Etna is the most active volcano in Europe, with 170 catalogued eruptions and documented activity reaching back to 1500 BCE, and it was erupting again in 2026. Most of that activity is mild, but the mountain has turned destructive before: in 1669 a flank eruption sent lava through the walls of Catania and on into the sea. Today around a million people live on Etna's slopes, and its ash routinely closes Catania-Fontanarossa, one of Italy's busiest airports.
For a risk reader Etna is a lesson in the gap between frequency and severity. The everyday eruptions are harmless; the tail risk is civic. Persistent lava flows and Strombolian activity threaten property and aviation far more often than life, yet Italy's volcanic and seismic exposure sits largely outside private insurance, so the cost of a rare damaging event falls on the state and on households. A working volcano beside a major city concentrates people, infrastructure and insured assets in exactly the place a moderate eruption does the most harm.