So when I casually mentioned to a group of people that I was prepared for a mild disaster with supplies that let me cook some extremely simple meals—like boiling pasta and heating up a can of tomatoes, it seemed like there was a collective feeling of surprise.
Having grown up in such an earthquake-prone country as Japan has apparently given me permanent alertness to disasters, which made me anxious in a country like Italy, which has no everyday practice of preparing for them. At the very least, I wanted to have some essentials handy for my own peace of mind.
Speaking of disasters, both Japan and Italy are countries where you need to consider the possibility of the volcanic eruption.
What’s interesting is that while some volcanic incidents in Italy are similar to those in Japan, others are very different. One of the similarities is the relationship between lava and volcanic ash and the local cuisine.
As an aside, Mt. Vesuvius is a dormant volcano located in the Naples suburbs. Around 600,000 people live right around it, and because it’s only about ten kilometers from Naples, about 30 million people are in the danger zone. Mt. Vesuvius is considered to be the most dangerous volcano in Europe, and as such has one of the most extensive evacuation plans in the world. But because this massive group evacuation plan calls for getting 600,000 people out within 72 hours, there are many who feel it is little more than fantasy.
Many of the people who live in the danger zone do not grasp the risk of eruption, blithely assuming that the volcano is safe because it hasn’t erupted in a few decades. So it’s questionable just how smoothly the evacuation would actually go once instructions were issued. There are also many structures illegally built near the mouth and measures to remove them from the danger zone are not consistently enforced—highlighting the fact that many people living around the volcano are not actually part of the evacuation plans.
Meanwhile, there is a volcanic island in northern Sicily called Stromboli that experiences regular small-scale eruptions.
The volcano has become well-known, and tourists can take nighttime pleasure cruises around the island to see the eruptions, the lava flowing down the slopes, and the fire shooting out of the top. They also have what they call “volcanic trekking” guided tours where people hike up close to the mouth—where they can hear the rumbling of the eruptions and see the fire shooting out of the volcano from up close. It’s one of the most unique sightseeing thrills in the world. There was a time when you could hike up without a guide, but they tightened their safety measures and started requiring guides after a major eruption occurred in 2019 where hikers near the mouth were engulfed in smoke and volcanic bombs. The fact that it was only in 2019 that they changed their policy makes it pretty shocking that they let people freely enter the danger zone for so many years, doesn’t it?
