Tricia's Trip to Sicily Part II: Mt. Etna

Mt. Etna dominates the landscape for miles around Catania and is the second largest volcano in Europe and one of the most active volcanoes in the world. Being up on Mt. Etna was a first for Tricia and I, neither of us had ever been on an active volcano.

Tricia and I first drove up to the Silvestre crater. This crater seems large enough to be a volcano in it's own right, however it is only one of the smaller craters lining the mountain.

Here is a picture of me standing in the base of the crater

The landscape around around and within the crater would best be described as 'martian' huge volcanic rocks were littered randomly and you could clearly see cooled lava flows. The volcano had obviously erupted relatively recently as there was a swath of rubble and ash through the forest surrounding the mountain around where we stood.

Tricia wanders across the volcanic landscape

Trish and I decided we wanted to see more of the volcano so we grabbed a ticket and rode the cable car up the mountain. Once we had reached the end of the cable car we boarded one of the buses to take us the rest of the way up the mountain. The buses were obviously custom and looked like a school bus with monster truck tires.

The bus wound through paths cut through the ice on the top of the mountain and we finally stopped on a wide plane between the four major craters of Mt. Etna. In the north you could see the tallest crater smoking.

The tallest crater of Mt. Etna

With a tour group following, Tricia and I hiked through snow and ice then up and around the nearest cone. The view was incredible, you could see for miles.

The view from the top of the cone

As we descended into the cone nearer to the base the smell of sulfer became stronger and stronger. You could clearly see steam rising off the ground beneath your feet as melted snow and runwater evaporated off the heated ground.

See more pictures from Mt. Etna