in December 2002. The volcano itself is still very regular, Europe's best equivalent of ye Old Faithful geyser. It's the accessibility to the viewpoint that has become more variable, depending on the wiliness of the volcano.
Eruptions of Vesuvius always were dramatic, destructive and very sudden prior to the lull since ~1944 - and now for the worrying bit: the period of quiescence is one of the volcano's longest in recent history.
Of course Vesuvius could also sleep for another 200, 400, 500 years.
There is an evacuation plan which looks fine - on paper. What struck me immediately when I first read about it, is that it is run on the 1631 eruption - which was not by any standard the most severe eruption, and I'm not the only one to point that out.
Or am I a doom-monger now? Though everyone seems to love doom-p0rn these days.
Link? Would be very interested. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
