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. Vulcanois 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)
Location: 38.4
degrees N, 15.0 degrees E
Elevation: 499 metersMonte Aria
Area: 21 square kilometres (8 square miles)
It was once called
'Hierà " (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.
;
Live webcam of Vulcano - click on "Webcam"(http://www.ct.ingv.it/UfMoni/) You can visit Vulcano as a
daytrip from {Lipari} - there is no real infrastructure for staying on the
island
Beaches and
BathingIn 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 seaâ€; 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 areSpiaggia 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 big Crater
The small Crater of Vulcanello, and the near Monster
Valley
