On our last full day in Sicily, we wound our way up the road to Mount Etna. The ski resort there wasn’t exactly what I had imagined for Aetna, the volcanic forge of Hephaestus and his cyclopean servants, positioned above the monstrous, flame-spewing Typhon. I mean, it’s still an active volcano now! Come on, people. The entire image of the place just seemed so far removed from the classical representation of raw destructive power. In a world where its volcanic rock is utilized for construction in the nearby Catania, it seems that Etna is no longer the fearsome icon it used to be.
