Majesty

by Giacomo Pellizzari, translated by Gillian Shaw (original article)

The Stelvio – who is that?
Of course, now that Alfa Romeo has named a car after it, everyone knows what ‘The Stelvio’ is. A bewitching mountain with all the required ingredients to strike terror and to make history. A kind of pagan temple shrouded between the clouds of Mount Ortler and the glaciers of Monte Cevedale.  An impossible dream, a surfaced route that goes straight from Austria to Italy. From Vienna, down to Milan. A non-stop road, that takes the most direct course. But before that, who knew what the Stelvio was?
It took an Italian engineer – the best there was – to build this road at the behest of Emperor Franz I. The Austrians would only have the best, after all. His name was Carlo,

Etna calls, ‘El Pistolero’ replies.

By Giacomo Pellizzari, translated by Gillian Shaw (original article)

Below the volcano.
They call her Mungibeddu. And she always does things big. She wasn’t messing around even with this year’s eruption. The road that goes up to the Sapienza di Nicolosi mountain hut has never been the same. It has to be sorted out every time Mungibeddu has some fun with volcanic rock and rivers of molten lava. Her summit craters are vast and immense, true. But the most dangerous at least for the road, are the fissures, that open up like rifts going right down into the valley. Someone was hurt this year while they were out on a trip and playing – a little too much – with fire.

At the top of Etna, there used to be a tower. It was called the Philosopher’s Tower and