The first thing that amazed me about Naples was the volcano.
I didn't realize it would be right there, looming over Naples, ... and the people of Naples.
I hadn’t expected to be able to see the mountain. ... but seeing it is nothing. People here
feel it!
“People always on edge here,” Renato and Adrienne told us how that volcano has so strongly influenced the peoples of the region, has made such an effect on their psyche. Its most famous eruption was on August 24th A.D. 79. That was 1,934 years ago, but to hear our hosts tell how it still influences the psychology of the local people, you’d think that it only happened a couple years ago.
It’s predicted that the next explosion will be like 4 nuclear bombs. But scientists can’t predict which direction it will ‘fire’ into. “People are always on edge here,” Renato says. And he suspects it’s in large part because of this...
Goethe called Vesuvius “a peak of Hell rising out of Paradise.”
“Why do they keep building there, then?” They must feel it is worth it, important to them, to stay, despite the knowledge, at least the idea, of an imminent repeat.
Vesuvius has erupted many times since 79 AD, and is the only volcano on the European mainland to have erupted within the last hundred years. Today, it is 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 (Plinian) eruptions. It is the most densely populated volcanic region in the world.[4]—Wikipedia, Vesuvius
Since 79 AD, the volcano has also erupted repeatedly, in 172, 203, 222, possibly 303, 379, 472, 512, 536, 685, 787, around 860, around 900, 968, 991, 999, 1006, 1037, 1049, around 1073, 1139, 1150, and there may have been eruptions in 1270, 1347, and 1500.[17] The volcano erupted again in 1631, six times in the 18th century, and eight times in the 19th century (notably in 1872), and in 1906, 1926, 1929, and 1944.
1872 was 3 years before Feliciano was born.
And the 1906 eruption, must have been quite a disruption...
and for Feliciano and Carmela 1906 must have been Quite a Year!
