The Gas Mask They Rent You at Ijen Does Not Stop the Gas
The mask handed over at the Ijen car park is a particulate filter, and sulphur dioxide is a gas. What the published testing says it stops, what the Indonesian observatory recommends instead, and the one place where the observatory and the health researchers flatly disagree.
The Best Month for Etna Is Not August, and the Italian Data Says So
Italy's own monthly series puts the year's biggest share of foreign arrivals in Sicily in September, not August. August is the Italians' month. On a mountain whose summit runs 16 °C colder than the coast, that distinction decides more than the crowd.
Five Years After the Lava Stopped: What a La Palma Volcano Visit Looks Like Now
The volcano turns five on Saturday. La Palma is still deciding, week by week, which houses people may sleep in: 1,179 properties cleared in Puerto Naos, a road built across the lava, and a bill that would close the new ground permanently.
Where You Can See Lava Right Now: Four Volcanoes, and Why Etna Is No Longer One of Them
Three weeks ago Etna belonged on this list. Its own bulletin now records degassing and no lava flow at all. Here are the four volcanoes with incandescent material on readings we could open today, and the three worth planning a trip around.
The 2,900-Metre Rule on Etna Does Not Exist. Here Is What the Ordinances Actually Say
Every operator and half the blogs on the internet repeat the same figure: above 2,900 metres on Etna you need a guide. It appears in no ordinance. What the acts regulate is a zone and an operational phase, and the number that matters is 2,500.
Mount Etna Is Erupting and You Still Will Not See Lava
Etna has been erupting since 6 August 2026, and the lava is in the Valle del Bove — on the eastern flank, behind an exclusion order, and out of sight of the cable car that most tours use. What the bulletins actually say, and what you will see if you go.