Venice & Dubrovnik Cruise - Catania for Mount Etna Page

For once, a beautiful clear sky as we came into Catania. We had booked a Mount Etna tour, more in hope than expectation, having been in thick cloud in 1988. However, not only did it stay clear but was quite warm at the 6,000ft end point of the drive. We stopped at the last point from which one could see the actual summit.

The last place you can see the top, going up

House trashed by a lava flow

Lava & Autumn Colour

When it erupts out of its sides, rather than the summit craters (there are three), they tend to open up in a line. We had a look at one of these & walked around its rim. Inside, there is nothing much to look at, so it is just as well that the hill does not reuse these craters but always opens up new ones. Although the hill is only half a million years old (human beings would have been around to see it come up out of the sea), there are over 300 of these craters.

The Little Crater

Walking round the Little Crater

Outside the Little Crater

Craters occur in lines

Opportunistic vegetation. Pale green is grass, dark green are trees.

The guide had not mentioned Bellini, the opera composer & a big hero in Catania, so I gave a mini-lecture on him on the way back, which went down well. By time our coach had struggled back through the horrendous Catania traffic, there was little time to go back into the city.