We had done a little research on our destination today, Mount Etna, prior to the excursion. We discovered that Mount Etna is the tallest active volcano in the European Continent. Only two others follow. Mount Etna grows each year in height, because of the constant lava flow. It is constantly smoking, which is good, because it is releasing pressure within itself... preventing a massive eruption from occurring. The last recorded activity was January through June of this year. So, we just missed smoke rings and lava flow... shortly before we arrived. Mount Etna is located on the east coast of Sicily, Italy.
We woke up and ate breakfast at the hotel. We departed the hotel at 07:30 am on a shuttle to Mount Etna. Again, our tour guide was Syrah... She was the best tour guide (so energetic and peppy). We drove about an hour to our destination. We entered Mount Etna towards the bottom of the volcano. We had to take a gondola more than halfway up the volcano... only to get in to a Unimog (military, fire-resistant, jeep-type 4x4 vehicle) and travel the rest of the intense climb to the peak of Mount Etna.
As we got out of the Unimog, we were taken back by where we were. We were standing atop the largest active volcano in all of the European Continent. We were captivated by the view... we couldn't grasp the fact that we were walked on cooled lava rocks. They were black and unusually porous. The lava rocks weighed nothing and the texture was interesting to the touch. It was very hard to believe that most of the lava rocks we were walking on were actually flowing lava just a few short months ago. The entire Mount Etna is one big mountain created by lava... everywhere we looked it was black and smoking. Below our feet, you saw smoke coming out of the ground. Hot rocks below the cooled rocks... the pressure brewing below. We dug down into the lava rocks with our hands and only a few inches below, we could feel the intense heat pushing through the ground. You could boil water if you poured water into the burrow... and I am not exaggerating when I say only INCHES into the rocks. It was the craziest thing. It was such a wonderful experience and we can actually say that we were on the largest active volcano in all of Europe (and one of three in the whole world). It's not your daily outing. Ha!
As we departed Mount Etna, we were shuttled to a local Italian restaurant (near the bottom of Etna). It was nice to enjoy authentic Italian food with our friends, Patrick and Kristin... and some of our other friends we were on the trip with. The served us lasagna, bread, spaghetti, salad and dessert... as well as wine and beer. We filled our bellies and headed back to the hotel. We headed to Taormina for dinner, later that night.
We made certain we documented this experience... Here is our day on Etna:
Mount Etna was an experience (and adventure) that we will never forget. It is amazing that there are places like this in our world... and that you read about this volcano in history books, but we were there to see it in person. So surreal. Mount Etna is such an extravagant land mass... Wow!
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