Etna covers an area of 1,250 square kilometers (482 square miles) with a base circumference of 135 kilometers (83,9 miles).

This makes it the largest of Italy's three active volcanoes (Etna, Vesuvius, Stromboli) and about two and a half times as high as the next largest, Vesuvius.

Only Teide on Tenerife (Canary Islands) surpasses it in the entire Euro-North African region west of the Black Sea.