Mt. Etna | I-Falkun

Hello everyone,

Man has it been busy these past few days! I have probably had the best time on this trip so far. You have probably heard my dad’s point of view of the past few days so here is my view:

We wake up early in Taormina to get onto a little while of a drive to Mount Etna. Yes you heard me right, the volcano. I have to admit I was a little nervous when we got there I mean your about to go close to the top of an active volcano. Pretty nerve racking if you ask me. First we took a (ski) lift to about 7,000 feet I think and then took a bus up to about 10,000 feet . We were very high up and with that came with an amazing view! I absolutely enjoyed the volcano hike! I got to put my hand into the little hot pockets and find volcanic rock to bring home! I even found iron, this was by far the best adventure I have had on any vacation I have ever been on. I mean the sense of adventure and the thrill of being somewhere way more dangerous than you have ever been before is just, the most amazing feeling ever. Anyway, after we hiked up a steep hill in the volcano and I got tons of rocks. We decided to head back to the buses to drive us down. Once at the bottom our guide took us to a friend of his place to have lunch. Almost everything was made there. There were different jams, cheeses and wines (as if I would know how it tasted), it was amazing and delicious. After we got to visit his old winery which was surprisingly very deep underground. Then started the 3 hour drive to Agragento.

Now we come to the present day. Sadly Mom was not feeling so well so only me and my dad went to the ruins. Let me give you a brief history lesson. Gods on greek side: Zeus, Hera, Hercules, Apollo etc. etc. Gods on Roman side: Juno, Jupiter, Neptune, Mars etc. etc. Ok, done. We visited 7 temples of the gods a lot of them were for Jupiter ( Zeus) but others were for Juno and Hercules. After the tour we relaxed by the pool and went into town where we ate dinner by a mini fair that reminded me of the one in Paris. That leads me to where sadly I must stop for today and look forward to another wonderful day!

Time to move on from Taormina. A very beautiful place we unfortunately had to make a choice of how to divide up the trip and this stop only came in with two nights. Sigh… Worth the effort, we hope to be back soon.

Mt. Etna was our first stop of the day, how could we be here without stopping for a visit? Sicily is located where the African tectonic plate is subducting under the Eurasian tectonic plate. Although one of the most active volcanoes in the world it has caused only 77 known deaths in all human history. It is destructive to buildings and infrastructure and when it is done the locals rebuild. These facts with the fertility the volcano provides to the area give it the nickname the friendly giant. It has been known to blow smoke rings.

One can hike up the mountain, we saw quite a few doing this. We chose to take the easier way, Funivia dell’Etna which runs a cable car system and buses up to the ~10,000 foot level. The hiking looked fun but more time would be needed… 🙂

We did get a chance for a several mile hike around several extinct craters with an experienced guide and he told us the place where the buses dropped us off was the maximum height of the mountain in Roman times so it was obvious how much it had grown in 2000 years. He pointed out the clouds rising from the active craters and how they had a very (very) slight yellow tint, the sign of sulfur in the steam. A local all his life (spoke english though like an sophisticated Brit), he had pictures on his smartphone from an eruption in February, lava and all. That must have been quite the sight! Syd was instantly hooked by the adventure and geology stopping to touch all the steaming hot spots she could. I would have loved to see just one ‘burp’.

After the volcano we had lunch at Tebute Mannino Di Plachi, an eco tourism farm that has benefited from Etna’s ‘efforts’. Run by the Mannino who local royalty who lost most of their holdings in the area over the generations due to neglect and ‘other distractions’. The farm was held on to and now they are reviving the wine making and farming efforts to hold on to this piece of their family legacy. A wonderful stop, they were very gracious hosts serving us food and drink all made on the farm or nearby.

We are now residing in Agrigento on the southern coast of Sicily. Hope to get the same mix of time (touring and down) as we did in Taromina!