More City of the Week: Mount Etna

If you only had time for one adventure in eastern Sicily, wouldn't you want to make it to the top of an active volcano?

Above: Footage from Etna's eruption in 2007.

Meaning “I burn,” Mount Etna hits more than 10,000 feet, covers more than 600 square miles, and is classified as a "decade volcano." Usually, the only serious problem is ash in the sky, and the Catania airport shuts down. But Etna's lava and ash has destroyed Catania seven times, the worst in 1669 when the entire city was lost, and the lava took 8 years to cool.


Eighteen miles outside of Catania, it'll take about two hours by bus, which runs daily from the city at 8:30 AM. The bus creeps up through the town of Zaffer, where residents still live among the beauty and ash, in houses inherited from their parents and their parents before them. The bus drops you off at Rifugio Sapienza on the south side, and you make a short hike to one of the major craters, past a home that's no longer there. If not for ladybugs perched on lava rock and on your sleeves, you'd think you were on Mars or in some abandoned hell.

Above: House destroyed by lava on the slopes of Etna.

From here, hike the rest of the 1,400 feet, or hop on another bus and then a cable car (cost with no guide is about €26,50). We recommend the cable car, for the chance to float above the alien-like terrain.

Above: Be sure to dress for the cold, even in the hottest months of the year.

Step off the bubble car and onto the top of the world, where the gift shop and bar remind you you're still technically on Earth. Zip up your coat and stand at the peak of this active volcano, look out over the puffy white clouds laid out for you like a blanket high above the Ionian Sea; wait for a visit from Vulcan, the god of fire; listen for one-eyed Cyclopes fashioning lightning bolts below. Stay as long as you want. Finally, return to Catania the way you came, stopping to consider an ash tray or a dusty black lamp along the way. Tonight consider staying at the Una Hotel Palace in the city center of Catania, where you can sip cocktails on the rooftop, take in a view of your volcano lighting up with fire in the night.

For bus travel and touring options, contact:
Azienda Provinciale Turismo Catania
Address: via Cimarosa 10 — 95124 Catania
Tel.: (095) 730 62 11
Web site: www.turismo.catania.it