So, you think you have airport travel problems.....

....come to Sicily. Our favorite local volcano, Mt. Etna, is spewing ash and it forced the shutdown of Catania airport on Friday night and also Saturday night. Here's what it looked like from downtown Catania.

Pretty cool, huh? Mt. Etna has been rather active this year and earlier in the month, you could see the lava following down the side of the volcano at night. Fortunately, there was no danger to the cities that are located on the sides of the volcano. Catania has been destroyed by lava about six times in it's history (about 4500 BC, 693 BC, 425 BC, 252 AD, in the 12th century and 1669 AD), so I guess we are due for another good one. I guess it's time to start stocking up on marshmallows.

P.S. In case anyone wants to know more about the volcano, I posted a report here of a hike I took during the summer.