On March 8, 1669, Etna began erupting. The citizens of Catania thought they could challenge the volcano. Unfortunately, they were wrong. The population of the city watched from the shores of the Ionian Sea as towns north and west of them were destroyed. Thinking their city walls would be a match Mother Nature’s wrath, they…
Tag: volcano
Put On Your Hard Hat And Experience Etna
Our Experience Sicily clients Eileen and Tony went deep into the earth’s surface with our expert Etna guides, when they entered a pitch black lava cave (Hence, the need for the hard hats and headlights.). Lava caves, also known as lava tubes, are formed during a volcanic eruption, when the outer part of lava flow…
Sicily’s Mount Etna Means Well
Sicily’s volcano Etna, pictured, has been displaying her power this week, both with eruptive activity and an earthquake, centered below the surface of the town of Viagrande on the south slope. Thankfully, the injuries from the quake were limited, and although there was damage to centuries old buildings in the village of Fleri, for example,…
Mount Etna Is Always Erupting
Mount Etna, Europe’s largest, most active volcano, photographed earlier this week (Photo Credit: Rosa Rizza)
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
Etna from the South
Mount Etna from the south, photographed when it was erupting in March 2017, Carlentini, Sicily