Monitoring and understanding volcano-seismic signals like long-period events and tremor can improve eruption forecasting. Rotational sensors are newly developed instruments that offer enhanced monitoring capabilities by providing additional information on rotational motion and enabling the differentiation of wave types and seismic sources. In 2019 a seismic array and a rotational sensor along with a co-located seismometer (6C) recorded for 25 days spanning an eruption with ash emissions and Strombolian activity, characterized by long-period events and tremor. We compare the performance of a rotational sensor to those of a seismic array by determining the back azimuth of seismic events. As a reference for our comparison we use the routine event locations from the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia-Osservatorio Etneo (INGV-OE) network on Mt. Etna volcano, Italy. We find that tremor back azimuths obtained from the north and vertical array components fit the INGV-OE reference best during higher eruption tremor amplitudes, while the combined rotational sensor and seismometer (6C) directions provide the most accurate results at the eruption start with low amplitudes. Long-period event directions derived using the north and vertical components of the array are closer to the network reference than those from the east and 6C. The east component results show a systematic bias, likely due to topographic effects, a heterogeneous subsurface medium or nearby faults. Our results demonstrate the contribution of rotational sensors in the understanding and monitoring of volcanic activity. More studies on active volcanoes are needed to better assess their potential to complement conventional seismic investigations.