Etna, La lingua del fuoco (Etna, the Tongue of Fire) tells the journey, through Stefano Graziani's images and Nadia Terranova's words, around the slopes of Mount Etna, Europe's highest active volcano. They traveled on the Circumetnea, the littorina train whose route circles the volcano, in search of Etna's spirit.

The Sicilians call Etna "a muntagna", with a mix of awe and familiarity—the same sentiment Nadia Terranova, as a Sicilian from Messina, feels every time she returns to those parts. Together with her travelling companion, the writer evokes Franco Battiato* whom she elects as the volcano's guardian, superimposing past and present in her recollections, returning to a place that is both familiar and distant. Stefano Graziani's photographs delve into the anthropology of places and people, trying to restore the power of a natural setting in which humans are largely relegated to the role of spectators.

“Nadia Terranova is right when she maintains in her text that this volcano is female, just as Stromboli is undoubtedly male. They belong to two different forms of volcanoes: Stromboli, Iddu, is explosive, with its crater high up; Etna, the witch, as it is called in those parts, is instead effusive, spewing lava from various vents. Terranova and Graziani circumnavigated the base of the volcano by train from Catania to Giarre. A journey on the Littorina, as the electric train is known, a human invention that somehow competes with the
power of that fan. Etna rose from the sea 500,000 years ago; its diameter measures 40 kilometers and
its height, having grown year after year with eruptions, reaches 3,200 meters. The gods dwell within volcanoes, magical and mysterious entities, endowed with their own unique character, mountains that love and hate, envy and express jealousy, just like living beings. Even more: absolutely, because volcanoes are the most living beings on Earth, directly connected to its bowels.”
- Marco Belpoliti, in Occhio rotondo 36, Doppiozero 04.08.2024

* Franco Battiato (1945-2021) was an innovative Italian songwriter, composer, singer and filmmaker, a pioneer of electronic and experimental music in the 1970s before achieving massive pop success in the 1980s with his albums; known for his eclecticism, Franco Battiato fused pop, avant-garde, Eastern mysticism, and philosophy