Today we visited our fourth volcano in 20 days. Every volcano we've visited has been different, and Etna was no exception.We had this adventure with our friends from Brooklyn, Michael and Sylvie, who we met at the major bus station early this morning. We took a bus to 1,900 meters with a somewhat informative guide who was very repetative - in other words, he said a lot of the same things twice. He also had to say everything in German, so I guess you could say he said things at least four times.
The bus climbed up the volcano, which has had several major eruptions since 2000. The quantity of lava (magma) is somewhat mind boggling - Mike and I agreed that Etna felt like the biggest and most expansive volcano we'd seen so far, which shouldn't come as a surprise, since it is the largest one in Europe. The bus finally reached the 1,900 meter mark, where we caught a funicular up to about 2,900 meters. Etna is actually more than 3,300 meters tall, but access has been limited since the last eruption. At the top of the funicular ride (which made the whole place seem very peaceful), we all climbed into big Jeep buses and took a ride a bit further up to where we could walk around and see some of the craters formed in the last eruptions.
It was really windy and pretty cold when we got off the Jeep bus. We took some time to check out some of the craters and admire the view - at this point, we were above the clouds, which was a cool perspective to have. We also saw a house that was located here that was 95% covered with lava during the last eruption - only a small part of the roof was sticking out. However, one of the most surpring things about Etna was the number of ladybugs. We must have seen 30-50 ladybugs while we were there - they really stood out next to the black rocks and seemed out of place given the lack of wildlife.
We took the Jeep bus back to the funicular, where they had a shop with a lot of photos and videos documenting past eruptions. While the eruptions are really intense and destructive, they are quite beautiful. We rode the funicular back down to 1,900 meters, where we hiked around for a bit to visit another crater, and then we were back on the bus to Taormina. Back in town we ran some errands, had dinner, and wrapped up the night with some gelato. Since we're in town for several more days, we haven't felt the sense of urgency to get pictures of Taormina itself. Those are forthcoming.
And lastly, in case any of you are wondering, Mike is still working on getting rid of the sulpher smell from Vulcano. We think his hair has trapped/absorbed the smell so he is having a harder time getting rid of it than I am.
Gelato Gusti per il Giorno:
Mike - Baccissimo
Aviva - Menthe
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