The Pizzo Sopra la Fossa is the spur of land just below the summit craters where, until 2019, guided ascents converged to watch eruptions from a few hundred metres above the vents. Following the major eruption of that year, walking up to the Pizzo itself is banned, and most authorised routes stop further down the cone.
The viewing experience that the Pizzo used to offer can be approximated from the Osservatorio terrace on the lower slopes — a stone-walled platform behind a closed pizzeria, where locals and travellers gather after dinner to watch the summit glow.