Tag: vulcano

  • 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.

  • 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

  • Bewitching and Beautiful: Mongibello

    The surface of Etna, Europe’s largest, most active volcano, is an ever changing scene. This month I visited this spot twice, and each time it felt and looked different to me … The color of the earth, weather, light, temperature… Mother nature is bewitching and beautiful. I’m going again in September. Join me for Enchanting…

  • Spewing For A Millennia 

    Etna has been spewing lava and ash for millennia. Last week, I was so excited to see it do so in person. Thankfully, the ongoing eruption is somewhat staid and very different than the historic events following March 8, 1669, when the citizens of Catania thought they could challenge Etna. Unfortunately, they were wrong.  Over…

  • Etna Speaks

    Yes, Etna, Europe’s largest, most active volcano is erupting! I’m so thrilled to be here to see the peak glowing at night. It’s very cool, but sadly, impossible to photograph. However, here’s my daytime view from Taormina. Note the smoke flowing left.  The volcano has multiple vents, so look at from where it is spewing!…

  • Get Your Shoes Dirty

    Truth be told, I’m in Alaska as I write this. But all-the-while I’m traveling here, I’m thinking of Sicily. And I’m thinking about how to provide our guests with a multi-sensory experience in the land that I love. Today, we traveled to the Yukon territory in a bus and then returned by old-fashioned train. We…

  • Our May 2016 Sicily Tour, Day 6: Yes, this is Sicily too!

    Yes, this is Sicily too! Etna is the largest, most active volcano in Europe. Its peak, pictured on the left, behind the plume of smoke, is about 11,000 feet above sea level (a height that changes according to volcanic activity). During winter months, you can ski on it. On Day 6 of our May Experience…