63km (40 miles) N of Milazzo, 40km (25 miles) N of Lipari.
This is the easternmost of the islands, and its volcano, whose single cone measures 926m (3,038 ft.), has caused the island to be evacuated several times. Today Stromboli maintains a small population and attracts summer visitors.
The island has two settlements. Ginostra, on the southwestern shore, is little more than a cluster of summer homes with only 15 year-round residents. Stromboli, on the northeastern shore, is a conglomeration of the villages of Ficogrande, San Vincenzo, and Piscita, where the only in-town attraction is the black-sand beach. You won't see volcanic eruptions from any of these villages, as they occur on the northwest side of the volcano.
The entire surface of Stromboli is the cone of its sluggish but still-active volcano; puffs of smoke can be seen during the day. At night along the Sciara del Fuoco (Slope of Fire), lava glows red-hot on its way down to meet the sea with a loud hiss. The main attraction is a steep, difficult climb to the lip of the 92m (302-ft.) Gran Cratere. The view of bubbling pools of ooze is accompanied by rising clouds of steam and a sulfuric stench.
The most far-flung island in the archipelago, Stromboli achieved notoriety and became a household word in the United States in 1950 with the release of the Roberto Rossellini cinéma vérité film Stromboli, starring Ingrid Bergman. The American public was far more interested in the love affair between Bergman and Rossellini than in the film. Although tame by today's standards, the affair temporarily ended Bergman's American film career, and she was even denounced on the Senate floor. Movie fans today are more likely to remember Stromboli from the film version of the Jules Verne novel Journey to the Center of the Earth, starring James Mason.
