Mount Etna, Sicily - we climbed - we saw - we conquered

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Mount Etna, Sicily – Imagine this we start from 28 degrees sunny hot and hit 3 degrees below with snow on same day PLUS the volcano erupted the night we visited.


OMG…..we were able to walk up to the summit on clear sunny day after the short cable car ride which takes you up from approx. 1800 m level to 2,400m. You can take jeeps / 4WDs to summit but we chose to walk (round trip approx. 3 hours) and what an adventure to reach 3,000m – there was snow, amazing views of the craters, flumes of steam, couple of thunderous eruptions from the old mountain and lava ash everywhere. If you bent down you really got a head rush / dizziness due to the altitude change.

Mount Etna recently erupted on January 12, 2011,and last erupted on May 12, 2011 forcing the airport in the nearby town of Catania to close when its runway became covered in volcanic ash. This eruption meant all flights were cancelled for 24 hours plus the Giro d’Italia stage from Messina to Mt Etna was being monitored closely as the helicopters may not have been able to fly in the area to the volcanic ash.

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