From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Sun Jun 15 2003 - 14:09:45 MDT
Brett Paatsch, Wed Jun 11:
>But could you *smell* anything? I imagine the dangers of
>passive smoking would take on whole new meaning as well.
Yes, you can smell sulfur. However the smell wasn't overwhelming,
probably because the viewers were (forcefully) kept far away from the
rockfalls and flows.
The sulfur smell from our viewing point wasn't as strong as the
sulfur on Etna (I hear, I still must go there) or as strong as on Vulcano
(which is overwhelming from the fumeroles and sulfur mud baths, see
below).
The visitors to the Stromboli volcano, including the
seismologists(!), who need to get to the top to retrieve their
broken equipment, are now forbidden to go to the top by the Italian
Civil Defense and the Guardia di Finanzia. They seem to think that
the biggest danger is the volcano, when actually it is the tsunamis.
The highest that the hikers are allowed to go now is halfway up to
400m. From those observational points you can still see and hear a
spectacular scene, but the smells are weak.
On Vulcano, which has been dormant for ~100 years, fumeroles of
sulfur rise all along the top of the volcano (concentric rings of
explosions). The vents are burning hot, so you don't want to get
your feet too close, or your camera lens either (corrosion). You
will find signs at the beginning of the hiking trail telling you not
to stand still or sit down, otherwise you will be overwhelmed from the
fumes. My friends with me tried an experiment dripping water onto
the hot sulfur vents to see if we could create sulfur dioxide, but
didn't notice any changes.
Down below from the Vulcano peak, you will find sulfur mud baths and
other warm bubbly pools, which are popular for health reasons- the
mud is supposed to be good for your skin and various other ailments.
It was a rare time during that trip that I wore a swimsuit, and the
sulfur smell on that suit will now linger forever (my suit is
probably destroyed). Interestingly, the sulfur stink disappears from
the skin after a good shower. The mud baths part was as fun for the
bath-watching as it was for the slimy, smelly mud. I took some
photos of the ladies (Sirens of the Mud Bath, I called them), and my
friend did too- they were wonderfully enjoying themselves. His
photos will be available at the stromboli.net web site sometime in
the next few weeks.
There were no Civil Defense or Guardia di Finanzia at Vulcano, but I
hear they are present at Etna, restricting access to the top now.
The Guardia di Finanzia (the Tax Police), did look a bit out of
place at Stromboli- their uniforms were immaculate; their shoes,
shiny too.
(I think that there must be an unwritten law in Italy that says that
you can do whatever you want, as long as you look good).
Of course my curiosity for why the Tax Police were risking dirtying
their shoes on the peak at Stromboli piqued my interest and I looked
further into the strange situation. Historically, they are the police
force that has the most mountaineering experience, so when Italy
needs a group of people with a particular skill, it looks at what it
has, and selects the group with those skills, no matter what
is their mandated function today.
A sidetrack about police in Italy.
Italy has the highest number of policemen per inhabitant in Europe
and the greatest number of different police forces. Their functions
overlap -- it would not be unusual to find several different police
appearing at the scene of a traffic accident, for example. Each
can stop you for any infringement of the law, they don't cooperate
with each other very well (they are supposed to), and competitive
elements and friction appears between the different forces (perhaps,
a good thing under the circumstances).
There are three -national- police forces in Italy:
1) the Cararbinieri (under the control of the Ministry of Defence).
They are highly militarized, the best dressed (they wear Armani
uniforms), used to be an all-male police force until just a few
years ago, they have a well-trained, anti-terrorist group, plus a
calvary division with some of the best horsemen in Italy, who win
prizes every year.
These policemen, in particular, seem to be considered like clowns,
Italians joke about them alot, and they have their own TV show.
1) "Why do the carabinieri have a red strip up the side of their
trousers?"
"To help them find their pocket"
2) the State Police, Polizia, (under the Ministry of Interior, i.e.
Home Affairs). Their headquarters are at the questura, and among
their functions is to issue permits of stay to foreigners (I finally
received mine- after 5 months, and it contained mistakes). The State
Police was also a military body until twenty years ago when they
became a civilian police force, when the intention was that they
would become closer to the public. Their behavior is generally rude
and unpleasant, and if they want to get your attention, they will
wave a red-and-white paddle at you. There are a few thousand fewer
poliziotti than carabineieri, but they have more women.
3) la Guardia di Finanzia (under the ministry of Finance). This was
the first example in Italy of a special Corps specifically
established (1772, under Victor Amedeus III, King of Sardinia) and
organized for financial surveillance duties along the borders, as
well as for the military defence of the frontiers. They function
more like a Tax Police and combatting smuggling, now, but they
fuzzily do other things, such as civil defense and guarding
volcanos.
All of the national police forces are well-armed.
Add to these three, -local- police forces:
- the Coast Guard,
- the Prison Guards,
- the Corpo Forestale dello Stato,
- and the Vigili Urbani (municipal police, who give speeding tickets,
parking tickets, they also control commercial establishments to see
if they are opening and closing according their licence etc.)
Hopkinson gives the reason (1) for this abundance of police forces
being that, after World War II, the allies did not want Italy to
build up a large army. This reason sounds a little fishy to me
because the origin of some of the police forces is old,
but anyway, it's food for thought.
Amara
(1) Italy: Some Facts and Figures, Lyndall Passerini Hopkinson,
Arti Tipografiche Toscane, Cortona, July 2002, pg.23
-- ******************************************************************** Amara Graps, PhD email: amara@amara.com Computational Physics vita: ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt Multiplex Answers URL: http://www.amara.com/ ******************************************************************** "Before I came here I was confused about this subject. Having listened to your lecture I am still confused. But on a higher level." -- Enrico Fermi
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