Tag: etna
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Mushroom Hunting Is A Sport
Mushroom hunting is a real sport on Mount Etna that requires training, a government issued license… And usually one of these typical baskets made with river reeds! In season now, on October 28 in Zafferana Etnea for Ottobrata, mushrooms will be the star of the celebration.
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Totally Tubular on Etna
This is what it looks like inside of a lava cave on Mount Etna. That is, when we are with our expert guides! Lava caves, also known as lava tubes, are formed during a volcanic eruption, simply put, when the outer part of lava flow cools faster than its center. Etna has more than 200…
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October in Sicily
October in Sicily means harvest festivals and sagras celebrating the abundance of the season. Each Sunday of this month in the town of Zafferana Etnea, pictured, on the east slope of Etna, they host the 40th edition of Ottobrata Zafferanese, a culture and food festival celebrating the typical products of the volcanic region. Each Sunday…
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Where The Pistachio Grows
This weekend is the Pistachio Festival in Bronte, a town world renowned for its pistachio cultivation. The mineral-rich lava stone-soil on Mount Etna’s Western slopes, photographed from a pistachio farm I visited with a private, custom tour I led in May, offers fertile environs for the trees to grow.
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Day 4: Stirring Sicily | Stella!
LIVE Day 4: Stirring Sicily… Back in the old days, this is how locals on Etna got around and moved the grapes, the chestnuts, and the apples, among other goods: by donkey! So, today, not only did we have a splendid wine tasting, but we also learned about the volcano and the terroir of the…
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A Horse Isn’t Just A Horse
Never stopping, today, I fit in some horseback riding on Etna at Sicily Horse Riding, which specializes in taking tourists through the forests and terraced vineyards of Etna (and on the beach too!). After an enlightening wine tasting on the slopes… and our journey through the bush, I thanked Maya, for letting me ride her…
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Crater to Me
Sicily hosts the largest, most active volcano in Europe, Etna, aka, Mount Etna. The Silvestri Craters, one of which is pictured, were formed on Etna’s south slope during the eruption of 1892. Accessable from Rifugio Sapienza in Nicolosi, they are 6233 feet above sea level. You can walk along the rims of the two craters…
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Etna from the South
Mount Etna from the south, photographed when it was erupting in March 2017, Carlentini, Sicily
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Visit A Bronte Pistachio Farm
We’ve done so much the last two days, I don’t know where to begin! For me though, something totally new was our visit today to a pistacchio farm in Bronte, the capital of Sicilian pistachios, on Etna’s western slopes. It was so cool to be up close to these beautiful trees. Did you know that…