The Lighthouse of the Mediterranean — a live volcano erupting every 20 minutes since antiquity
Stromboli is a tiny volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea that has been erupting almost continuously for over 2,000 years — earning it the nickname 'Lighthouse of the Mediterranean.' The island is a car-free black-lava paradise of whitewashed houses, bougainvillea, and black-sand beaches, with a hiking trail to the summit crater where you watch red magma explode against the night sky. It is one of the most thrilling natural spectacles in Europe.
Stromboli was inhabited since at least the Neolithic period and was known to ancient Greek and Roman sailors as a navigational landmark. The island appears in Homer's Odyssey as the island of Aeolus, god of winds. Stromboli's eruptions are the classic 'Strombolian' style — regular, rhythmic explosions of gas and lava that are dramatic but rarely dangerous to the village below. Roberto Rossellini filmed the landmark neorealist film 'Stromboli' here with Ingrid Bergman in 1949.