If you want to be a volcanologist, then Italy is the place to be. Numerous areas in Italy have volcanic origins where volcanic activity occurred thousands and thousands of years ago. From the Castelli Romani area, just outside Rome, with its gorgeous volcanic lakes, Albano and Nemi – providing an excellent alternative to the not so clean seaside near the Eternal City – to the Colli Euganei near Venice and Padua, and to the island of Pantelleria, which is in fact closer to Tunis than Rome. Often these areas are covered with vineyards, as vines thrive in soils rich in potassium and other minerals left after the eruptions.

But Italy can boast a few very interesting active volcanic areas too. In fact, Vulcano, Stromboli, Etna and Vesuvius are the most famous active volcanoes on Earth. Vesuvius last erupted in 1944 but its most famous eruption is by far that of AD 79, when it destroyed Herculaneum and Pompeii the latter of which at that time had an estimated population of 20.000 people.