Mt. Etna was a fun way to put a top to our trip on our last full day in Italy. In addition to the great and distinct meanings the still-active volcano has inspired among Sicilians over the centuries, including among its Greeks and Romans and its more contemporary writers of modern literature, the significance of the volcano as a geological site was also intriguing to me, since just last semester I fulfilled my INS requirement with an Earth and Oceanographic Science class in which we covered volcanoes. Although I could have benefitted from brushing up on some of the course material or having Cam’s company and his EOS knowledge, I really enjoyed examining some of the rock and seeing the traces of the volcano’s wrath as the bus winded us up toward it. I pondered how exactly the physical and geological aspects of the volcano/mountain have influenced popular and literary perceptions of it, especially considering its geological and cultural connection with Mt. Vesuvius over in Naples.