The Sicily road-trip: Mt. Etna




Travel Date: October 2017


Mount Etna seems to have become an almost obligatory stop in Sicily simply because it is so different to the various other cultural and historical attractions the island has to offer.
Mount Etna is actually a series of strato-volcanoes, built up of layers of alternating lava flow, ash and blocks of un-melted stone. Higher than the more common cinder cone volcanoes, they can erupt with great violence.
Etna, while not the highest volcano in Europe is its largest and one of the most active in the world today. It has also been a UNESCO heritage site since 2013.

Etna offers options of drives up the mountain in 4x4 vehicles as well as guided tours as only guided tours allow tourists to hike right up to summit. The walk is said to be treacherous and changing winds can blow noxious sulphurous gases very quickly in different directions and so only expert guides are allowed to hike right up to the top.

With 2 kids, we weren't going to try any of the adventurous options and so settled for the rental car drive up to the cable car station and the cable car up to the beginning of the hiking trail. The usual point of access to Mt. Etna through public transportation is through the point called Etna South. Etna is accessible by road up to a point called Rifugio Sapienza, at 1900m. Here you'll find free public parking lots, crowded restaurants, cafes and plenty of souvenir stores.

 


The Etna cable car, called the Funivia, can take visitors up to 2500m (8200 ft.) and costs 33 euro for an adult return ticket.

  




From this cable car station at the top, the way to the summit is by following a steep winding walking trail teeming, for some reason, with ladybugs. The highest point tourists are allowed to get to without a guided tour is at 2900m (over 9000 ft.) and is called 'Torre del Filosofo', where you will find a crater formed during the 2003 eruptions of Etna.

 




Post our return from the top, we grabbed a quick lunch at Rifugio Sapienza at the base cable car station and headed off to the historical coastal town of Taormina.


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