While visiting Castellamare last week I climbed up Mt Vesuvius with Brian Weaver from Virginia Beach and Nicholas Girard who is a missionary based in Sorrento. It is only about a 40 minute walk from the car park to the top. The views are great, despite the haze, and it was cool to be up a live volcano (it was on my life goals list – so I can cross that one off!)

Mt Vesuvius, on the coast of the Bay of Naples about nine kilometres east of Naples and a short distance from the shore, is the only volcano on the European mainland to have erupted within the last hundred years.

Mount Vesuvius is best known for its eruption in AD 79 that led to the destruction of the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum and the death of 10,000 to 25,000 people. It has erupted many times since and is today regarded as one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because of the population of 3,000,000 people living nearby and its tendency towards explosive eruptions. It is the most densely populated volcanic region in the world.

There have been many documented eruptions since the one that deestroyed Pompeii. The eruption of 1906 was particularly destructive, killing over 100 people and ejecting the most lava ever recorded from a Vesuvian eruption. Its last major eruption to date came in March 1944, destroying the villages of San Sebastiano al Vesuvio, Massa di Somma, Ottaviano, and part of San Giorgio a Cremano, as well as all 88 planes in a U.S. B-25 bomber group as World War II continued to rage in Italy.
From 6 January to 23 February 1944, lava flows appeared within the rim and there were outflows. The activity paused on 23 February and resumed on 13 March. Small explosions then occurred until the major explosion took place on 18 March 1944.


Over the past few centuries, the quiet stages have varied from 18 months to 7½ years, making the current lull in activity the longest in nearly 500 years. While Vesuvius is not thought likely to erupt in the immediate future, the danger posed by future eruptions is seen as very high in light of the volcano's tendency towards sudden, extremely violent explosions, and the very dense human population on and around the mountain. There are emergency plans to evacuate 600,000 people in the case of another eruption. Unfortunately the plan requires 20 days to carry out and the hope is there will be 3 weeks warning of such an eruption.