Mount Etna, in Sicily.

It’s a potential touristic indulgence for the natural wonders of erupting volcanos.  And Mount Etna erupted during the only time I went to visit my relatives in Sicily.

Hmm, I seem to have a nasty habit of visiting disaster zones – such as Kosovo.

The eruption I witnessed occurred in 2002.

Here is a picture I took of Mount Etna spewing it’s guts up from the nearby town of Giarre-Riposto, not far from the main centre of Catania.

The name of Giarre-Riposto is derived from the word giare, which means jars.  The village is conveniently situated at the eastern base of Mount Etna and the Mediterranean, probably the grumpiest volcano in the universe.

At the time, Mount Etna was inactive for three years, until it decided putting on a spectacular show just for me.  Etna had obviously been waiting for me to discover my Sicilian roots before it decided to make millions of other Sicilians nervous for the first time since 1999.

Etna slowly filled the sky with its poisonous ash, gradually changing the sky from light blue to dark grey.  This phenomena looked like an ominous sign, but I’d not sighted the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse bursting through Etna’s cone to ride down the rivers of previous lava flows.

It looked like the end of the world was beginning right here, right now.

The night before I left, Etna dumped the proverbial load of ash on Giarre-Riposto, covering the cars and streets in dusty black powder.  The following morning, old women busily swept the fine black powder off their footpaths and into the now black gutters.

Here are some photos:

I was amazed at this sight as I kicked up black dust walking along the footpath, breathing this respirable crap into my lungs that made my breathing organs resemble those of an underground coal miner or a pack-a-day smoker.

So I highly recommend NOT to visit Mount Etna when it is erupting.

You can see more about Mount Etna in this DVD.  If you want to know how to survive a volcano eruption, then check out The Ultimate Survival Skills Guide.

Other things to do in Italy after watching Mount Etna erupt – visit the mummies of Venzone or watch some crappy Italian Television.

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Cobbler.

This term is almost extinct.  Basically, a Cobbler is a person who repairs shoes, rather than making them.  Since we live in a throwaway society, most of us purchase a set of new shoes produced in a sweatshop somewhere instead of having them repaired.

Hence, the demand for Cobblers has almost disappeared.

However, they are still out there – and one of them was my Great Uncle, Zio Giuseppe.  He’s passed away now, but he used to live in a small village north of Catania, in Sicily.  He was my Grandad’s brother and was the prime example of working past the retiring age of 65, and having a Job For Life.

I’ve included photos of him and his shop below.

When I visited him in 2002, he had reached 87 not out and was still working five days a week, still doing the same Cobbler job continuously in the same, old, rustic, dusty shop for over 60 years.  A Job for Life is now a thing of the past  – more the domain of the Baby Boomer generation.  Generation Y is expected to have up to 30 jobs throughout their career.

But imagine having the same job for over 60 years.

I thought of suggesting Zio Giuseppe as a case study of how to combat Australia’s skills shortage to the Prime Minister, as a model convincing Australia’s ageing population to work until they die.

From what I deciphered amongst the cobwebs, the only change I accounted for over the years were his prices.  These were hand written in his Sicilian chicken scratch on the crumbling walls – the old Italian Lire prices were crossed out and had been converted to the equivalent price in Euros, without taking advantage of the price inflations Euro conversions had caused in all of the European Union since the introduction of the currency that sounded like a cheap three cylinder car.

Even though the price list was probably the newest item in his cobblers shop, it still had a romantic and antiquated feel about it.  He even had a steady stream of customers that must have been loyal for decades, and had a large backlog of repairs to go through.

I thought his shop was fantastic – completely unpretentious and understated, and a refreshing change from large multinational shops that seem to dominate many western societies.

Other things to do in Italy – check out Italian Television and the Worst Drivers In The World.

You never know, you might find a Cobbler near you!

But haven’t been convinced to become one myself, so I’m not buying this Men’s Polished Cobbler Belt.

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