Journey to the Centre of the Earth: Hamburg to Stromboli

On 24 May 1863 Professor Liedenbrock rushes into his little house in Königstrasse with a rare saga manuscript — and out of it falls a parchment in runes signed by the Icelandic alchemist Arne Saknussemm. He locks the house and goes forty-eight hours without eating until the cipher is solved. It is Axel, fanning himself with the paper, who glimpses Latin words on the back: read backwards, the note says to descend the crater of Sneffels "before the kalends of July". Verne puts the house in Hamburg's old town; the real Königstraße runs through Altona.

Location precision: The house is invented; the pin marks Königstraße in Hamburg-Altona.

At half past five in the morning a carriage takes uncle and nephew to Altona, "the terminus of the Kiel railway". Three hours across flat Holstein farmland bring them to Kiel, where they kill a whole day by the bay before the steamer Ellenora sails at night across the Great Belt. At Korsør they change to another train for Copenhagen. The 1844 station building they left from still stands: in 1898 the railway moved north and the old station became Altona's town hall.

Visitor guidance: Altona town hall faces Platz der Republik; the south wing is the 1844 station building, now the register office.

While they wait for a ship to Iceland, the professor decides his nephew must learn not to fear heights. He marches Axel to the Church of Our Saviour, whose spire is wrapped in an open spiral staircase guarded by a thin iron rail. Axel ends up crawling on his stomach to the top, where his uncle orders: "You must take a lesson in abysses." They repeat the climb for five days running. On 2 June the schooner Valkyria finally sails up the Sound, past Hamlet's castle at Elsinore.

Visitor guidance: The spire in Christianshavn can still be climbed: 400 steps, the last 150 outside.

After a seasick crossing the Valkyria anchors in Faxa Bay, and from the deck the professor points north to a distant double peak under snow: "Snæfell! Snæfell!" Axel finds the capital dull — two streets, turf-roofed huts, no trees — and notes the church between the little lake and the town, its red roof tiles at the mercy of the west wind. The governor and the mayor receive them warmly, and their host, a professor of natural science, finds them a guide: Hans Bjelke, an eider-down hunter who says almost nothing and never hurries. They ride out on 16 June.

Location precision: Axel walks the whole small town; the pin marks the cathedral he describes between the lake and the houses.

Visitor guidance: The cathedral (Dómkirkjan) stands on Austurvöllur square, a short walk from the Tjörnin lake.

After five days on horseback round Faxa Bay, the party reaches Stapi, "about thirty huts, built of lava" at the south foot of the volcano, along a small fjord walled in by basalt columns. Axel, who has never seen basalt before, is amazed by the natural colonnade. Less impressive is their host, the parish priest, who seems to Axel more blacksmith, fisherman and hunter than minister. Stapi is their "last stage upon the earth": on 23 June they start the climb. The hamlet, now Arnarstapi, is still a small harbour famous for its basalt cliffs.

Visitor guidance: A popular one-hour coastal path runs over the lava from Arnarstapi to Hellnar past the basalt sea cliffs.

Three chimneys open in the floor of the crater, and only one leads down. Saknussemm's note says the shadow of the peak Scartaris will point to it before the end of June, but for days the sky stays grey and the professor rages. On 29 June the sun breaks through, and at noon the shadow falls softly on the edge of the middle chimney: "Now for the centre of the globe!" The descent begins. The glacier-capped volcano is real; the Scartaris peak and the passage are Verne's invention.

Visitor guidance: Snæfellsjökull is in a national park; go onto the glacier only with a licensed guide, as it has crevasses.

Two months underground — a vast sea named after Liedenbrock, giant reptiles, a storm on a raft — end in an eruption that blasts the three men up a volcanic shaft. They land on a hot hillside among olive trees and vines. A frightened herd boy, questioned in four languages, answers only: "Stromboli." They have come out in the Mediterranean, thousands of kilometres from Iceland. Posing as shipwrecked sailors, they walk to the little port of San Vincenzo, where Hans is paid his wages. A boat takes them to Messina on 31 August; on 9 September they are home in Hamburg.

Location precision: The novel doesn't say where on the slopes they land; the pin marks San Vincenzo, the village where they come down to the harbour.

Visitor guidance: Ferries and hydrofoils serve Stromboli from Milazzo and Naples; hikes on the volcano are regulated and often restricted, so check current rules locally.