Mt Etna

Alarm at 7.30 again. Got up, had breakfast downstairs, and packed up, trying not to wake everyone. Deborah stirred, so I said goodbye to her and she gave me a hug. I went downstairs, left my bag in the corner of the reception area, and met my Etna tour at 9am. Marco was our guide, and the only other people were a couple from Stuttgart, the guy of which played AFL in a team called the Stuttgart Emus. Classic!

We went out and got in Marco’s Range Rover. He gave us some volcano/Catania background as we drove through the city. As we climbed through villages, he stopped for cigarettes, then fuel. We set off again on increasingly narrow and unpopulated roads, and were eventually crashing through bush and lurching over huge boulders. I wasn’t terribly comfortable to be honest. We stopped, thankfully, in an open area that we soon found out was the result of a 17th century eruption. It was so relatively recent that only mosses and lichens had started to grow. Etna is relatively explosive, having a high silica concentration in its geology, without being ‘officially’ explosive at 65%. The rocks here were dense, broken basalt, because the lava was viscous, moving more like a caterpillar than a river.

We got back in the car, got almost immediately back on the main road (phew!) and drove for another 10 minutes before stopping beside the road. We donned helmets and lights and crawled into a lava tunnel. It started small, but opened up a lot. I was at the back, carrying a big torch as well as Marco at the front. It was loose underfoot, but the ceiling was quite smooth. We saw stalactites (dark), and a couple of strange albino bats. It was very interesting. We only walked for about 10 minutes before turning back.

Back at the car, we drove for another little while before arriving at Rifugio Sapienza, which was already above the cloud line. After making use of the toilets in the touristy restaurant, we clambered up onto the Silvestri crater to have a look. I misunderstood the plan, and took off on my own, but it was amazing. You could see the rim so clearly, and the clouds were just drifting across. Visibility was minimal. I met the others coming the other way, and Marco explained some things to me – that this crater had been a vent on the side of the larger volcano. He also explained that the rocks were extremely sharp because of the high silica content, making them like glass. I had a demonstration when I kneeled down to take a photo. Ouch! I wanted to go down into the crater itself, as it wasn’t far and had cool black sand, but Marco said it was a bad idea in the fog. There were ladybugs everywhere – in the nooks and crannies of the rocks and all over the ground. I souvenired some rocks because Marco said I could.

We got back in the car, but only drove 100 metres before Marco pointed out a house that narrowly escaped the 2001 lava. It literally stopped against the wall and cracked the window. Marco had been there at the time, helping, because his uncle is a policeman (and Marco had been telling us how the Sicilian police do no work). We went in to have a look, and the man in the shop offered me some pistacchio brittle. It was lovely, but too expensive.

We headed off again, stopping at another refuge that hadn’t been so lucky. It was a smallish house – hut really – completely surrounded by lava, with only the roof showing. We walked down to it and took some photos. We then ate the included ‘snack’, which consisted of cheese, tomato and olives on toasted foccaccia. It was delicious, and we had peach juice too. From this spot beside the road, we could see the city spread out below us under the cloud, as well as two different vintages of lava either side – one side was 1983, the other 2001.

After this, we headed back to Catania. On the way, Marco told us interesting stories. Apparently someone had been digging in his back garden in Nicolosi, and had found some ancient remains. They promptly covered them back up again, because the government would have claimed it and taken the garden over as an excavation site. I asked him about building standards for earthquake purposes. There are regulations, and I saw some houses being built with very strange looking bricks, but because Sicily is such a poor place, not many people can afford to use them.

At the hostel, we paid Marco, got the details of the wine he’d recommended, and split up. Shame Marco needed two showers and to wash his hair. He was pretty cool. I headed for the markets, which had sadly just closed, then to the pasticcerie on Duomo square for two small cheese cannoli. Amazing! I walked around Duomo square looking for wine shops with no luck. Then I headed in the direction of the Greek ancient theatre (which was closed for renovation), then the half-buried Roman theatre surrounded by busy streets (not very impressive), then the Teatro Massimo on Piazza Bellini, looking around at everything as I went. Piazza Bellini is a lovely piazza – sunny and wide, with a tinkly fountain.

I looked at my map, and found a wine shop advertised nearby. I tracked it down, but it was closed. So I went back to collect my bag, donate my unused bus ticket, and then walked to the bus station, because Alessandro had told me that a bus was the only way to cut back across the island to Palermo. I was disappointed to not have the chance to see Siracusa, but I just didn’t have time. I bought a ticket for Palermo (€13.60), ate an arancino from the cafe opposite, and got on the bus, which went via the airport. The view of Etna on the way out was stunning. Most of the cloud had cleared and I could see the top. I tried to get photos and video, but they didn’t really turn out. The sunset was also stunning, but I couldn’t get photos as I was on the wrong side of the bus.

The trip was uneventful: the scenery was unexceptional, and it got dark before long anyway. I arrived back in Palermo at 8pm. I got gelato near the station – melon and frutti di bosca. The melon wasn’t great, but the other was fantastic. I wandered back to the hotel and checked in again. I then ate cake, wrote my diary and drank limoncello. The other side of the room had someone’s things spread out, so I left the light on and put my eye mask on. Bed at 11pm.