1750 etching showing aristocratic men leaving their horses with attendants and following guides on a trail up the side of Vesuvius to peer into the fuming cones. At center, descending the volcano, are three figures, the lead figure appears to be a guide leading two men who appear to have been blinded by the noxious fumes. In the lower right is an allegorical scene with a god and a bare-breasted goddess spilling the contents of a large container. Mount Vesuvius is a stratovolcano in the Gulf of Naples, Italy, best known for its eruption in 79 AD that led to the burying and destruction of the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Since then Vesuvius has erupted around three dozen times. The volcano became quiescent at the end of the 13th century and in the following years it again became covered with gardens and vineyards as of old. Even the inside of the crater was filled with shrubbery. Vesuvius entered a new phase in December 1631, when a major eruption buried many villages under lava flows, killing around 3,000 people. The last major eruption occurred in 1944. This image has been color enhanced.