This piece was originally published in Tomorrow Magazine, which just published its inaugural issue. Go here to buy a copy, and read more stories here.

PATERNÒ, Italy—Heading west from the Sicilian port city of Catania, I see two things—the volcano that has destroyed Catania seven times since the age of the Greeks and, a little farther down the road, an exit sign for a city whose name would remind any American of calamity: Paternò.