Visit to Mount Etna.

Mount Etna in Sicily is Italy’s highest volcano and one of the most active in the world. Currently 3323 metres, it’s exact height changes with every eruption! It’s classed as a decade volcano. Mount Etna consists of two types of volcano; an ancient shield volcano at its base, and the younger stratovolcano on top.

If on your visit to Mount Etna you arrived in anything other than the public bus from Catania, you have a bit more flexibility when you can leave. But, because of the way the buses work, ie one a day, you’ll have a lot of time to kill if you haven’t planned out your day of activities.  From Catania, you’ll arrive at Etna Sud / Rifugio Giovanni Sapienza.

• €6.60 Bus from Catania to Etna
• Cable Car €30
• Cable Car and truck €34

Getting There

If you are going on the public bus from Catania, check out my full post about it here, it includes maps of exactly where to buy your ticket and where the bus stop is and timings. The Italian public transport system is usually horrendous, and Sicily is no exception! It’s a myth that Mussolini made the trains run on time.

What to do on your visit to Mount Etna

There are various mountain excursions on offer, you can get up to the crater with one of these tours too. However, this will depend on fitness levels. The air is thinner up on the mountain but you don’t really notice it until you start exerting yourself, then you can find it pretty heavy going.

The excursions, of course, are at an extra cost. They include trips to the summit, looking at some geological marvels and the site of recent eruptions. And they are recent! It can be dangerous – check out this BBC Video of some journalists being caught up in an eruption.

The tours section and where to sign up can be found in the car park at Etna Sud, just next to the cable car station. You can’t miss it!

What I did

Due to a health issue, I knew I wouldn’t be going higher than the cable car ends at 2,500 metres on my visit to Mount Etna. If I could acclimatise more, I could have gone higher like on our Mount Teide trip last year. But you’re dealt the hand you get and my dreams of standing on the top of Etna shouting, ‘Made it Ma, Top of the world!’ were just that, dreams.

Anyway, Jimmy Cagney aside, above is a short video of my visit to Mount Etna. It shows the major highlights, the Cable Car, Silvestri Craters, the snow line and that sort of thing. It’s worth pointing out that the front of the cable car is a tinted plastic. I say this because in my video, what with all the rocks, smoke and clouds in a weird colour makes it look like one of Dantes’ circles of hell!

So I amused myself at the Silvestri Craters at the bottom of the mountain. Well, I say bottom, Etna Sud where the bus takes you, is 2000 metres above sea level.  And add another 500 metres to that if you take the cable car up.

After about 2800 metres you need a professional guide if you want to go higher. If you get caught without a guide above that, apparently you’ll be fined!

Cable Car

At the cable car, it’s either €30 or €34 euro return. €30 takes you to 2500 metres and €34 takes you a bit higher up to about 2800. As I mentioned I went for the 2500 metres stop. It’s where the cable car ends and if you have the 34 Euro ticket, you get in a bus/truck and travel the remainder in that.

Cable car hours are 9am to 5.30pm and it takes 10 minutes or so.

I was just looking about and taking time-lapse photos. There was certainly enough for me to do, geology is one of my anorak pleasures. 

 

I also had time to do geocaching. But, as the bus goes back only once a day be on time and don’t miss it. Scheduled departure is at 16.30 but I got there 30 mins early just to be on the safe side. And that was all for the good, as the bus turned up at 16.00 and we were on our way.

Facilities

Obviously, at Etna Sud, there are all sorts of amenities.  Its human nature that where people gather, there is someone there to sell them something. Etna, of course, is no different. There are many tourist shops selling bits of lava and one mobile wagon which sold honey? Yeah, that famous Etna honey?

Food

As well as the shops at Etna Sud there are also some restaurants and bars as you would expect,  all being run in the delightfully expressive and chaotic way that the Italians have. I also took a long lunch at the Silvestri Restaurant,  which, considering its location was fairly reasonable. A steak with fries, half a litre of red wine and a bottle of water was 24.50. The food is not out of this world, but it filled a hole.

Visit to Mount Etna – Conclusions

Of course, it’s commercialised as you would expect but for me, it didn’t matter. The sheer enormity, both figuratively and literally of Etna over-shadowed anything humans could do to muck it up. It is well worth making a visit to Mount Etna.

Mount Etna weather forecast can be found here

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