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Sunday, April 15. Easter Sunday, and the day of our trip to Mt. Etna. Breakfast included many
extras, including colored eggs and several varieties of sweet breads. We left at 8:30 and were
delighted to find the skies clear and sunny. In fact, this was the first completely clear view of
Etna we had, all the more surprising in view of the predictions for rain and extreme cold. Enzo
had brought his wife and two daughters along for the day's excursion. This
was the last day he would be with us.
Again we exited the autostrada at Acireale, but this time headed through Giarre away from the coast. We passed through a few villages (S. Venerina, Zefferana) on the way up. It must be exciting living on the slopes of a volcano! At nearly 11,000 feet high, Etna is the highest mountain in Sicily and the highest active volcano in Europe. Tour buses, though, can only go to about 7,000 feet. As we wound our way up the mountain, we passed through lava fields from various eruptions. The most recent one leaving large fields of lava was in 1992. That lava is still very black and has no vegetation. As the fields get older, the lava starts turning red and brown and various plants grow in it. One of the more interesting sights was a house buried in lava up to the eaves. It was also fascinating to see the dozens of "flank cones." each a distinct little mountain of its own, scattered all over the slopes of Etna. Each marks a separate vent for the volcano's lava, so you never know where the next flow will be.
As we approached the 7,000-foot level at about 10:00, the mountain was dusted with fresh snow, and there was slush and ice along the road and in the parking lots. Our first stop was at a large bar-restaurant where we were welcomed with free samples of two of the local liquors (one called "Fire of Etna"), as well as a delicious Easter bread. The bus then took us down a short way where we were turned loose to explore the relatively small Silvestri craters, formed during the 1892 eruption. By 11:30 we were back on the bus. By luck, we were passing through Santa Venerina at noon and got to hear the church bells making their maximum effort for Easter Sunday.
The bus made its way down to Mitogio (Castiglione di Sicilia) where we were to have our
home-hosted lunch. Six of us drew Giovana as our hostess, and she led us to her home. She
spoke no English, so Jane and Darrell served as interpreters. One of her two teen-age daughters
ate with us, and the other was in and out. Giovana's husband, son and cousin came later and
talked with us as we ate. It was a good meal and we enjoyed the company.
When we got to Taormina, we said goodbye to Enzo and his family. He had been a pleasant and entertaining companion for eleven days. The shuttles got us back to our hotel before 4:30, and we decided to explore (but not swim in) the hotel pool in spite of the cool, windy weather. It was a little tricky to get to, but well worth the trouble. The pool was situated on a point of rock and jutted out over the edge of the steep cliff leading to the sea. There were magnificent views up and down the coast and across to Calabria, as well as of Etna and inland toward Castelmola.
We walked to the cathedral for seven o'clock Mass. It was very crowded and Darrell wound up sitting right next to the altar. We were able to understand the Passion in Italian very well, probably because we were already so familiar with it. Afterwards we went directly to La Buca restaurant for a leisurely dinner. We enjoyed walking back on Corso Umberto, window shopping all the way. By the time we got to our hotel, it was 10:00. Someone told us that there was a small eruption on Etna, visible from the hotel driveway. We could see the red glow quite well. Further to the right we saw Castelmola beautifully illuminated. [Note: About three months after our visit, there was a significant eruption of Mt. Etna, lasting several weeks and laying down major new lava fields.] Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
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