Today we went to see the great sight of eastern Sicily, Mount Etna. Europe’s most active volcano, Etna has been a magnet for visitors for centuries. Supposedly Empedocles, one of the greatest of the early Greek philosophers, fell into the volcano trying to understand the phenomenon.
We were determined not to be so rash, but instead to follow the normal tourist routine. So we first drove to Refugio Sapienza, about halfway up the side of the mountain, where we purchased tickets for the aerial cable cars.
This takes you most of the way to the summit. But at this point we were placed in trucks and driven up to about 3000 feet. The parade of trucks over the black volcanic gravel created a somewhat unearthly sight..
We met up with our guide after we got out of the truck. I never did catch his name, but he seemed reasonably well-informed about the geology. He spoke some English and French as well as Italian, all with a voice as gravely as the mountain itself. I suspect he probably smoked more than the volcano.
The tourists generally followed his directions and stayed with him.
We were not allowed to go to the summit itself because it is expelling a significant amount of highly sulfurous gasses right now. So we looked at the lateral craters formed in a recent eruption.
John came as close as they would let him get.
I wanted to follow Empedocles and get even closer to the active crater, but the park rangers were pretty firm about not letting me do it.
So I had to content myself with a photo of the summit.
On our way back we looked in gift shops. It was hard to turn down buying a statue of the Virgin made out of lava and decorated with silver glitter, but I have to be aware that Air Malta is pretty strict about how much we can take with us in our luggage.
We drove back down the mountain. John did some of the driving here. We stopped pretty often. We are getting used to our little Audi.
The pioneer vegetation growing on the side of the mountain is quite fascinating. As this area is thickly blanketed with snow in the winter, many of the plants are alpines.
But as we descended the mountain, the vegetation became fairly thickly forested. There were many pines, but we also noticed many of these trees. From a distance they appeared to be conifers, but looking closer we figured out that they weren't.
The trees have a bright yellow flower and it was enchanting to drive through miles of this maize-colored forest.
We stopped by the town of Nicolosi as we came to the base of the mountain. It looked sort of interesting, but it was two in the afternoon and during this time of “riposo” absolutely nothing was open and there was nobody on the street. So we went back to the Villa Carmen and hung out by the pool for a couple hours.
Around six o’clock we returned to Nicolisi. It was filled with life now. Communities like this have turned into the middle and upper-middle class suburbs of Catania. They are filled with prosperous professionals and their offspring.
Clearly winter is the big tourist season here and the streets are covered with what look like Christmas decorations.
But they will be having a festival soon for their patron said, Abbot Anthony, and his picture was rather incongruously displayed over the Dolce Vita cafe. The saint was an extreme ascetic, and I know he would not have approved of anything other than fasting and penance. But such juxtapositions, however absurd, are in a way the essence of Italy.
Nicolosi offers awesome views of Etna. The evening was clear
and we really could see the smoke belching from the top of the mountain.
It probably was a good idea for me not to imitate Empedocles.
John loves taking surreptitious picture of the old Italian ladies. They retreat inside as soon as they see a camera, so sometimes we pretend to take selfies and aim the camera the other way.
Our hosts had recommended an osteria on Via Garibaldi. We had a chatty waiter who was excited to practice his English. He recommended the mixed grill for two, cooked on an old roof tile. The tile continues to cook the food and keep it warm. For 24€ it was a lot of food!
