POZZUOLI, Italy – In the red zone of the awakening Phlegraean Fields, the most dangerous volcano in Europe, 2,000-year-old ruins are rising from the earth, thrust upward by hydrothermal force. The water line is receding at the docks as the ground rises. Thousands of earthquakes, including one that drove 1,500 people into temporary shelter, are sending shock waves of fear through coastal communities.
Residents are now keeping emergency bags packed, preparing for larger quakes, or worse, an eruption some experts fear could prove devastating. Nearly 80,000 people blithely inhabit the sulfurous caldera, playing soccer in the streets and cooking rich ragus in apartments with majestic views of Capri and Ischia, the emerald isles across the Gulf of Naples. In total, an estimated 485,000 people live in the designated danger zone of a smoke-belching behemoth the ancient Romans thought was an entrance to Hell.
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